head to head · open source
portainer vs iam-policy-json-to-terraform
portainer has 38,524 GitHub stars, 2,906 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. iam-policy-json-to-terraform has 816 stars, 58 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. portainer leads on adoption by 4,621% (38,524 vs 816 stars). portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib; iam-policy-json-to-terraform is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. portainer has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, iam-policy-json-to-terraform 7%. portainer was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), 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 | iam-policy-json-to-terraform | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 816 |
| License | Zlib | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 58 |
| 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 iam-policy-json-to-terraform if
- You want the iam-policy-json-to-terraform feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and iam-policy-json-to-terraform 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 iam-policy-json-to-terraform
iam policy json to terraform is a small Apache 2.0 command line and web tool that converts an AWS IAM policy written in JSON into a Terraform aws iam policy document data source, aimed at infrastructure engineers who already manage AWS access with Terraform.
read the full iam-policy-json-to-terraform overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or iam-policy-json-to-terraform more popular?
portainer has 38,524 GitHub stars and iam-policy-json-to-terraform has 816. portainer has the larger community by that measure.
Are portainer and iam-policy-json-to-terraform free?
Both are open source. portainer is licensed under Zlib and iam-policy-json-to-terraform under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between portainer and iam-policy-json-to-terraform?
portainer is written in TypeScript and iam-policy-json-to-terraform in JavaScript. 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 iam-policy-json-to-terraform?
Choose portainer if you want the larger community (38,524 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose iam-policy-json-to-terraform if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.