head to head · open source
portainer vs openebs
portainer has 38,767 GitHub stars, 2,934 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. openebs has 9,842 stars, 984 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped yesterday. portainer leads on adoption by 294% (38,767 vs 9,842 stars). portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib; openebs is written in various languages under Apache-2.0. portainer has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, openebs 10%. portainer was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (docker), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| portainer | openebs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 9.8K |
| License | Zlib | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | — |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 984 |
| 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 openebs if
- You want the openebs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- You evaluated both and openebs 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 openebs
OpenEBS Cloud Native Storage Overview OpenEBS is an open source Container Native Storage solution that provides persistent storage for Kubernetes workloads. It enables dynamic provisioning of storage resources using containerized storage controllers, making it highly flexible and cloud native. OpenEBS supports various storage engines, including LocalPVs for direct node storage and Replicated PV advanced data replication and resilience. It is designed to integrate seamlessly with Kubernetes, offering benefits like storage policies, resize, thin provisioning, snapshots, and restore capabilities, making it an ideal…
read the full openebs overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Cloud Infrastructure Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Cloud Infrastructure Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or openebs more popular?
portainer has 38,767 GitHub stars and openebs has 9,842. portainer has the larger community by that measure.
Are portainer and openebs free?
Both are open source. portainer is licensed under Zlib and openebs under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between portainer and openebs?
portainer is written in TypeScript and openebs in various languages. 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 openebs?
Choose portainer if you want the larger community (38,767 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose openebs if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.