How to Install OpenClaw on a Hostinger VPS (2026 Step-by-Step Guide)

I run OpenClaw on a Hostinger VPS so a self-hosted AI assistant answers me on WhatsApp and Telegram around the clock, on my own server, with my own keys. No third party in the middle.

Setting it up is not hard, but the guides I found were either vague or skipped the parts that actually break. So here is the full process, every command included, exactly as I did it.

By the end you will have OpenClaw running 24/7 on a VPS, connected to a messaging app, with skills installed and the box properly secured.

What is OpenClaw?

OpenClaw is an open-source, self-hosted AI personal assistant. You run it on your own machine, connect it to your messaging apps, and plug in whichever LLM you want to power it.

It is genuinely popular, with over 380,000 GitHub stars, and the appeal is ownership: your assistant, your data, your model choice. You can point it at Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini, or run a local model with Ollama so nothing leaves your server at all.

Because it is self-hosted, it needs somewhere to live that is always on. That is where the VPS comes in.

What do you need before starting?

Five things: a Hostinger VPS running Ubuntu, an LLM API key (or Ollama for a local model), a messaging account, basic terminal comfort, and about fifteen minutes. Have these ready and the install goes through in one sitting.

• A Hostinger VPS with Ubuntu (22.04 or 24.04). Any KVM plan works; more on sizing below.
• An LLM API key from Anthropic, OpenAI or Google, or Ollama installed for a local model.
• A messaging account for the channel you want (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack or Discord).
• Basic terminal comfort — you will paste commands over SSH, nothing more.
• About 15 minutes, most of it waiting on installs.

Why a Hostinger VPS for OpenClaw?

Because OpenClaw has to run as a background service that never sleeps, and shared hosting cannot do that. You need root access, SSH and the ability to run a long-lived process, which means a VPS.

I have run OpenClaw on DigitalOcean and Hetzner too, and Hostinger is the one I keep pointing people to for this: full root on a KVM VPS with NVMe storage, weekly backups included, and a 30-day money-back window so you can try it risk-free. The AMD EPYC cores handle the Node process comfortably. If you are weighing hosts more widely than this one job, I compared the main web hosting providers separately.

Which Hostinger VPS plan should you pick?

The 2 vCPU / 8GB plan (KVM 2) is the comfortable pick, especially if you plan to run a local model. The smallest plan works too, with one tweak.

Pricing shifts with promotions and term length (usually somewhere around $5-9 a month for KVM 1-2), so check the current rate before you buy.

How to install OpenClaw on Hostinger, step by step

Here is the whole install at a glance, then each step in full with the exact commands.

ssh root@YOUR_VPS_IP

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_24.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install -y nodejs git build-essential
node -v
npm -v

npm install -g openclaw@latest
openclaw --version

openclaw onboard

openclaw onboard --install-daemon
openclaw gateway start

openclaw doctor
openclaw gateway status

openclaw channels

sudo fallocate -l 2G /swapfile
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile

How do you install OpenClaw skills?

Install skills from ClawHub with openclaw plugins install. Skills are plugins that add abilities like web search, reminders or calendar access:

openclaw plugins install @clawhub/web-search
openclaw plugins list
openclaw plugins uninstall @clawhub/web-search

For a curated set worth starting with, see the roundup of the best OpenClaw skills.

Useful commands for managing OpenClaw

These are the ones I actually use day to day. Keep them handy.

To edit config by hand, the files live at ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json and ~/openclaw/.env.

Why is OpenClaw not working?

Nine times out of ten it is one of four things: a crash on startup, memory running out on a small plan, a dropped messaging channel, or the daemon step being skipped. These are the problems I see most, and the fix for each.

• Crashes on startup: run openclaw doctor --fix, then check the logs with journalctl -u openclaw -f for the real error.
• Out of memory: you are on a small plan without swap. Add the swap file from the callout above.
• Messages not received: the channel dropped. Re-link it with openclaw channels and confirm the gateway is running.
• OpenClaw stops after you close SSH: you skipped the daemon step. Run openclaw onboard --install-daemon so it runs as a service, not just in your session.

How do you secure an OpenClaw install?

Create a non-root user, turn on the firewall, log in with SSH keys instead of a password, and keep OpenClaw updated. You are exposing a server to the internet, so none of this is optional.

Start with the firewall and the config file's permissions:

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw enable
chmod 600 ~/openclaw/.env

Then keep it patched. Run npm update -g openclaw on a schedule, since updates carry security fixes as well as features (a remote-code-execution issue, CVE-2026-25253, was patched in an earlier release). Because OpenClaw is MIT-licensed and open-source, you can audit exactly what it does with your accounts.

OpenClaw alternatives worth knowing

OpenClaw is my default, but it is not the only self-hosted assistant. If you want to compare before committing, I put together the best OpenClaw alternatives, including options like Grip AI for heavier agent workflows.

Summing up

Installing OpenClaw on a Hostinger VPS is a fifteen-minute job once you know the order: spin up the VPS, install Node and OpenClaw, onboard your LLM, run it as a daemon, and connect a channel. The commands above are the whole recipe.

The payoff is a private AI assistant that is entirely yours, running on hardware you control, answering on the apps you already use. Get it running, secure it, then add the skills that make it genuinely useful.