Comparison

Buildah vs Portainer

On the evidence we track, Buildah leads this comparison with a composite score of 63/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Buildah full profile →Portainer full profile →

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★Buildah63

Portainer56

Attribute comparison across 2 tools
Attribute	BuildahLeader	Portainer
Vioscale score	63 / 100medium · 59%updating	56 / 100low · 32%updating
Pricing
Free tierpricing.free_tier	✓	✓
Modelpricing.model	open_source	freemium
Price levelpricing.price_level	free	high
Transparentpricing.transparent	-	✓
Integrations
Countintegrations.count	-	18
Security
Disclosure policysecurity.disclosure_policy	✓	-
Gdprsecurity.gdpr	-	✓
Scorecardsecurity.scorecard	7.6	-
Vulnerabilitiessecurity.vulnerabilities	Count: 9 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fcontainers%2Fbuildah&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 1 · Max severity: HIGH	-
Adoption
Dependent reposadoption.dependent_repos	321	-
Github starsadoption.github_stars	8,995	-
Activity
Commits last 30dactivity.commits_last_30d	84	-
Release
Cadence daysrelease.cadence_days	7	-
Historyrelease.history	20 items	-
License
Spdxlicense.spdx	Apache-2.0	-
Language
Primarylanguage.primary	Go	-
Market
Availabilitymarket.availability	Available worldwide	Available worldwide · Popular in US, EU · HQ NZ

Score

Vioscale score

Buildah63 / 100medium · 59%updating

Portainer56 / 100low · 32%updating

Pricing

Free tier

Buildah✓

Portainer✓

Model

Buildahopen_source

Portainerfreemium

Price level

Buildahfree

Portainerhigh

Transparent

Buildah–

Portainer✓

Integrations

Count

Buildah–

Portainer18

Security

Disclosure policy

Buildah✓

Portainer–

Gdpr

Buildah–

Portainer✓

Scorecard

Buildah7.6

Portainer–

Vulnerabilities

BuildahCount: 9 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fcontainers%2Fbuildah&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 1 · Max severity: HIGH

Portainer–

Adoption

Dependent repos

Buildah321

Portainer–

Github stars

Buildah8,995

Portainer–

Activity

Commits last 30d

Buildah84

Portainer–

Release

Cadence days

Buildah7

Portainer–

History

Buildah20 items

Portainer–

License

Spdx

BuildahApache-2.0

Portainer–

Language

Primary

BuildahGo

Portainer–

Market

Availability

BuildahAvailable worldwide

PortainerAvailable worldwide · Popular in US, EU · HQ NZ

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for container orchestration tools. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Capability comparison for Container Orchestration Tools
Capability	Buildah	Portainer
Core
Orchestration scope	-	Kubernetes
Deployment
Hosting	-	Self-hosted only
Standards
OCI / CRI compliant	✓	-
CNCF Certified Kubernetes conformant	-	-
Security
Rootless operation	✓	-
Architecture
Daemonless architecture	-	-
Platform
Windows containers	-	✓
ARM architecture support	-	-
Workloads
GPU scheduling	-	-
Stateful workloads	-	-
Networking
Built-in networking / CNI	-	-
Ops
Vendor-managed control plane	-	-
Ecosystem
CNCF maturity	-	-
UX
GUI dashboard	-	✓

Core

Orchestration scope

Buildah-

PortainerKubernetes

Deployment

Hosting

Buildah-

PortainerSelf-hosted only

Standards

OCI / CRI compliant

Buildah✓

Portainer-

CNCF Certified Kubernetes conformant

Buildah-

Portainer-

Security

Rootless operation

Buildah✓

Portainer-

Architecture

Daemonless architecture

Buildah-

Portainer-

Platform

Windows containers

Buildah-

Portainer✓

ARM architecture support

Buildah-

Portainer-

Workloads

GPU scheduling

Buildah-

Portainer-

Stateful workloads

Buildah-

Portainer-

Networking

Built-in networking / CNI

Buildah-

Portainer-

Ops

Vendor-managed control plane

Buildah-

Portainer-

Ecosystem

CNCF maturity

Buildah-

Portainer-

GUI dashboard

Buildah-

Portainer✓

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Buildah

Leader

An open-source utility for building OCI-compliant container images from Dockerfiles or from scratch, maintained by the containers organization.

Independently observed

Portainer

A container orchestration management platform that provides centralized governance, deployment automation, and operational control across multi-cluster Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, and edge environments. It enables IT and operations teams to manage containerized applications at scale with simplified workflows, role-based access control, and GitOps integration.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Buildah

Leader

Open sourceFree tier

as of 2026-08-13verify ↗

Portainer

from $105/moSubscriptionFree tier

From $105/month. Business Edition free for 3 nodes. Annual commitment required.

Starter$105/month or $1045/year, annual commitment. Limited to organizations ≤$50M revenue.
- Community support
- Max 16 vCPUs per node
- Online purchase only
Scale$209/month or $2095/year, annual commitment. Limited to organizations ≤$100M revenue.
- 9x5 next business day support
- Vendor onboarding
- Reseller purchases
- Max 24 vCPUs per node
EnterpriseContact sales
- Prioritized 9x5 support
- Production/Non-production node options
- Customizable license agreement
- Assigned support engineer
- Security assessment report
- +3 more

as of 2026-08-13verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platform and deployment support comparison
Supports	Buildah	Portainer
WebPlatforms	✗	✓
CLIPlatforms	✓	✗
Cloud / SaaSDeployment	✗	✓
Self-hostedDeployment	✓	✓
On-premiseDeployment	✗	✓
HybridDeployment	✗	✓
Air-gappedDeployment	✗	✓

Platforms

Web

Buildah✗

Portainer✓

CLI

Buildah✓

Portainer✗

Deployment

Cloud / SaaS

Buildah✗

Portainer✓

Self-hosted

Buildah✓

Portainer✓

On-premise

Buildah✗

Portainer✓

Hybrid

Buildah✗

Portainer✓

Air-gapped

Buildah✗

Portainer✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

Buildah

Leader

Not documented yet.

Portainer

18 total

Active Directory
LDAP
OAuth
Helm
Git repositories
Kubernetes (EKS, AKS, GKE)
Docker
Swarm
Podman
Talos
Omni
S3-compatible storage
OPC connectivity
MQTT
Argo
Flux
Docker Hub
Matomo Analytics

Independently observed

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.