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FiveGateway vs txAdmin: when the free panel is not enough
TL;DR
- txAdmin is the official FiveM server panel: free, bundled with FXServer since 2020, and used by 29,000+ servers.
- FiveGateway is a premium layer on top for servers that need deeper logging, real metrics history, and automation.
- You do not pick one or the other. FiveGateway integrates with txAdmin and runs alongside it.
Credit where it is due: what txAdmin does well
Free, official, and bundled. Nothing to install, nothing to pay for, and the project ships with every FXServer release since 2020.
Recipe-based server deployer. Spin up a working FiveM server from a recipe in about 60 seconds.
In-game admin menu with rich player interactions: noclip, teleport, vehicle spawn, freeze, ban, warn, and direct-message from inside the game.
Live console, CFG editor, and resource management. The core server-operator workflow is all wired into a single browser UI.
Cfx.re authentication and Discord integration. Staff log in with the same accounts they already use.
Brute-force protection and action logging. Safe defaults are on by default, not behind a paid tier.
Where txAdmin reaches its limits
Logging is essentially a scrolling console
txAdmin captures console and action logs, but there are no structured event types, no custom categories, and no searchable history beyond basic text filters. If a player reports griefing that happened two weeks ago, reconstructing the timeline from scrollback is slow.
No time-series metrics with historical retention
The built-in performance chart shows live data only. There is no way to scroll back a week to correlate a CPU spike with a player-count jump, and no export of a performance baseline to CSV for a postmortem.
No customizable webhook notifications per event type
Discord integration works at the announcement and ban level. There is no per-category webhook routing where store-purchase events go to one channel, fail2ban triggers to another, and crashes fan out to a custom HTTP endpoint.
The in-game menu is staff-oriented
That is the right design choice for live moderation, but it leaves non-technical owners and community managers without a rich dashboard for questions like 'which resources misbehaved last week' or 'what did staff ban this month.'
No automation or workflow layer
Everything is manual clicks. Ban-after-N-warnings, whitelist-on-donation, auto-restart when tick rate drops below a threshold - none of those exist without bolting together custom Lua or external cron scripts.
What FiveGateway adds on top
Structured logs with custom categories
Name a category 'player-reports' or 'vehicle-spawns' or 'admin-actions,' define the typed fields, and emit events from any resource with one Lua call. Each category gets its own webhook destination and severity filters.
Time-series statistics across weeks
Player count, CPU, memory, network I/O, tickrate, and ping charted across hours, days, and weeks with CSV export. Retention runs 7 days on Starter, 30 on Pro, and 90 on Premium.
Dedicated moderation surface
Bans, warnings, and whitelist entries are first-class records with acting admin, reason, and timestamp. Search across every identifier FiveM gives you (license, Steam, Discord, IP) and get the full action history per player.
Queue system UI
Priority slots, whitelist mode, and maintenance mode configured from the dashboard instead of editing Lua and waiting for a restart.
Flows (upcoming): visual automation
An n8n-inspired builder for triggers, conditions, and actions. Wire ban-after-N-warnings to actually ban, whitelist-on-donation to update the list, auto-restart on tick drop to recover the server - all without Lua, with the same audit trail your staff already uses.
Discord OAuth for staff authentication
Map Discord roles to FiveGateway permissions so onboarding a new moderator is a role assignment in Discord, not a second credential set.
Side-by-side
| Aspect | txAdmin | FiveGateway |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Paid, tiered (Free Starter available) |
| Installation | Bundled with FXServer | Connect via WebSocket resource |
| Hosting | Runs on your FXServer | SaaS, runs in our cloud |
| Server start/stop/restart | Yes | Via txAdmin integration |
| In-game admin menu | Yes (rich) | No (uses txAdmin's) |
| Recipe-based deployer | Yes | No |
| Live console | Yes | No |
| Structured logging with custom categories | No | Yes |
| Historical performance charts | No (live only) | Yes |
| Per-category webhooks | No | Yes |
| CSV export of metrics | No | Yes |
| Discord bot (rich) | Basic | Yes |
| Staff authentication | Cfx.re login | Discord OAuth |
| Visual automation / flows | No | Upcoming (Flows) |
| Multi-server management from one dashboard | Per instance | Yes |
Can I run both?
Yes, and this is the recommended setup. txAdmin continues to run on your FXServer box and owns deploys, restarts, the in-game admin menu, live console, and the CFG editor. FiveGateway connects over a WebSocket through our resource and adds the observability, structured logging, and automation layer on top. Bans, warnings, and kicks issued from txAdmin sync automatically into FiveGateway's history, so the two dashboards stay consistent without duplicate work.
Thinking about anticheat on the same server? Read the FiveGateway vs Electron Services comparison.
Do I need FiveGateway?
Stick with txAdmin alone if
- You are a solo developer or run a small friends-server. The free panel covers you.
- You never need to answer 'what happened three weeks ago' with anything other than memory or a Discord scrollback.
- Your server rarely carries paying players, donation records, or compliance obligations tied to moderation decisions.
Add FiveGateway if
- You have paying players or real donations and need an audit trail that survives appeals.
- You run multiple staff and need structured logs searchable by category and identifier, not just console scrollback.
- You have compliance or accountability needs (community policies, donation disputes, refund requests) and need CSV exports.
- You are losing time debugging incidents from raw console logs and want the same events indexed, filterable, and routed to the right Discord channel.
Ready to graduate beyond the free panel?
Start free alongside your existing txAdmin
Connect FiveGateway in minutes. Keep txAdmin for deploys and in-game admin, add the observability layer your staff will actually use every day.
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