head to head · open source
portainer vs vscode-infracost
portainer has 38,524 GitHub stars, 2,906 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vscode-infracost has 1,837 stars, 55 forks, 9 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. portainer leads on adoption by 1,997% (38,524 vs 1,837 stars). portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib; vscode-infracost is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. portainer has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, vscode-infracost 3%. 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 | vscode-infracost | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | Zlib | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 55 |
| 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 vscode-infracost if
- You want the vscode-infracost feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and vscode-infracost 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 vscode-infracost
The Infracost VS Code extension is a TypeScript, Apache 2.0 licensed editor plugin that shows cloud cost estimates for Terraform directly inside VS Code, intended for engineers and FinOps practitioners who want cost visibility while they write infrastructure as code.
read the full vscode-infracost overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or vscode-infracost more popular?
portainer has 38,524 GitHub stars and vscode-infracost has 1,837. portainer has the larger community by that measure.
Are portainer and vscode-infracost free?
Both are open source. portainer is licensed under Zlib and vscode-infracost under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between portainer and vscode-infracost?
portainer is written in TypeScript and vscode-infracost 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, portainer or vscode-infracost?
Choose portainer if you want the larger community (38,524 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose vscode-infracost if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.