If you’ve been following this series, you already know we explored CWP (CentOS Web Panel) in detail:

👉 Hands-on VPS Setup with CWP — From Installation to Laravel Deployment

CWP works well — but it requires CentOS / AlmaLinux / Rocky Linux.
Not ideal if you're running Ubuntu or Debian.

This is where CloudPanel shines. A modern, lightweight, performance-focused panel that supports:

• Ubuntu 22.04 / 24.04

• Debian 11 / 12

And we already covered these distros in:

👉 VPS Control Panel Showdown — Which One Should You Trust?

Now let’s get hands-on and deploy a real Laravel + Filament application with CloudPanel.

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🛡️ Step 1 — Secure Your Server

Before deploying anything, harden your VPS.

If you haven’t done this yet, follow my full guide:

👉 Fortify Your DigitalOcean Droplet — A Step-by-Step Security Guide for Ubuntu 24.04

Once the essentials are done, SSH into your machine:

ssh root@your_server_ip

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⚙️ Step 2 — Install CloudPanel on Server

CloudPanel’s installation is unbelievably simple.

Official docs:

• CloudPanel Installer Guide for DigitalOcean (Official Documentation)

• CloudPanel Installation Overview (Official Blog)

Run the installer:

curl -sSL https://installer.cloudpanel.io/ce/v2/install.sh | sudo bash

The script sets up:

• NGINX

• PHP

• MariaDB/MySQL

• Redis

• CloudPanel Dashboard

Once done:

• Access CloudPanel Dashboard: https://your-server-ip:8443

• Then reboot:

sudo reboot

Messed something up or want a clean restart? No worries — CloudPanel’s uninstall guide lets you reset everything quickly.

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🌐 Step 3 — Set Up Your Site

Once inside CloudPanel:

1. Create an admin account

2. Go to Sites → Create Site

3. Choose:

   • Application: Laravel 11

   • Your domain name

   • A site user (auto-generated or custom)

Finally, set your DNS A record to the server’s IP.
Your domain should now show CloudPanel’s default PHP page.

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💻 Step 4 — Install Node.js via NVM

Filament uses Vite, so you need Node.js.

Follow this guide:

👉 FreeCodeCamp — Complete NVM (Node Version Manager) Setup Guide

Then:

nvm install --lts

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📂 Step 5 — Upload & Setup Project

For this example, I used the official demo:

👉 Filament PHP — Official Demo Repository (GitHub)

Inside CloudPanel:

1. Open File Manager

2. Go to:

/home/<username>/htdocs/<domain>/public

3. Upload your project ZIP

4. Extract it

If needed, update the Root Directory from:

Site → Settings → Root Directory

This ensures CloudPanel serves the correct public/ folder.

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🗄️ Step 6 — Database & Configuration

In CloudPanel:

1. Go to Databases

2. Create a new DB + user

Update .env:

DB_HOST=localhost
DB_DATABASE=your_db_name
DB_USERNAME=your_db_user
DB_PASSWORD=your_db_pass

Then inside your site directory:

composer install
npm install
npm run build

If the repo includes a setup script (e.g., composer setup), run that too.

Don’t forget to enable SSL from CloudPanel — one click via Let's Encrypt.

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❗ Step 7 — Resolve Filament Issues

After logging in, you probably saw:

• No dashboard redirection

• Missing Filament assets

This is a known NGINX quirk on CloudPanel.

I fixed it using these references:

• Filament Docs — Fixing Asset Issues on NGINX

• Deep-Dive Guide — Fixing Filament 4 on CloudPanel NGINX

Final vhost configuration (replace with your own) looked like this:

server {
  listen 80;
  listen [::]:80;
  listen 443 quic;
  listen 443 ssl;
  listen [::]:443 quic;
  listen [::]:443 ssl;
  http2 on;
  http3 off;
  ssl_stapling off;
  ssl_stapling_verify off;
  {{ssl_certificate_key}}
  {{ssl_certificate}}
  server_name invo.<example.com>;
  {{root}}

  {{nginx_access_log}}
  {{nginx_error_log}}

  if ($scheme != "https") {
    rewrite ^ https://$host$request_uri permanent;
  }

  location ~ /.well-known {
    auth_basic off;
    allow all;
  }

  {{settings}}

  include /etc/nginx/global_settings;

  location / {
    {{varnish_proxy_pass}}
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_hide_header X-Varnish;
    proxy_redirect off;
    proxy_max_temp_file_size 0;
    proxy_connect_timeout      720;
    proxy_send_timeout         720;
    proxy_read_timeout         720;
    proxy_buffer_size          128k;
    proxy_buffers              4 256k;
    proxy_busy_buffers_size    256k;
    proxy_temp_file_write_size 256k;
  }

  location ^~ /livewire/ {
    {{varnish_proxy_pass}}
    proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $http_host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_hide_header X-Varnish;
    proxy_redirect off;
  }

  location ~* ^.+\.(css|js|jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico|gz|svg|svgz|ttf|otf|woff|woff2|eot|mp4|ogg|ogv|webm|webp|zip|swf|map)$ {
    add_header Access-Control-Allow-Origin "*";
    add_header alt-svc 'h3=":443"; ma=86400';
    expires max;
    access_log off;
  }

  if (-f $request_filename) {
    break;
  }
}

server {
  listen 8080;
  listen [::]:8080;
  server_name invo.<example.com>;
  {{root}}

  index index.php index.html;

  charset utf-8;

  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
  }

  location ^~ /filament {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
  }

  location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
  location = /robots.txt  { access_log off; log_not_found off; }

  error_page 404 /index.php;

  location ~ \.php$ {
    include fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    try_files $uri =404;
    fastcgi_read_timeout 3600;
    fastcgi_send_timeout 3600;
    fastcgi_param HTTPS "on";
    fastcgi_param SERVER_PORT 443;
    fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:{{php_fpm_port}};
    fastcgi_param PHP_VALUE "{{php_settings}}";
  }

  location ^~ /livewire/ {
    try_files $uri /index.php?$query_string;
  }

  location ~* ^.+\.(css|js|jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico|gz|svg|svgz|ttf|otf|woff|woff2|eot|mp4|ogg|ogv|webm|webp|zip|swf|map)$ {
    add_header Access-Control-Allow-Origin "*";
    expires max;
    access_log off;
  }

  if (-f $request_filename) {
    break;
  }
}

After updating:

sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Boom — Filament dashboard working perfectly.

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🎉 Final Thoughts

CloudPanel makes Laravel + Filament deployments smooth and efficient.
But as with any real-world setup, you may have to tweak NGINX for advanced frameworks like Filament.

Why CloudPanel is still my favorite for Laravel deployments:

✔ Zero manual LEMP configuration
✔ PHP-FPM & NGINX are auto-optimized
✔ User isolation per website
✔ Super easy SSL
✔ UI is clean and fast
✔ Works great on lightweight VPS servers

If you're deploying Laravel or Filament apps regularly, CloudPanel hits the sweet spot between simplicity, performance, and production readiness.