head to head · open source
portainer vs Dokploy
portainer has 38,776 GitHub stars, 2,935 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Dokploy has 38,213 stars, 3,142 forks, 668 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. portainer leads on adoption by 1% (38,776 vs 38,213 stars). portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib; Dokploy is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. portainer has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Dokploy 8%. portainer was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (docker), 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.
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Side by side
| portainer | Dokploy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 38K |
| License | Zlib | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| 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 Dokploy if
- You want the Dokploy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Dokploy 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 Dokploy
Join us on Discord for help, feedback, and discussions! Dokploy is a free, self hostable Platform as a Service (PaaS) that simplifies the deployment and management of applications and databases. ✨ Features Dokploy includes multiple features to make your life easier. Applications : Deploy any type of application (Node.js, PHP, Python, Go, Ruby, etc.). Databases : Create and manage databases with support for MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MariaDB, libsql, and Redis. Backups : Automate backups for databases to an external storage destination. Docker Compose : Native support for Docker Compose to manage complex…
read the full Dokploy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or Dokploy more popular?
portainer has 38,776 GitHub stars and Dokploy has 38,213. portainer has the larger community by that measure.
Are portainer and Dokploy free?
Both are open source. portainer is licensed under Zlib, and Dokploy has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between portainer and Dokploy?
portainer is written in TypeScript and Dokploy in TypeScript. 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 Dokploy?
Choose portainer if you want the larger community (38,776 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose Dokploy if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.