head to head · open source
portainer vs boto3
portainer has 38,524 GitHub stars, 2,906 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. boto3 has 9,904 stars, 1,995 forks, 200 open issues and last shipped yesterday. portainer leads on adoption by 289% (38,524 vs 9,904 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%. boto3 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 | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| 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, 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 boto3
Boto3 is the Amazon Web Services Software Development Kit for Python, letting Python developers write software that uses AWS services such as Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2.
read the full boto3 overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or boto3 more popular?
portainer has 38,524 GitHub stars and boto3 has 9,904. 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 (38,524 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose boto3 if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.