Self-host KreateMix on a $2 VPS with CloudPanel

This guide takes you from nothing to a working KreateMix at https://social.yourdomain.com, with free HTTPS, scheduled posting and backups. It takes about 30–45 minutes. You don't need to have run a server before; every command is here to copy and paste.

1. What you need

• A VPS with at least 2 GB of RAM running Ubuntu 24.04. 2 GB is CloudPanel's minimum. See the next step.
• A domain name, or a subdomain of one you own, such as social.yourdomain.com. Free HTTPS certificates and most social networks' login screens need a real domain, not a bare IP address.
• A computer with a terminal. On Windows 10 and 11, PowerShell already includes ssh. On a Mac, use Terminal.

Throughout this guide, replace these placeholders with your own values:

2. Pick a VPS

CloudPanel needs 1 CPU core, 2 GB of RAM and 10 GB of disk. KreateMix itself is light: it keeps everything in one SQLite file. These are the cheapest plans that meet CloudPanel's minimum (prices checked October 2026; they change often, so confirm on the provider's site):

When you order:

1. Choose Ubuntu 24.04 as the operating system. If you're offered an "app" or "control panel" image, pick plain Ubuntu instead. CloudPanel must go on an empty server.
2. Pick the data center closest to you or your audience.
3. Set a strong root password, or add your SSH key if the provider offers it.
4. After the server is created, copy its IPv4 address from the dashboard.

If your provider has its own firewall in its dashboard (IONOS does), allow incoming TCP ports 22 (SSH), 80 and 443 (web) and 8443 (CloudPanel).

3. Point your domain at the server

At the company you bought your domain from (or wherever your DNS is managed, such as Cloudflare), add a DNS record:

Do this now. It can take a few minutes to an hour to start working, and you'll need it working before step 8. If you use Cloudflare, set the record to DNS only (grey cloud) until HTTPS is set up.

4. Connect to the server

Open PowerShell (Windows) or Terminal (Mac/Linux) and run:

ssh root@YOUR_SERVER_IP

Type yes when asked whether to trust the server, then enter the root password. Nothing appears on screen while you type the password; that's normal. Your prompt will change to something like root@ubuntu:~#.

5. Install CloudPanel

First, update the server and install the tools the installer needs:

apt update && apt -y upgrade && apt -y install curl wget sudo

If you're asked about keeping a configuration file, press Enter to keep the current one.

Add swap space

Swap is disk space the server uses when RAM runs out. On a 2 GB server it stops occasional memory spikes from crashing anything. Check whether you already have some:

free -h

If the Swap: line shows 0B, add 2 GB of swap:

fallocate -l 2G /swapfile && chmod 600 /swapfile && mkswap /swapfile && swapon /swapfile
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' >> /etc/fstab

Run the installer

CloudPanel asks you to choose a database server. KreateMix doesn't use it (it has its own SQLite file), so pick MariaDB 11.4, which uses less memory than MySQL:

curl -sS https://installer.cloudpanel.io/ce/v2/install.sh -o install.sh; \
echo "8146dbe0a488e7088b04071b0c34d59aa0ab1fe9dcec382d395fd155c9e6c476 install.sh" | \
sha256sum -c && sudo DB_ENGINE=MARIADB_11.4 bash install.sh

The checksum line checks that the installer hasn't been tampered with. It takes 5–10 minutes and finishes with a message showing the panel's address.

6. Create your CloudPanel admin and secure the panel

1. Open https://YOUR_SERVER_IP:8443 in your browser.
2. Your browser will warn about the certificate, because the panel uses a self-signed one at first. Click Advanced, then Proceed (or Accept the risk).
3. Fill in your name, email, a username and a strong password, and create the admin user.
4. Click your name (top right) and turn on Two-Factor Authentication with an authenticator app.
5. Go to Admin Area → Security → Firewall. Edit the rule for port 8443 and set the source to your own IP address (search "what is my IP" to find it), so only you can reach the panel. Leave 22, 80 and 443 open to everyone.

7. Create the site

1. Go to Sites → Add Site → Create a PHP Site.
2. Application: choose Generic.
3. Domain Name: social.yourdomain.com.
4. PHP Version: 8.5. KreateMix needs PHP 8.5 or newer and shows a message instead of starting on older versions.
5. Site User: kreatemix. Site User Password: click the generate button and save this password. You'll use it to connect over SSH in step 9.
6. Click Create.

CloudPanel creates the folder /home/kreatemix/htdocs/social.yourdomain.com for the site.

8. Turn on HTTPS

First check that your domain points at the server. On your own computer, run this. It should print YOUR_SERVER_IP:

nslookup social.yourdomain.com

Then, in CloudPanel:

1. Open the site, then the SSL/TLS tab.
2. Click Actions → New Let's Encrypt Certificate → Create and Install.

The certificate is free and renews itself automatically. HTTPS is required: social networks won't send logins back to a plain http:// address, and push notifications and the installable app only work over HTTPS.

