Create a server
You need a payment method under Billing before you can create a server. Then open Servers and click Create server. The form has four steps and a summary on the right.
1. Name
Section titled “1. Name”The name is how the server appears in Netkeel. Use lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens, up to 63 characters, starting and ending with a letter or number. Spaces turn into hyphens as you type. You can rename the server later under Settings on its page.
2. Application and web server
Section titled “2. Application and web server”The application card shows the stack Netkeel installs, with its PHP version, MariaDB and Redis. Below it, choose the web server:
| Option | When to choose it |
|---|---|
| Nginx + Apache (recommended) | Most compatible. Supports .htaccess rules from plugins and from sites moved from other hosts. |
| Nginx only | Slightly lighter. .htaccess files are ignored; use the panel for redirects and rules. |
The web server applies to every website on the server.
3. Region
Section titled “3. Region”Netkeel offers servers from three cloud providers: Vultr, DigitalOcean and Akamai Cloud (shown as Linode in the panel). Click a provider to see its regions, grouped by continent. Use Search city or country to find one quickly.
Pick the region closest to most of your visitors. Every region offers the same stack and features. If you choose wrong, you can later move a website to a server in another region (not yet for websites created without a domain).
4. Server size
Section titled “4. Server size”Sizes appear once you choose a region, because availability and prices differ between regions. They are grouped into plan families, shown as tabs. Which families you see depends on the provider:
- Standard: shared vCPU, good value for most sites.
- High frequency: faster CPUs and NVMe storage (Vultr).
- Premium: newer Intel CPUs and NVMe storage (DigitalOcean).
- General purpose: dedicated vCPUs with balanced memory.
- CPU optimized: dedicated vCPUs for compute-heavy work.
- High memory: extra memory per vCPU for large databases and caches.
Each size card shows memory, vCPUs, disk, and the price per month and per hour. A size marked Out of stock cannot be chosen in that region; hover it to see where it is in stock.
Check the price and create
Section titled “Check the price and create”The Summary lists the name, stack, region and size. Monthly cap is the most the server costs in a month; below it is the hourly price. Billing starts when the server is created and stops when you delete it.
If something is missing, a line under the button tells you what, for example “Choose a region to continue”. When everything is set, click Create server.
The stack then installs in the background. The server’s card shows Installing stack, then Online when you can add websites.