head to head · open source
portainer vs headlamp
portainer has 38,767 GitHub stars, 2,934 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. headlamp has 7,553 stars, 1,201 forks, 1,422 open issues and last shipped yesterday. portainer leads on adoption by 413% (38,767 vs 7,553 stars). portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib; headlamp is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. portainer has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, headlamp 16%. portainer was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (kubernetes), 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 | headlamp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 7.6K |
| License | Zlib | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 headlamp if
- You want the headlamp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and headlamp 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 headlamp
NOTICE: We have recently moved the project under the Kubernetes SIG UI (and the repo under the kubernetes sigs org). Container images are still at ghcr.io. Please bear with us while we may experience some broken links. Headlamp is an easy to use and extensible Kubernetes web UI. Headlamp was created to blend the traditional feature set of other web UIs/dashboards (i.e., to list and view resources) with added functionality. Features Vendor independent / generic Kubernetes UI Works in cluster, or locally as a desktop app Multi cluster Extensible through plugins UI controls reflecting user roles (no deletion/update…
read the full headlamp overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or headlamp more popular?
portainer has 38,767 GitHub stars and headlamp has 7,553. portainer has the larger community by that measure.
Are portainer and headlamp free?
Both are open source. portainer is licensed under Zlib and headlamp under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between portainer and headlamp?
portainer is written in TypeScript and headlamp 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 headlamp?
Choose portainer if you want the larger community (38,767 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose headlamp if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.