head to head · open source
portainer vs openebs
portainer has 38,526 GitHub stars, 2,907 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. openebs has 9,813 stars, 983 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped today. portainer leads on adoption by 293% (38,526 vs 9,813 stars). portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib; openebs is written in various languages under Apache-2.0. portainer has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, openebs 10%. openebs was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (docker), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| portainer | openebs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 9.8K |
| License | Zlib | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 983 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick portainer if
- You weight community size — 39K stars and counting
- You want the Zlib license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick openebs if
- You want the openebs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- You evaluated both and openebs fits your workflow better
About portainer
Portainer Community Edition is a free, lightweight container management UI for Docker, Swarm, Podman, Kubernetes, and ACI environments, distributed under the zlib licence and aimed at homelab operators, hobbyists, students, and anyone experimenting with containers on their own hardware.
read the full portainer overview →
About openebs
OpenEBS is an open source, CNCF Sandbox container native storage platform that gives Kubernetes stateful applications persistent volumes through containerized storage controllers, and it is aimed at platform, infrastructure, and DevOps teams that run stateful workloads on Kubernetes.
read the full openebs overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Cloud Infrastructure Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Cloud Infrastructure Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or openebs more popular?
portainer has 38,526 GitHub stars and openebs has 9,813. portainer has the larger community by that measure.
Are portainer and openebs free?
Both are open source. portainer is licensed under Zlib and openebs under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between portainer and openebs?
portainer is written in TypeScript and openebs in various languages. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, portainer or openebs?
Choose portainer if you want the larger community (38,526 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose openebs if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.