head to head · open source
portainer vs certimate
portainer has 38,767 GitHub stars, 2,934 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. certimate has 9,422 stars, 920 forks, 51 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. portainer leads on adoption by 311% (38,767 vs 9,422 stars). portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib; certimate is written in Go under MIT. portainer has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, certimate 10%. 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 | certimate | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 9.4K |
| License | Zlib | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 920 |
| 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 certimate if
- You want the certimate feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and certimate 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 certimate
🔒 Certimate English ｜ 简体中文 🚩 Introduction An open source and free self hosted SSL certificates ACME tool, automates the full cycle of issuance, deployment, renewal, and monitoring visually. Self hosted : Private deployment. All data is stored locally, to ensure data privacy and security. Cross Platforms : Compatible with various operating systems, including Windows/Linux/macOS. Zero Dependencies : No need to install databases, runtimes, or any frameworks. Ready to use out of the box. Low Resource Usage : Extremely lightweight, requiring only 20 MB of memory. Easy to Use : Automates certificate management with…
read the full certimate overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or certimate more popular?
portainer has 38,767 GitHub stars and certimate has 9,422. portainer has the larger community by that measure.
Are portainer and certimate free?
Both are open source. portainer is licensed under Zlib and certimate under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between portainer and certimate?
portainer is written in TypeScript and certimate 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 certimate?
Choose portainer if you want the larger community (38,767 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose certimate if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.