head to head · open source
portainer vs st2
portainer has 38,767 GitHub stars, 2,934 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. st2 has 6,556 stars, 797 forks, 603 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. portainer leads on adoption by 491% (38,767 vs 6,556 stars). portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib; st2 is written in Python under Apache-2.0. portainer has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, st2 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 | st2 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 6.6K |
| License | Zlib | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 797 |
| 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 st2 if
- You want the st2 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 st2 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 st2
StackStorm is a platform for integration and automation across services and tools, taking actions in response to events. Learn more at www.stackstorm.com. TL;DR Install Get yourself a clean 64 bit Linux box that fits the system requirements. Run the installer script: Read the docs: Questions? Check out forum.stackstorm.com Or join our Slack community StackStorm Overview About StackStorm is a platform for integration and automation across services and tools. It ties together your existing infrastructure and application environment so you can more easily automate that environment with a particular focus on taking…
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Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or st2 more popular?
portainer has 38,767 GitHub stars and st2 has 6,556. portainer has the larger community by that measure.
Are portainer and st2 free?
Both are open source. portainer is licensed under Zlib and st2 under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between portainer and st2?
portainer is written in TypeScript and st2 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 st2?
Choose portainer if you want the larger community (38,767 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose st2 if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.