9. Install KreateMix

Connect as the site user, not root, so the files belong to the right account. Use the password you saved in step 7:

ssh kreatemix@YOUR_SERVER_IP

Go to the site's folder, remove CloudPanel's placeholder page and download KreateMix:

cd ~/htdocs/social.yourdomain.com
rm -f index.html index.php
curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kennethyork/KreateMix/main/index.php
ls -l

You should see index.php, owned by kreatemix. Check that PHP has everything KreateMix needs. You should see six names, including pdo_sqlite:

php8.5 -m | grep -iE '^(pdo_sqlite|curl|openssl|mbstring|fileinfo|gd)$'

Create your account

1. Open https://social.yourdomain.com.
2. Create the admin account.

On that first visit KreateMix creates two files. Both are hidden from the web:

10. Check the scheduler

The scheduler wakes KreateMix every minute to publish posts that are due, refresh analytics and fetch comments. Without it, scheduled posts won't go out.

You usually don't need to do anything: when you created your admin account, KreateMix added its own cron job to the site user's crontab. As a backup, it also runs the scheduler right after pages load while you're using the site. Check it under Integrations → Scheduler:

• Running: you're done. Skip to step 11.
• Not running, with a Set it up for me button: click it, then check again in a minute.
• Not running, with a cron command shown instead: your server doesn't let KreateMix edit its own cron jobs. Add it in CloudPanel as below.

Add the cron job by hand

1. In CloudPanel, open the site, then the Cron Jobs tab, then Add Cron Job.
2. Name: KreateMix scheduler
3. Pre-defined settings: Every Minute (all five fields become *).
4. Command (Integrations → Scheduler shows the exact command for your server):

   /usr/bin/php8.5 /home/kreatemix/htdocs/social.yourdomain.com/index.php cron >/dev/null 2>&1

5. Click Add Cron Job.

If you later add or edit other cron jobs in CloudPanel, it may rewrite the list and drop the one KreateMix added. KreateMix notices and puts it back the next time you open the dashboard, or you can add it by hand as above.

To check it works, schedule a test post for two minutes from now. If you only want to test without posting for real, use Mastodon, Pixelfed or Bluesky, which need no API keys.

11. PHP settings for video uploads

PHP's default upload limit is too small for video. Open the site's Settings tab, scroll to PHP Settings, set these and click Save:

If large uploads still fail with "413 Request Entity Too Large", open the site's Vhost tab, find client_max_body_size, set it to 256M and save.

12. Connect your social networks

Each network needs a free developer app that you create on its website, apart from Mastodon, Pixelfed, PeerTube and Bluesky.

1. In KreateMix, open Platform API keys (instance admins only).
2. Each network's panel shows a callback URL starting with https://social.yourdomain.com/. Copy it exactly into the developer app you create on that network's site.
3. Paste the app's ID and secret back into KreateMix and save.
4. Go to Accounts and connect.

Meta, Google and TikTok ask for a privacy policy and terms page when you submit your app for review. KreateMix already serves them at /privacy, /terms and /data-deletion; edit them under Legal pages.

Optional extras, under Integrations: a mail server for emailed reports, an AI key, Canva, Google Drive and ad accounts. The README has notes for each.

13. Backups

Automatic (recommended)

In CloudPanel, go to Admin Area → Backups. Choose a storage provider (Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, Dropbox, Google Drive and others), connect it and turn on daily backups. CloudPanel backs up everything in /home, which includes both KreateMix files. Backblaze B2 costs well under $1 a month for a site this size.

Manual

From your own computer, download both files into the current folder:

scp "kreatemix@YOUR_SERVER_IP:htdocs/.ht.kreatemix-*.sqlite" .
scp "kreatemix@YOUR_SERVER_IP:htdocs/social.yourdomain.com/.ht.kreatemix-config.php" .

To restore, upload both files to the same places on a new server.

14. Updating KreateMix

Connect as the site user and download the new version over the old one. The database upgrades itself on the next visit.

ssh kreatemix@YOUR_SERVER_IP
cd ~/htdocs/social.yourdomain.com
cp index.php index.php.bak
curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kennethyork/KreateMix/main/index.php

If anything goes wrong, put the old file back with mv index.php.bak index.php. Watch the GitHub repository (Watch → Custom → Releases) to hear about new versions.

15. Extra security (recommended)

These steps make the server much harder to break into. Do them once everything works.

Sign in with an SSH key instead of a password

On your own computer, create a key (press Enter at each question) and copy it to the server:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519
type $env:USERPROFILE\.ssh\id_ed25519.pub | ssh root@YOUR_SERVER_IP "mkdir -p ~/.ssh && cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

That second line is for Windows PowerShell. On Mac or Linux, use ssh-copy-id root@YOUR_SERVER_IP instead.

Check that ssh root@YOUR_SERVER_IP now logs in without asking for a password. Then turn off password logins for root:

sed -i 's/^#\?PermitRootLogin.*/PermitRootLogin prohibit-password/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
systemctl restart ssh

Use a strong KreateMix password

Your KreateMix admin account can post to every connected social account, so give it a long, unique password from a password manager.

Install updates monthly

As root, run apt update && apt -y upgrade about once a month, and reboot with reboot if it says a restart is required.

16. Troubleshooting

Still stuck? Open an issue on GitHub with what you tried and any error from the Logs tab.