Feature Reference
A categorized overview of what Calagopus offers, followed by a comparison with other panels wherever we're confident of the other panel's behavior. Categories with a comparison table are followed by an "Also included" list of further Calagopus-specific capabilities in that area.
Pterodactyl and Pelican are compared against the current state of their public main branches, which may include features not yet in a tagged release. AMP is closed-source, so cells we cannot verify from source are left blank rather than guessed.
Highlights
- Fast: Both the node daemon and panel backend are written in Rust, designed to use as few resources as possible while delivering a responsive experience.
- Secure: Security is a first-class concern in the architecture, with hardening built in by default.
- Easy to use: The panel is designed to be approachable without requiring a background in server administration.
- Open Source: The code is on GitHub and contributions are welcome.
- Cross-Platform: The panel runs on essentially any operating system.
- Extensible: A built-in extension system lets you add custom backend logic, routes, UI elements, and more.
- Scalable: The architecture scales horizontally - add more backend instances, read replicas, and Wings nodes as load grows.
- WebAuthn: Users can authenticate with passkeys, biometrics, or hardware security keys.
- Schedule Tasks: Automate server management with time- and event-based scheduling.
- Subuser Management: Grant other users scoped access to a server without full admin rights.
- File Manager: Browse, upload, download, and edit server files directly from the panel, including archive and backup browsing.
- API: A comprehensive API covers everything the panel UI does. See the API Reference for details.
Core & Extensibility
| Feature | Calagopus | Pterodactyl | Pelican | AMP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free & Open Source | ||||
| Native Extension System | ||||
| First-Party UI Component Interception API | ||||
| Multi-Repository Git-Backed Egg Sync |
= not independently verified for that product
- Extensions Can Intercept or Replace Built-in UI Elements - Extensions register hooks that intercept props, intercept rendering, or fully replace any of the panel's shared UI elements - not just append to fixed plugin slots.
- Extension-Injectable Form Fields - Extensions can inject or transform fields into dozens of built-in admin forms (roles, nodes, backups, servers, OAuth providers, and more) via a shared form engine.
- Extension Dashboard Widgets & Navigation - Extensions can add cards to the admin overview, sidebar entries, context-menu items, and low-level hooks into the console terminal and the file editor.
- Extension Theming API - Extensions can contribute theme overrides that merge with the base panel theme, and one extension can supply a CSS-variable resolver.
- Inter-Extension Call API - Extensions can expose and invoke named calls on each other for interop without hard dependencies.
- Extension Background Tasks, Shutdown Hooks & CLI Commands - Extensions can register long-running background tasks, graceful-shutdown handlers, custom CLI subcommands, and their own permission nodes.
- In-Panel Extension Install with Live Build Logs - Install an extension by uploading a package from the admin UI - the panel rebuilds itself and streams the build output live, with a license-acceptance step when required. Available on the official all-in-one (heavy) container image.
- Extension Update Tracking - The panel checks installed extensions for updates and surfaces changelogs alongside panel and node updates.
Console & Real-Time Management
| Feature | Calagopus | Pterodactyl | Pelican | AMP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live Console |
= not independently verified for that product
- Command Snippet Autocomplete - Type a shortcut in the console input to autocomplete a saved command snippet.
- Command History with Resend - Browse past console commands - including ones run by other users or by schedules - and resend or copy them with one click.
- Live Docker Image Pull Progress - Per-layer image pull and extraction progress renders as live progress bars in the console whenever the container image is pulled - not just a wall of status text.
- Server Power & Stats Commands over SSH - The SSH shell used for console access also accepts commands to start, stop, restart, or check resource stats, for users with the matching permissions.
File Management
| Feature | Calagopus | Pterodactyl | Pelican | AMP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| File Manager | ||||
| File Edit History | ||||
| Real-Time Collaborative File Editing | ||||
| Backup Browsing Support | ||||
| Archive Browsing Support |
= not independently verified for that product
- Revision Diff Viewer - View a side-by-side diff of any file revision against the current version or another revision, and restore directly from the diff.
