GhostlyHosting

April 10, 2026 · View on GitHub

The all-in-one, SEO-friendly hosting tool for Blazor Server, Razor Pages, ASP.NET Core, and any .NET web application.
Deploy, manage, and secure your apps on your own Ubuntu VPS — through an intuitive, user-friendly console application.

GhostlyHosting is an interactive command-line tool that turns a fresh Ubuntu server into a fully configured, production-ready hosting environment for Blazor Server and other .NET applications. It automates SSL certificates, DNS management, GitHub-integrated deployments, reverse-proxy setup, and firewall configuration — all without writing a single config file.

Why GhostlyHosting?

  • Blazor Server & SSR Hosting — Full support for Blazor Server-Side Rendering, ensuring your pages are SEO-friendly and indexable by search engines out of the box.
  • User-Friendly Console App — No YAML, no complex CLI flags. Just an interactive, menu-driven terminal UI that guides you step by step.
  • Self-Hosted & Private — You own your server, your data, and your deployments. No vendor lock-in.

✨ Features

  • 🚀 Deploy unlimited Blazor Server, Razor Pages, ASP.NET Core apps directly from GitHub repositories
  • 🔍 SEO-optimized hosting — server-side rendering ensures search engines can crawl your Blazor apps
  • 🖥️ Interactive, menu-driven console app — no config files required
  • 🔒 Automatic HTTPS via Let's Encrypt with Cloudflare DNS setup
  • 🌩️ Cloudflare proxy integration (DDoS protection, CDN, HTTP/2)
  • 🛡️ Fail2Ban for SSH and nginx brute-force protection
  • 🔄 One-command app updates & rollbacks (commit-based)
  • 💾 Automatic backups before every deployment
  • 📊 Real-time server health dashboard (CPU, RAM, disk, uptime)
  • ☁️ Cloud provider firewall management (UpCloud, DigitalOcean, or manual)
  • 🔑 All credentials encrypted and stored locally on your server

📋 Prerequisites

Before running the installer, make sure you have:

RequirementDetails
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (or newer)A fresh VPS is recommended
Root accessThe tool must run as root
Cloudflare accountYour domain must be managed by Cloudflare
GitHub Personal Access TokenNeeds repo scope (and read:org for org repos)
Cloud provider accountUpCloud, DigitalOcean, or manual firewall management

Cloudflare API Token

Create a token at https://dash.cloudflare.com/profile/api-tokens with:

  • Zone:DNS:Edit
  • Zone:Zone:Read

GitHub Personal Access Token

Generate a token at https://github.com/settings/tokens with:

  • repo (full repository access)
  • read:org (optional – needed for organisation repositories)

Cloud Provider API Token

  • UpCloud: Create an API token in your UpCloud control panel
  • DigitalOcean: Create a Personal Access Token (read & write) in your DO dashboard
  • Other: You manage firewall rules manually (ports 22, 80, 443 must be open)

🚀 Installation

# Download latest installer
wget https://github.com/Nix1983/Blazor-Hosting/releases/latest/download/ghostly-hosting-installer.sh

# Make executable
chmod +x ghostly-hosting-installer.sh

# Run installer (requires root)
sudo ./ghostly-hosting-installer.sh

On first run you will be guided through:

  1. Cloud provider selection (UpCloud / DigitalOcean / manual)
  2. Cloud provider API token setup
  3. GitHub Personal Access Token
  4. Cloudflare API token

Start GhostlyHosting

After installation, start the tool from any directory:

ghostly-hosting

Manual Installation (Development)

git clone https://github.com/Nix1983/Blazor-Hosting.git
cd Blazor-Hosting
sudo ./start.sh

🔄 Updating

Simply run the new installer — your configuration (.env.secure) is preserved:

wget https://github.com/Nix1983/Blazor-Hosting/releases/latest/download/ghostly-hosting-installer.sh
chmod +x ghostly-hosting-installer.sh
sudo ./ghostly-hosting-installer.sh

🗑️ Uninstallation

# Remove the installation
sudo rm -rf /opt/ghostly-hosting

# Remove the shell command
sudo rm -f /usr/local/bin/ghostly-hosting

# Remove configuration (contains your API tokens – back up first!)
rm -rf ~/.config/ghostly-hosting

🖥️ What Happens During Server Initialisation

Running Init Server from the Server Control Panel installs and configures:

ComponentPurpose
nginxReverse proxy for all hosted apps
Fail2BanBrute-force protection (SSH + nginx)
CertbotLet's Encrypt SSL certificate management
gitRequired for cloning your repositories
Swap2 GB swap file (if none exists)
Firewall rulesOpens ports 22, 80, 443 via your cloud provider API

🏗️ Adding a New App

  1. Your domain must already point to this server in Cloudflare DNS (or the tool will create the record).
  2. From the App Manager, choose Add new App.
  3. Select your GitHub repository, branch/tag, and follow the prompts.
  4. The tool will:
    • Clone the repo and publish the .NET project
    • Create a systemd service (Kestrel)
    • Configure nginx with an SSL-terminating reverse proxy
    • Request a Let's Encrypt certificate
    • Enable Cloudflare proxy mode

📦 Building the Installer

For developers who want to build the installer from source, see docs/BUILD.md.

📚 Documentation

DocumentDescription
docs/BUILD.mdHow to build the self-extracting installer
docs/TESTING.mdRunning the test suite
docs/VERSIONING.mdVersion numbering conventions
docs/ERROR_LOGGING.mdError log locations and format