Portainer
Portainer is a web-based control panel for Docker, Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, and Podman. It runs as a single container, points at your existing hosts, and gives you a GUI for jobs that normally mean CLI commands and YAML files. Deploy containers, pull images, check logs, set up networks, mount volumes. All of it through a browser.
There are two editions. Portainer CE (Community Edition) is free and open source, and is what most home labs and small teams run. Portainer BE (Business Edition) adds team RBAC with LDAP/OIDC, GitOps deployment workflows, full audit logging, and edge compute management for fleets of remote hosts. BE pricing starts at $5 per node per month. The Business Edition is also free for up to three nodes, with a separate Home & Student license that covers up to 15 nodes for non-commercial use.
The real reason people stick with it is remote and edge management. Install one Portainer Server, then drop Portainer Edge Agents on every remote Docker host or Kubernetes cluster you have. They phone home, and everything shows up in one UI. Works for an office of Raspberry Pis, retail-store edge devices, multi-region production fleets, or all of the above.
- Deploy single containers from images or App Templates
- Stacks: paste a Docker Compose file or Kubernetes manifest, hit deploy
- Image, network, volume, and config management
- Tail container logs live, or pop a shell straight from the browser
- Team roles plus SSO and LDAP on the Business tier
- Edge Agent for far-away Docker and Kubernetes hosts
- Git-based deploys with auto-redeploy on push (BE)
Replaced my command-line Docker workflow entirely. The stack deployment with docker-compose files is flawless.
Perfect for managing a home lab. The free tier is very generous. Kubernetes support works but Rancher is still better for K8s.