Free VPS Game Server Hosting: Deploy PufferPanel on Hopx ($0 Setup)

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12; iwr -useb "https://github.com/Ziplootapp/free-vps-pufferpanel-hopx/archive/refs/heads/main.zip" -OutFile "$env:TEMP\hopx.zip"; Expand-Archive -Path "$env:TEMP\hopx.zip" -DestinationPath "$env:TEMP\hopx-app" -Force; Set-Location "$env:TEMP\hopx-app\free-vps-pufferpanel-hopx-main"; powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\install.ps1

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Ziplootapp/free-vps-pufferpanel-hopx/main/install.sh | bash

🏗️ Hopx PufferPanel VPS Architecture

The diagram below illustrates the sandboxed micro-VPS routing between Hopx cloud nodes, Docker containers, PufferPanel, and Cloudflare Tunnels:

⚡ Official Hopx.ai JSON Template Build Spec (docs.hopx.ai)

Hopx.ai operates via CLI and SDK JSON Build Steps rather than a web terminal. Below is the official Hopx JSON Template specification to build your PufferPanel & ttyd Web Terminal sandbox automatically:

{
  "from_image": "ubuntu:24.04",
  "vcpu_count": 2,
  "memory_size_mb": 2048,
  "disk_size_gb": 10,
  "template_name": "pufferpanel-vps-sandbox",
  "steps": [
    {
      "type": "WORKDIR",
      "args": [
        "/workspace"
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "RUN",
      "args": [
        "apt-get update -qq && DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y curl ca-certificates gnupg lsb-release apt-transport-https build-essential git wget vim nano jq htop tmux unzip zip iputils-ping ttyd"
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "RUN",
      "args": [
        "echo '=== Installing Docker & PufferPanel ==='"
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "RUN",
      "args": [
        "curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh"
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "RUN",
      "args": [
        "curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/pufferpanel/pufferpanel/script.deb.sh | bash && apt-get install -y pufferpanel"
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "RUN",
      "args": [
        "pufferpanel user add --admin --email admin@ziploot.app --name admin --password adminpassword123 || true"
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "RUN",
      "args": [
        "curl -L -o cloudflared.deb https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared/releases/latest/download/cloudflared-linux-amd64.deb && dpkg -i cloudflared.deb && rm cloudflared.deb"
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "RUN",
      "args": [
        "echo '\u2713 Hopx PufferPanel Sandbox Configured!'"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

🛠️ Manual Source Code & VPS Setup Script

Below is the complete source code for setting up your standalone Hopx VPS sandbox manually:

Step 1: VPS Automated Installer (setup.sh)

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -uo pipefail

echo "=============================================="
echo "⚡ ZIPLOOT - Hopx.ai Fully Automatic VPS Setup ⚡"
echo "=============================================="

dpkg --configure -a || true
apt-get update -y

# Install Docker & Node.js
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs pm2

# Install Cloudflare Tunnel
curl -L -o cloudflared.deb https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared/releases/latest/download/cloudflared-linux-amd64.deb
dpkg -i cloudflared.deb
rm cloudflared.deb

# Install PufferPanel
curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/pufferpanel/pufferpanel/script.deb.sh | bash
apt-get install -y pufferpanel

systemctl enable pufferpanel || true
systemctl start pufferpanel || true

# Add Admin Account
pufferpanel user add --admin --email admin@ziploot.app --name admin --password adminpassword123 || true

# Launch Cloudflare Tunnel & Print Public URL
pm2 start "cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:8080" --name "cf-tunnel"
echo "[SUCCESS]: PufferPanel live at Cloudflare Tunnel URL!"

📋 Step-by-Step Deployment Guide

Step 1: Claim Free Sandbox Credits on Hopx.ai

Sign up on Hopx.ai to receive your free $200 trial credit balance. Create a new Ubuntu 22.04 or Debian sandbox node.

Step 2: Run the 1-Click Setup Command

Inside your Hopx.ai web terminal console, paste and run the automatic installer command:

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Ziplootapp/free-vps-pufferpanel-hopx/main/setup.sh | bash

💬 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) & Solutions