head to head · open source
portainer vs jet-pilot
portainer has 38,657 GitHub stars, 2,917 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. jet-pilot has 629 stars, 28 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. portainer leads on adoption by 6,046% (38,657 vs 629 stars). portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib; jet-pilot is written in Rust under MIT. portainer has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, jet-pilot 4%. jet-pilot 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 | jet-pilot | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 629 |
| License | Zlib | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-13 | 2026-10-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 28 |
| 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 jet-pilot if
- You want the jet-pilot feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and jet-pilot 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 jet-pilot
JET Pilot is a free, MIT licensed, native Kubernetes desktop client built in Rust and Tauri that gathers every cluster from every kubeconfig and cloud account into one local app, with no account and no telemetry.
read the full jet-pilot overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or jet-pilot more popular?
portainer has 38,657 GitHub stars and jet-pilot has 629. portainer has the larger community by that measure.
Are portainer and jet-pilot free?
Both are open source. portainer is licensed under Zlib and jet-pilot under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between portainer and jet-pilot?
portainer is written in TypeScript and jet-pilot in Rust. 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 jet-pilot?
Choose portainer if you want the larger community (38,657 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose jet-pilot if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.