- Cross-Server File Copy - Copy files or directories directly to a different server, with a remote directory browser, without a manual download/upload round trip.
- Advanced File Search - Search by filename or file content with glob include/exclude filters, size ranges, and case sensitivity.
- File Checksum Calculator - Compute MD5, CRC32, and SHA-family checksums for a file directly from the file manager.
- GUI Permissions Editor - Visual owner/group/other read-write-execute editor with octal and symbolic display and recursive apply.
- Disk Usage Treemap - A visual treemap of the largest directories on a server, with click-to-navigate.
- Mass Rename Tool - Bulk rename with find/replace (plain or regex), prefix/suffix, case transforms, and auto-numbering, with a live preview and undo.
- Directory Upload - Upload an entire local folder tree, not just individual files.
- Native Filesystem Disk Quotas - Disk limits are backed by real filesystem quota mechanisms - Btrfs subvolumes, ZFS datasets, XFS project quotas, or a FUSE quota layer - rather than periodic recursive size scans.
- Broad Archive Format Support - Extract zip, tar (gzip, xz, lzip, bzip2, lz4, zstd), 7z, and read-only RAR archives, and browse zip and 7z archives in place without extracting them first.
- Full SFTP Protocol Extensions - Server-side copy, hard links, POSIX rename, fsync, quota-aware free-space reporting, and remote checksum verification for fully-featured SFTP clients.
Databases
| Feature | Calagopus | Pterodactyl | Pelican | AMP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Database Management | ||||
| MySQL Server-Database Support | ||||
| PostgreSQL Server-Database Support | ||||
| MongoDB Server-Database Support | ||||
| Redis Server-Database Support | ||||
| Containerized Database Provisioning ("Database Agent") |
= not independently verified for that product
- Dedicated Database Instance Controls - Start, stop, and restart a provisioned database instance independently of the game server, with its own live CPU/memory graphs and log viewer.
- Database Instance User & Database Sub-Management - Create and manage multiple logical databases and users within one provisioned database instance.
- One-Click Database Engine Updates - An "update available" badge lets you apply an engine version update to a provisioned database instance with one click.
- Database Recreate with Confirm-by-Name - Safely wipe and recreate a database, requiring the name to be re-typed to confirm.
- Database Password Rotation - Rotate a database's credentials with one click, with the JDBC connection string shown alongside.
- Database Import & Export - Download a full dump of a provisioned database instance, or of a single database inside it, straight from the panel - SQL for MariaDB and PostgreSQL, archive for MongoDB, RDB for Redis. Importing works the same way.
Backups
| Feature | Calagopus | Pterodactyl | Pelican | AMP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backups | ||||
| Advanced Backup Drivers | ||||
| Dynamic Backup Configuration System |
= not independently verified for that product
- Eight Backup Drivers Including Proxmox Backup Server - Local tarballs, ddup-bak deduplicated local storage, Btrfs and ZFS snapshots, S3-compatible object storage, Restic, Kopia, and a dedicated Proxmox Backup Server integration.
- Scheduled Restic Prune Jobs - Schedule recurring Restic repository prune jobs per backup configuration, on a cron, targeting selected nodes - configured from the panel instead of a cron entry on every node.
- Backup Groups - Organize backups into named, collapsible groups instead of one long chronological list.
- Backup-to-Archive Export - Convert an existing backup into a downloadable archive, placed directly into the file manager.
- Selective Restore Options - Restore can optionally truncate the target directory first, and separately choose whether to reapply the startup command, image, and variables captured at backup time.
- Node-Level Backup Management - Admins can browse every backup stored on a node - including ones whose server was deleted - and reattach, restore, or export them.
- Location, Node & Server-Scoped Backup Configurations - Backup configurations resolve per server through its node and location, with separate shared and maintenance-mode flags.
