Panelra vs RustAdmin: Server Panel or RCON Tool?

Both tools are built only for Rust, and both have a web dashboard with moderator accounts, so they get compared a lot. They solve different problems, though. This page walks through where each one is stronger, based on RustAdmin's own site as of 2026-09-28 and on what Panelra does today.

What RustAdmin is

RustAdmin has been around since 2014 and comes in two versions (rustadmin.com):

• RustAdmin Free is the original desktop client. The download is a Windows program, and it only works while it is running on your computer.
• RustAdmin Online has been available since at least February 2020. It stays connected to your server 24/7 as a hosted service and runs in the browser on PC, phone or tablet. It includes everything in the free version plus more.

Both talk to your server over RCON. That is the key design choice: RustAdmin never needs to be installed on the machine that runs Rust, so it works with any host that exposes RCON, including rented game slots.

What RustAdmin does better

We want this page to be useful even if you never sign up for Panelra, so here is where RustAdmin is ahead, all taken from its own feature list.

Moderation depth. RustAdmin's player tools go further than Panelra's. It keeps online and offline player lists, strike history for bans, kicks and mutes, player notes attributed to the moderator who wrote them, and team rosters. Its automated moderation includes anti-VPN with a whitelist, blocking private Steam profiles, minimum account age, a bad-language filter with escalating punishments, and country allow and block lists.

Combat logs. RustAdmin collects combat logs on PvP kills, shows hit percentages by body part and keeps kill and death records for 60 days so you can review suspicious kills. Panelra has a per-server combat log and per-player K/D, with weapon, distance and hit data when the CombatLog plugin is installed, but RustAdmin goes further on retention and per-body-part hit stats.

Triggered commands. Beyond scheduled commands, RustAdmin can run commands when something happens in game: a player joins or leaves, a chat message, a kill, a helicopter, cargo ship, Bradley or Chinook event. Panelra's automation is focused on the server lifecycle (restarts, wipes, updates), not in-game events.

Shared ban history. RustAdmin Online can show whether a player has been banned on other RustAdmin Online servers, which helps when you review a new player.

Works anywhere RCON works. Because it does not run on the host, RustAdmin works with a rented slot at any game host. Panelra does not.

Simple, published pricing. The desktop app is free. RustAdmin Online costs 10€ per month for 1 server or 15€ per month for up to 6 servers, with a discount on the first month. Unlimited moderator accounts are included.

More languages. The interface is available in twelve languages. The Panelra dashboard is in English only.

What Panelra does that RustAdmin does not

Panelra is not an RCON tool with extra features. An agent runs on your Linux host with root access and manages the server process and its files, which is where most of the time-consuming Rust admin work happens.

Installs and updates the server. Panelra installs Rust on your machine. When Facepunch ships an update you can let Panelra auto-update (the panel shows when the next auto-update will happen) or press Update now. Players get a single 5-minute warning before the restart. RustAdmin assumes the server is already installed and kept up to date by someone else.

File-level wipes on a schedule. Panelra wipes by deleting the right files on the host, on a weekly or monthly schedule, on specific dates, on Facepunch forced wipe days, or right now. You choose map only or map and blueprints, and keep the seed, roll a random one, set a custom seed or use a custom map URL. The panel shows when the new map is generating. RustAdmin can run commands on a schedule and has an "On server wipe" action, but it does not delete the map or blueprint files or change the seed for you.

Oxide and Carbon installation. Panelra installs Oxide or Carbon in one click, and removing a framework stops the server first and restores vanilla. Plugins come from the uMod catalog, with a config editor and plugin auto-update. RustAdmin can load, unload and reload plugins, check for plugin updates and manage Oxide or Carbon permissions, but it does not install the framework.

Backups. Panelra takes manual, scheduled and pre-wipe backups and restores them in one click. We did not find backups in RustAdmin's feature list.

Crash handling and alerts. Panelra detects crashes, crash loops, a server that stops responding, a server stuck while starting and a host or agent that goes offline. Each shows up in an in-panel alerts inbox and can be sent to a Discord webhook. Crash history is kept per server. RustAdmin's Discord notifications cover bans, reports and moderation actions; crash alerts are not listed. Note that Panelra does not alert on CPU or RAM usage.

Restarts with a countdown. Scheduled restarts post chat warnings and count down gracefully. Pending restarts and wipes can be cancelled, and a frozen server can be force restarted from the host. RustAdmin has a restart button with a message and delay, which relies on the server still answering RCON.

Roles that cover server control. Panelra has five roles: Owner, Admin, Operator, Moderator and Viewer. A Moderator can kick, ban, write notes, handle F7 reports and broadcast without being able to stop, wipe or reconfigure the server. RustAdmin's moderator permissions are more granular for moderation actions (chat, ban, teleport, kill, combat logs and more), which is one of its strengths. Both keep an activity log.

Team-wide bans enforced on join. A ban issued in Panelra applies to every server in the team and is enforced when the player tries to join.

Who should NOT use Panelra

Be honest with yourself about your setup before you sign up. Panelra is the wrong tool if:

• Your server runs on Windows. The Panelra agent needs Linux (Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04, Debian 12) on x86_64 with systemd. RustAdmin works whatever the host runs.
• You rent a game slot without shell access. Panelra installs an agent on the host, which needs root. If your game host only gives you a web panel, FTP and RCON, RustAdmin is the realistic choice.
• You only want RCON. If the server is already managed and all you need is chat, bans, combat logs and moderators, RustAdmin is focused on exactly that, and it has been doing it since 2014.

The machine also has to be sized for Rust: plan for about 12 GB of RAM and 30 GB of disk per server. The agent only makes outbound HTTPS connections on port 443, so no inbound port is opened for it. Players still need 28015 and 28017 UDP, and Rust+ uses 28082 TCP.

Feature comparison

"Not verified" means we could not confirm it from RustAdmin's public site either way. It is not a "no".

Pricing

RustAdmin prices were checked on rustadmin.com on 2026-09-28.

Using both together

The two tools do not overlap much, so running both is reasonable. Panelra owns the host side: the Rust install, updates, wipes, framework, plugins, backups and crash recovery. RustAdmin connects over RCON and adds its moderation extras such as combat logs, triggered commands and anti-VPN rules. If you do this, keep one place as the source of truth for bans so your moderators do not have to check two lists.

How to try Panelra

Create an account at app.panelra.io and add a host. The dashboard gives you an install command with a token for that host, which you run as root on the Linux machine:

curl -sL https://app.panelra.io/install | sudo AGENT_TOKEN=<your-token> bash

The agent connects back to the dashboard, and from there you can install Rust, pick Oxide or Carbon and set up wipes without SSH.

Sources

Checked on 2026-09-28:

• RustAdmin homepage, features, changelog and pricing: rustadmin.com
• RustAdmin desktop client download (Windows binaries): rustadmin.com/release/RustAdminRelease.zip
• Panelra features: panelra.io/features