head to head · open source
portainer vs devspace
portainer has 38,524 GitHub stars, 2,906 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. devspace has 5,188 stars, 425 forks, 92 open issues and last shipped yesterday. portainer leads on adoption by 643% (38,524 vs 5,188 stars). portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib; devspace is written in Go under Apache-2.0. portainer has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, devspace 8%. 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 | devspace | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 5.2K |
| License | Zlib | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 425 |
| 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 devspace if
- You want the devspace 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 devspace 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 devspace
DevSpace is an open source, client only command line tool that lets developers build, test, and debug applications directly inside Kubernetes, and it is aimed at software teams running cloud native microservices who want one standardized deployment and development workflow.
read the full devspace overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or devspace more popular?
portainer has 38,524 GitHub stars and devspace has 5,188. portainer has the larger community by that measure.
Are portainer and devspace free?
Both are open source. portainer is licensed under Zlib and devspace under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between portainer and devspace?
portainer is written in TypeScript and devspace 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 devspace?
Choose portainer if you want the larger community (38,524 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose devspace if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.