head to head · open source
portainer vs argo-cd
portainer has 38,767 GitHub stars, 2,934 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. argo-cd has 24,517 stars, 8,116 forks, 4,362 open issues and last shipped yesterday. portainer leads on adoption by 58% (38,767 vs 24,517 stars). portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib; argo-cd is written in Go under Apache-2.0. portainer has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, argo-cd 33%. argo-cd was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (docker, hacktoberfest), 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 | argo-cd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 25K |
| License | Zlib | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 8.1K |
| 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 argo-cd if
- You want the argo-cd feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and argo-cd fits your workflow better
About portainer
Portainer Community Edition is a free, lightweight container management UI for Docker, Swarm, Podman, Kubernetes, and ACI environments. It is provided as is, at no cost, for the convenience of homelab operators, hobbyists, students, and anyone experimenting with containers on their own hardware. Portainer Business Edition builds on the same open source base and adds the features, hardening, and commercial support that production and enterprise environments require (RBAC, GitOps, edge management, audit, SSO, and more). Find out more about Portainer Business Edition features Take3 – get 3 free nodes of Portainer…
read the full portainer overview →
About argo-cd
Releases: Code: Social: Argo CD Declarative Continuous Delivery for Kubernetes What is Argo CD? Argo CD is a declarative GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes. Why Argo CD? 1. Application definitions, configurations, and environments should be declarative and version controlled. 1. Application deployment and lifecycle management should be automated, auditable, and easy to understand. Who uses Argo CD? Official Argo CD user list Documentation To learn more about Argo CD go to the complete documentation. Check live demo at Community Contribution, Discussion and Support You can reach the Argo CD community…
read the full argo-cd 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 argo-cd more popular?
portainer has 38,767 GitHub stars and argo-cd has 24,517. portainer has the larger community by that measure.
Are portainer and argo-cd free?
Both are open source. portainer is licensed under Zlib and argo-cd under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between portainer and argo-cd?
portainer is written in TypeScript and argo-cd in Go. 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 argo-cd?
Choose portainer if you want the larger community (38,767 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose argo-cd if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.