head to head · open source
portainer vs vscode-infracost
portainer has 38,767 GitHub stars, 2,934 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vscode-infracost has 1,835 stars, 55 forks, 9 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. portainer leads on adoption by 2,013% (38,767 vs 1,835 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 | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| 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. 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 vscode-infracost
Infracost VS Code Extension Infracost's VS Code extension shows you cost estimates for Terraform right in your editor! It also surfaces FinOps policies and tagging issues so you can catch problems before they reach production. Table of contents Features Inline cost estimates Resource details sidebar FinOps policies and tag issues CloudFormation support Get started Requirements Configuration Commands Troubleshooting Contributing Features Cost estimates Inline cost estimates See cost estimates as code lenses directly above Terraform resource definitions. Costs update as you edit. Resource details sidebar Click a…
read the full vscode-infracost overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or vscode-infracost more popular?
portainer has 38,767 GitHub stars and vscode-infracost has 1,835. 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 (38,767 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.