head to head · open source
portainer vs homelab
portainer has 38,524 GitHub stars, 2,906 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. homelab has 9,611 stars, 885 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. portainer leads on adoption by 301% (38,524 vs 9,611 stars). portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib; homelab is written in Python under GPL-3.0. portainer has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, homelab 9%. portainer was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (docker, 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 | homelab | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 9.6K |
| License | Zlib | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 885 |
| 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 homelab if
- You want the homelab feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and homelab 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 homelab
homelab is an Infrastructure as Code and GitOps framework written in Python and released under GPL 3.0 that takes a homelab from an empty disk to running self hosted services with a single command, built for self hosters, home operations practitioners, and anyone who wants to run their own services on Kubernetes.
read the full homelab overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or homelab more popular?
portainer has 38,524 GitHub stars and homelab has 9,611. portainer has the larger community by that measure.
Are portainer and homelab free?
Both are open source. portainer is licensed under Zlib and homelab under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between portainer and homelab?
portainer is written in TypeScript and homelab 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 homelab?
Choose portainer if you want the larger community (38,524 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose homelab if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.