Deploy openclaw.ai on Hostinger VPS

Intermediate ⏱ 30 minutes 📅 Updated Aug 2026

Deploy openclaw.ai on a Hostinger VPS with persistent Gateway service and private dashboard access.

💰

Size for Your Workload

Choose at least 2 GB RAM for a smoother setup. Browser automation, more channels, and local models require additional memory and storage.

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📋 Prerequisites

1

Create a Hostinger VPS

Log in to hPanel and set up your VPS:

  1. Go to VPS → Setup on your purchased VPS plan
  2. Select your preferred server location (US, Europe, Asia, South America)
  3. Under Operating System, choose Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 64-bit or a newer supported LTS release
  4. Set a strong Root Password
  5. Optionally, set a Hostname (e.g., openclaw-vps)
  6. Click Continue to provision the server
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SSH Key Setup

For better security, add your SSH public key in hPanel under VPS → Settings → SSH Keys after provisioning. Then disable password authentication.

2

Connect via SSH

Find your VPS IP address in hPanel under VPS → Information, then connect:

bash
# Replace with your VPS IP from hPanel
ssh root@your-vps-ip

Alternatively, Hostinger provides a Browser terminal in hPanel — click VPS → Browser terminal if you can't use a local SSH client.

3

System Update & Dependencies

Update the package index and upgrade all installed packages:

bash
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
4

Install supported Node.js version

openclaw.ai requires Node.js 22.22.3+, 24.15+, or 25.9+ (installer defaults to Node 26). Install it from the official NodeSource repository:

bash
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_26.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
node --version  # Should show v26.x.x
5

Install openclaw.ai

Run the official one-line installer:

bash
curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash
6

Run Onboarding

Launch the interactive onboarding wizard. The --install-daemon flag automatically configures openclaw.ai to run as a background service:

bash
openclaw onboard --install-daemon

The wizard will walk you through:

  • Authentication setup (API keys for your LLM provider)
  • Gateway configuration (port, allowed origins)
  • Optional channel setup (Slack, Discord, etc.)
7

Verify Installation

Confirm everything is running correctly:

bash
# Check system configuration
openclaw doctor

# Verify the gateway is healthy
openclaw health

# Print the authenticated dashboard URL
openclaw dashboard --no-open

# On your local computer, forward the private Gateway port
ssh -N -L 18789:127.0.0.1:18789 root@your-vps-ip
# Then open http://127.0.0.1:18789
8

Configure Hostinger Firewall

Keep the Gateway bound to loopback and expose only SSH. Access the dashboard through the tunnel from Step 7:

Via hPanel

  1. Go to VPS → Settings → Firewall
  2. Enable the firewall if not already active
  3. Add a rule allowing SSH (port 22) from your IP address

Via Command Line (ufw)

bash
# Enable ufw and allow SSH first (important!)
sudo ufw allow 22/tcp
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status
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Always Allow SSH First

Always add the SSH rule before enabling ufw, or you'll lock yourself out of the server. Do not open port 18789 publicly; the Gateway binds to loopback by default.

9

Keep Running with systemd

The --install-daemon flag from Step 6 already set up a systemd user service. To check its status:

bash
# Check gateway status via openclaw CLI
openclaw gateway status

# Or check directly via systemd
systemctl --user status openclaw-gateway

# View live logs
journalctl --user -u openclaw-gateway -f

The service will automatically restart on failure and start on boot.

🔧 Troubleshooting

If you enabled ufw without allowing SSH first:

  1. Go to hPanel → VPS → Browser terminal
  2. Run: sudo ufw allow 22/tcp
  3. Verify with: sudo ufw status

Check the Gateway on the VPS, then restart the tunnel on your local computer:

bash
# On the VPS
openclaw gateway status
ss -tlnp | grep 18789

# On your local computer
ssh -N -L 18789:127.0.0.1:18789 root@your-vps-ip

Keep the SSH session open while using http://127.0.0.1:18789.

Check resource usage on the server:

bash
# Check memory usage
free -h

# Check disk usage
df -h

# Check running processes
top

If OpenClaw shares the VPS with other services, resize the instance or remove unused workloads when memory remains constrained.

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