head to head · open source
trivy vs portainer
trivy has 38,915 GitHub stars, 818 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped yesterday. portainer has 38,767 stars, 2,934 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. trivy leads on adoption by 0% (38,915 vs 38,767 stars). trivy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib. trivy has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, portainer 8%. portainer was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (docker, hacktoberfest, 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
| trivy | portainer | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 39K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Zlib |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 818 | ⑂ 2.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick trivy if
- You weight community size — 39K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick portainer if
- You want the portainer feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Zlib license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and portainer fits your workflow better
About trivy
[![GitHub Release][release img]][release] [![Test][test img]][test] [![Go Report Card][go report img]][go report] [![License: Apache 2.0][license img]][license] [![GitHub Downloads][github downloads img]][release] ![Docker Pulls][docker pulls] [📖 Documentation][docs] Trivy ([pronunciation][pronunciation]) is a comprehensive and versatile security scanner. Trivy has scanners that look for security issues, and targets where it can find those issues. Targets (what Trivy can scan): Container Image Filesystem Git Repository (remote) Virtual Machine Image Kubernetes Scanners (what Trivy can find there): OS packages…
read the full trivy overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is trivy or portainer more popular?
trivy has 38,915 GitHub stars and portainer has 38,767. trivy has the larger community by that measure.
Are trivy and portainer free?
Both are open source. trivy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and portainer under Zlib. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between trivy and portainer?
trivy is written in Go and portainer in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, trivy or portainer?
Choose trivy if you want the larger community (38,915 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose portainer if its feature set, stack or Zlib licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.