head to head · open source
portainer vs wasm3
portainer has 38,524 GitHub stars, 2,906 forks, 757 open issues and last shipped yesterday. wasm3 has 8,029 stars, 538 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. portainer leads on adoption by 380% (38,524 vs 8,029 stars). portainer is written in TypeScript under Zlib; wasm3 is written in C under MIT. portainer has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, wasm3 7%. 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.
← all 15422 open source comparisons
Side by side
| portainer | wasm3 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 8.0K |
| License | Zlib | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 538 |
| 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 wasm3 if
- You want the wasm3 feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and wasm3 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 wasm3
Wasm3 is a fast, MIT licensed WebAssembly interpreter written in C that runs across x86, ARM, RISC V, MIPS, Xtensa and other architectures — from ESP8266 microcontrollers and OpenWrt routers to browsers and Linux servers — and it is aimed at developers and embedded engineers who need to execute portable Wasm or WASI code where a full size runtime will not fit.
read the full wasm3 overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Cloud Infrastructure Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Cloud Infrastructure Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is portainer or wasm3 more popular?
portainer has 38,524 GitHub stars and wasm3 has 8,029. portainer has the larger community by that measure.
Are portainer and wasm3 free?
Both are open source. portainer is licensed under Zlib and wasm3 under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between portainer and wasm3?
portainer is written in TypeScript and wasm3 in C. 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 wasm3?
Choose portainer if you want the larger community (38,524 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose wasm3 if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.