head to head · open source
portainer vs radar
portainer has 38,767 GitHub stars, 2,934 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. radar has 4,019 stars, 265 forks, 89 open issues and last shipped yesterday. portainer leads on adoption by 865% (38,767 vs 4,019 stars). portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib; radar is written in Go under Apache-2.0. portainer has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, radar 7%. radar 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 | radar | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 4.0K |
| License | Zlib | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 265 |
| 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 radar if
- You want the radar feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and radar 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 radar
Radar The missing open source Kubernetes UI. Single binary. No account required. Free forever. 🌐 radarhq.io · Docs · Releases Topology, resources, Helm, GitOps, traffic, audit, upgrade impact, and MCP context for AI agents — from your laptop or in cluster. Table of contents Why Radar? Installation Usage Views — Topology · Resources · Image Filesystem · Timeline · Helm · Compare · TLS · GitOps · Traffic · Cost · Audit · Upgrade impact · RBAC · MCP · Auth Supported Resources Keyboard Shortcuts Security Development · Contributing Install and run in 30 seconds: More installation options ↓ Why Radar? Zero install on…
read the full radar overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or radar more popular?
portainer has 38,767 GitHub stars and radar has 4,019. portainer has the larger community by that measure.
Are portainer and radar free?
Both are open source. portainer is licensed under Zlib and radar under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between portainer and radar?
portainer is written in TypeScript and radar in Go. 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 radar?
Choose portainer if you want the larger community (38,767 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose radar if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.