head to head · open source
portainer vs boto3
portainer has 38,767 GitHub stars, 2,934 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. boto3 has 9,923 stars, 2,007 forks, 200 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. portainer leads on adoption by 291% (38,767 vs 9,923 stars). portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib; boto3 is written in Python under Apache-2.0. portainer has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, boto3 20%. portainer was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| portainer | boto3 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 9.9K |
| License | Zlib | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 2.0K |
| 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 boto3 if
- You want the boto3 feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and boto3 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 boto3
=============================== Boto3 The AWS SDK for Python =============================== Boto3 is the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Software Development Kit (SDK) for Python, which allows Python developers to write software that makes use of services like Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2. You can find the latest, most up to date, documentation at our doc site , including a list of services that are supported. Boto3 is maintained and published by Amazon Web Services . Boto (pronounced boh toh) was named after the fresh water dolphin native to the Amazon river. The name was chosen by the author of the original Boto…
read the full boto3 overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or boto3 more popular?
portainer has 38,767 GitHub stars and boto3 has 9,923. portainer has the larger community by that measure.
Are portainer and boto3 free?
Both are open source. portainer is licensed under Zlib and boto3 under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between portainer and boto3?
portainer is written in TypeScript and boto3 in Python. 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 boto3?
Choose portainer if you want the larger community (38,767 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose boto3 if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.