head to head · open source
portainer vs octodns
portainer has 38,524 GitHub stars, 2,906 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. octodns has 3,759 stars, 442 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. portainer leads on adoption by 925% (38,524 vs 3,759 stars). portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib; octodns is written in Python under MIT. portainer has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, octodns 12%. portainer was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | octodns | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | Zlib | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 442 |
| 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 octodns if
- You want the octodns feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and octodns 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 octodns
octoDNS is a Python tool for managing DNS records across multiple providers. It applies an infrastructure as code pattern to DNS, so record definitions can be stored in a repository, reviewed, and deployed through the same workflow used for other code. The project sits in the Infrastructure & Operations / Cloud Infrastructure Management category.
read the full octodns overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or octodns more popular?
portainer has 38,524 GitHub stars and octodns has 3,759. portainer has the larger community by that measure.
Are portainer and octodns free?
Both are open source. portainer is licensed under Zlib and octodns under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between portainer and octodns?
portainer is written in TypeScript and octodns 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 octodns?
Choose portainer if you want the larger community (38,524 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose octodns if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.