TNS Panel
Licensing & plans
TNS Panel has a free tier that is a complete, supported install, and paid options on top of it. A server that loses its license never stops serving production: websites, mail and DNS keep running (see What happens when a license expires).
Plans
| Free | License | Multinode | Premium Support | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | USD 0 | USD 3 / month or USD 30 / year, per node | USD 10 / month or USD 100 / year | USD 20 / month |
| Accounts, sites, mail, DNS, databases, FTP, backups | Unlimited | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reseller, white-label, API tokens, firewall, migration tools | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PHP versions | One active version, selectable | Several versions side by side | same | same |
| Per-account CPU/RAM/IO/process limits | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Containers (Docker-style apps) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| WAF configuration (ModSecurity rules/rulesets) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Prometheus + Grafana stack | No (metrics endpoint is free) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Run as cluster master and control other nodes | No | No | Yes | |
| Tickets, installation help | No | No | No | Yes |
Notes:
- There is no limit on the number of accounts in any tier.
- Multinode: the node that acts as master needs the Multinode license. Every node you connect also needs its own License.
- Prices are in US dollars. Payment is by PayPal, or by international card through MercadoPago if you have no PayPal.
- No refunds. You can cancel at any time; the license keeps working until the end of the period you paid for and then does not renew. The Free tier is there so you can test before buying.
- The legal entity is TeraServer, Argentina, under the jurisdiction of the courts of Argentina. Contact:
[email protected].
Applying a license
In the admin interface open Panel → License, paste the license identifier and save. The node validates it against the license server and shows the plan and the date it was last checked. The identifier is stored encrypted on the node.
A license is per node and tied to the node's public IP as the license server sees it. Moving a node to a new IP is a normal operation and is meant to be self-service (rate-limited), not a support ticket; that flow lives in the customer area (Coming soon).
Nodes behind a shared public IP (NAT) use a cluster license, with one slot per node (identified by internal IP and MAC). Each slot is a license you pay for.
How validation works
- The node checks in once a day.
- If it cannot connect it retries every hour for 48 hours. The panel warns from the first failed contact.
- The permit it receives is signed by the provider; the node only holds the public key, so a fake license server cannot grant anything.
Because of the 48-hour window, a license-server outage, a DNS failure or an expired certificate on the provider's side will not switch off paid features on a healthy fleet.
What happens when a license expires
After 48 hours without a successful check:
- Production keeps running. Sites, mail and DNS are not interrupted.
- Existing paid-feature objects keep being served. A container that already exists keeps running; WAF exceptions already loaded keep being published; a cluster already formed keeps replicating.
- Creating new paid things is blocked with a "paid feature" error (HTTP 402): new containers, WAF configuration changes, the metrics stack, and joining another node. Removing things (turning the WAF off, deleting a container) is never blocked.
- PHP consolidates to one version. The node returns to Free behavior for PHP: a single active version, which by default is the lowest installed version. This is the one case where an expiry can affect running sites: a site that needed a newer PHP runs on the consolidated one and may break. The admin can change which version is active at any time, without a license, in Server → PHP. What each site had requested is remembered, and when the license validates again the versions come back by themselves.
- Per-account resource limits (CPU/RAM/IO/processes) stop being applied. This is a loosening, not a cut-off, but plan for it.
- The advisor (Server → Recommendations) tells you before and after this happens.
Free tier and PHP
The Free tier runs a single PHP version of your choice. The node ships the PHP of the distribution (8.1 or newer; the installer upgrades older defaults). Extra PHP versions come from the provider's own package repository, which the installer configures but leaves disabled; enabling it is an explicit admin action and needs a License.