head to head · open source
portainer vs OpenStack
portainer has 38,524 GitHub stars, 2,906 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenStack has 6,036 stars, 1,625 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped yesterday. portainer leads on adoption by 538% (38,524 vs 6,036 stars). portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib; OpenStack is written in Python under Apache-2.0. portainer has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, OpenStack 27%. OpenStack 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 | OpenStack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 6.0K |
| License | Zlib | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 OpenStack if
- You want the OpenStack feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and OpenStack 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 OpenStack
OpenStack is a collection of interoperable components that can be deployed together to provide computing, networking and storage resources. Those infrastructure resources are then exposed to end users through programmable APIs, so that capacity can be requested and managed by software rather than by hand. The project lives in the Python ecosystem and is released under the Apache 2.0 license, with development coordinated at opendev.org and documentation hosted at openstack.org.
read the full OpenStack overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or OpenStack more popular?
portainer has 38,524 GitHub stars and OpenStack has 6,036. portainer has the larger community by that measure.
Are portainer and OpenStack free?
Both are open source. portainer is licensed under Zlib and OpenStack under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between portainer and OpenStack?
portainer is written in TypeScript and OpenStack 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 OpenStack?
Choose portainer if you want the larger community (38,524 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose OpenStack if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.