Portainer

Operational control for Kubernetes and Docker; without the specialist overhead.

Also known as
portainer

What is Portainer?

Enterprise container management platform for Kubernetes and Docker environments. Enables multi-cluster governance, edge deployments, and simplified operations without requiring deep container expertise.

Independently observed

Portainer pricing

Plans, per-tier features and add-ons, dated and linked to live pricing. Pricing changes often; always verify at source before you rely on it.

Pricing as of verify at live pricing ↗Independently observed
from $105/moSubscriptionFree tier

From $105/mo. Business Edition free for up to 3 nodes. Subscription pricing with transparent monthly/yearly options.

Starter

From $105/mo or $1045/yr (16% annual savings). Restricted to ≤$50M annual revenue organizations.

For small teams getting started with container management. Simple, cost-effective, and easy to grow from.

nodes
5-15
vCPUs
16 per node
  • Community support
  • Max 16 vCPUs per node
  • RBAC from day one
  • GitOps
  • Fleet governance
  • Audit logs
  • Industrial edge capability

Scale

From $209/mo or $2095/yr (16% annual savings). Restricted to ≤$100M annual revenue organizations.

For growing teams that demand higher performance, more nodes, and team support.

nodes
5-30
vCPUs
24 per node
  • 9x5 next business day support
  • Max 24 vCPUs per node
  • Vendor onboarding
  • Reseller purchases available

Enterprise

Contact sales
Contact sales

For business-critical deployments that need priority support, compliance coverage, and deep expertise.

vCPUs
32 - Unlimited per node
  • Prioritized 9x5 next business day support
  • 32 to Unlimited vCPUs per node
  • Production/Non-Production node options
  • Customizable License Agreement
  • Assigned Support Engineer
  • Security Assessment Report
  • TAA Compliance Certificate
  • Managed Platform Services Option
  • 24/7 Support Option

What Portainer does

The capabilities that matter for container orchestration tools, normalised so it lines up with every alternative. “-” means we haven't confirmed it, not that it's missing.

Core
Orchestration scope
Kubernetes
Deployment
Hosting
Cloud + self-hosted
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
Independently observed

Platform & deployment

Independently observed
Platforms
  • Web
  • Linux
  • Windows
Deployment
  • Cloud / SaaS
  • Air-gapped
  • Self-hosted

Integrations (9)

Independently observed
  • Git/GitOps
  • Helm
  • LDAP
  • OAuth
  • Active Directory
  • S3-compatible storage
  • Talos Kubernetes
  • Omni
  • Docker Hub

Portainer alternatives

Other container orchestration tools we track, ranked by the same independent score.

Independent · unbought · dated

The Vioscale score: one lens on the evidence

Not user reviews and not a paid placement: a confidence-weighted blend of the independent signals below (adoption, activity, security posture, and more), which you can sort and re-weight yourself. Vendors can correct their listing but can never move their rank, and stars are weighted low as a vanity metric. It is one way to read the evidence for Portainer, not the verdict.

Balanced composite 53 / 100
low · 20%
Signal contributions to the composite score
SignalScoreWeightContributionEvidence
Pricing Transparency10012.001200.0
Capabilities5812.00693.8
Integrations2916.00460.1
Price Level258.00200.0
Reliability030.000.0-
Security Posture022.000.0-

Computed . Re-weight it by intent, or see the full method.

All data & sourcesshow ↓

Every value we hold, with its source, retrieval date, and confidence. This is the evidence behind the score: don't trust it, verify it.

Features

AttributeValueEvidence
Capabilities{"hosting":"both","gui_dashboard":true,"orchestration":"kubernetes","stateful_workloads":true,"managed_control_plane":true}mediumsource · 2026-08-03 · 60%

Integrations

AttributeValueEvidence
Count9mediumsource · 2026-08-03 · 60%

Pricing

AttributeValueEvidence
Free tierYesmediumsource · 2026-08-03 · 60%
Modelcommercialmediumsource · 2026-08-03 · 60%
Price levelhighmediumsource · 2026-08-03 · 60%
Starting gbp105mediumsource · 2026-08-03 · 60%
TransparentYesmediumsource · 2026-08-03 · 60%