Scheduling & Automation
| Feature | Calagopus | Pterodactyl | Pelican | AMP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schedule Tasks | ||||
| Advanced Schedule Triggers |
= not independently verified for that product
- Conditional Workflow Steps - Schedule steps can branch on nested AND/OR/NOT conditions over server state, uptime, resource usage, file existence, or variables - not just a linear task list.
- Eight Trigger Types - Beyond cron: power actions, server state changes, crashes, backup status, resource-usage thresholds sustained over time, matched console lines, and chaining off another schedule's success or failure.
- Regex Extraction Into Variables - A schedule step can run a regex over any string or captured variable - including console lines captured by a wait step or console trigger - and store the match groups into reusable schedule variables.
- Wait-for-Console-Line / Wait-for-State Steps - Pause a schedule until specific console output appears or the server reaches a target power state, with a timeout.
- Dedicated Crash-Detection Trigger - A schedule trigger type fires specifically when the server crashes, separate from generic state-change triggers.
- Human-Readable Cron Builder - A simplified frequency picker generates cron expressions under the hood and describes the schedule in plain language.
- Schedule Import/Export - Export an entire schedule - including every trigger, condition, and workflow step - as a portable config and import it on another server.
Networking
| Feature | Calagopus | Pterodactyl | Pelican | AMP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extra Allocations | ||||
| SFTP Support | ||||
| SSH (Shell) Support |
= not independently verified for that product
- Built-in Port Tunneling - Wings can proxy a TCP or UDP connection to a container's internal, unpublished port over an authenticated WebSocket - a building block for extensions that avoids opening extra ports on the host.
- Per-Egg Allocation Policy - A reusable policy per group of eggs controls whether users may assign their own allocations, how ports are picked, and whether a primary allocation is required and protected from deletion.
- Automatic Port-Usage Detection - When assigning a port the panel asks the node which ports are actually in use and skips them - and refuses to assign rather than guess if the node is unreachable.
Subusers & Roles
| Feature | Calagopus | Pterodactyl | Pelican | AMP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subuser Management | ||||
| Role Management |
= not independently verified for that product
- Per-Subuser File Access Restrictions - Restrict a subuser's file manager visibility to a list of ignored paths or patterns, independent of their other permissions.
- Per-Role Two-Factor Enforcement - A role can require its members to set up TOTP two-factor authentication before they can use the panel, overriding the global 2FA policy.
Authentication & Security
| Feature | Calagopus | Pterodactyl | Pelican | AMP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WebAuthn Authentication | ||||
| OAuth Support | ||||
| OAuth Claim-Based Auto Role/Subuser Provisioning |
= not independently verified for that product
- Two-Factor Authentication (TOTP) - App-based TOTP two-factor authentication with recovery codes, independent of WebAuthn.
- Multi-Provider CAPTCHA Support - hCaptcha, reCAPTCHA (v2 and v3), Cloudflare Turnstile, and Friendly Captcha are all supported and switchable in settings.
- Fully Custom OAuth2 Provider Configuration - Wire up any OAuth2 provider with raw auth/token/info URLs, custom scopes, and JSON-path field mapping - not limited to a fixed provider list.
- Session Management - View all active login sessions with IP, device, and last-used time, and revoke any of them individually.
- Scoped, Expiring API Keys - Personal API keys with independently selectable permission scopes, an IP allowlist, and an optional expiration date.
- SSH Key Import from Git Providers - Import SSH public keys directly by username from GitHub, GitLab, or Launchpad.
- Flexible Mandatory 2FA - Admins can mandate two-factor authentication panel-wide, for admins only, or per role - users are locked out of everything except their own 2FA setup page until they enroll.
- Account Freeze - Freeze an account so its owner can no longer change their own password, email, name, avatar, or 2FA settings, without suspending or deleting it. Full suspension is a separate, independent toggle.
Account & Onboarding
- Guided First-Run Setup Wizard - A first-boot wizard walks through admin account creation, app configuration, egg-repository bootstrap, and creating the first location, node, and server.
- Personal Activity Log - Every user has a self-service activity feed showing their own actions, IP, timestamp, and whether it came from the web UI or the API.
- Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts - Rebind, disable, or reset any panel keyboard shortcut, and export or import a whole shortcut profile as text.
- Avatar Upload with Cropping - Upload and crop a custom avatar directly in the browser.
Administration
| Feature | Calagopus | Pterodactyl | Pelican | AMP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| User Management | ||||
| User Impersonation | ||||
| Admin-Action Audit Log | ||||
| Asset Management |
= not independently verified for that product
- Three-Tier Activity Logging - Independent audit trails for admin actions, per-server activity (including events reported by the node daemon), and per-account activity.
- Scoped, Scheduled Announcements - In-panel announcements with a scheduled start/end date, auto-dismiss, and scoping to specific locations, nodes, backup configurations, or eggs.
- System Health & Diagnostics Dashboard - A dashboard tracking database migration status, fleet-wide node clock-desync detection, and a live debug-mode toggle.
- Centralized Update Tracking - One dashboard tracks outdated versions across the panel, Wings nodes, database agent hosts, and installed extensions, with extension changelogs and panel/extension install history.
- Backup Success/Failure Analytics - Per-backup-configuration stats broken out by today, this week, this month, and all time.
- Pluggable Asset Storage Backend - Panel-managed assets can be stored on the local filesystem or in S3-compatible object storage.
- Custom Email Templates - Every transactional email is a live-editable template with a variable reference sidebar, its own enable/disable toggle, and reset-to-default, plus a choice of SMTP, sendmail, or file mail drivers.
- Per-Endpoint API Rate Limits - Rate limits (hit count and time window) are configurable individually per API endpoint group, such as login, registration, backup creation, or SFTP auth.
- Configurable Activity-Log Retention - Separate retention windows (days and/or max count) for admin, user, and server activity logs.
- External ID Lookup - Look up a server or user directly by an external ID from a billing or automation integration.
- Egg Configurations - A reusable policy layer per group of eggs controlling automatic port allocation rules, self-service allocation, dedicated-IP requirements, custom startup commands, and the default order of server dashboard tabs.
Nodes & Infrastructure
| Feature | Calagopus | Pterodactyl | Pelican | AMP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Support for multiple Nodes | ||||
| Mount Management |
= not independently verified for that product
- Live Node-to-Node Server Migration - Bulk-transfer servers between nodes with a selectable allocation strategy, optional backup transfer, and a live per-server progress table.
- Live Node Resource Monitoring - Real-time CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network charts per node over a websocket, with auto-reconnect.
- Remote Daemon Log Viewer - Browse, download, and live-tail a node's Wings log files directly from the panel.
- Bulk Fleet Config Push - Apply a configuration change to many selected nodes or database agent hosts at once.
- Remote Wings Upgrade Endpoint - Wings can be told to upgrade itself: it downloads the new binary, verifies its SHA-256 checksum, swaps the executable, and restarts automatically.
- Automatic Crash Recovery - Wings detects unexpected container exits, distinguishes out-of-memory kills from other crashes, and auto-restarts with a cooldown to prevent restart loops.
- Self-Service Mount Attach/Detach - Users can attach or detach admin-provisioned mounts to their own server on demand.
UI/UX & Internationalization
- Available in 14+ Languages - The panel ships with 14 languages, with right-to-left text direction applied automatically and locale-aware number formatting, pluralization, and date formatting.
- Per-Field Localized Content - Content like announcements can have a separate title and body maintained per language directly in the admin UI.
- Customizable Server Navigation - Reorder server dashboard tabs, add custom dividers and external links, either globally or per egg configuration for different game types.
- Progressive Disclosure "Advanced Mode" - A global toggle hides or shows advanced fields across admin forms.
- Live Ignore-Pattern Preview - A directory browser live-renders gitignore-style exclusion patterns against the real file tree when you create a backup or restrict a subuser's file access.
- Animated Theme Switch - Light/dark mode toggling uses an animated transition instead of an abrupt style swap.
If anything on this page looks inaccurate, let us know on Discord or open an issue on GitHub.