{"slug": "portainer", "name": "Portainer", "category": "infra", "category_name": "Infrastructure and DevOps", "description": "", "recommenders": 6, "commenters": 12, "warners": 1, "score": 5.681, "rising": -0.64, "first": "2025-11-09", "latest": "2026-10-15", "why": "Maintenance is managable thanks to docker and portainer stacks", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 5, "compare": 1, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Maintenance is managable thanks to docker and portainer stacks", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.portainer.io", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Portainer"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 801772513, "item_id": 50110782, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50110782", "by": "rhymnz", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I like it.", "excerpt": "Personally I use docker with portainer to handle the stacks/containers, have done for many years. I like it.", "context": "", "use_case": "managing Docker stacks", "switched_from": "", "story": "What I self-host"}, {"id": 768336960, "item_id": 48021060, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48021060", "by": "esperent", "date": "2026-05-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using portainer for years, it's decent.", "excerpt": "> Lack of a user-friendly way of managing a Docker Compose installation on a remote host I've been using portainer for years, it's decent.", "context": "", "use_case": "Managing Docker Compose on remote hosts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Should I Run Plain Docker Compose in Production in 2026?"}, {"id": 762382753, "item_id": 47648922, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47648922", "by": "swq115", "date": "2026-04-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I tried Portainer, btop, Uptime Kuma \u2014 all great tools", "excerpt": "I run a few servers at home (Mac Mini M4 + Raspberry Pi) and got tired of the same 3 AM routine \u2014 SSH in, check what crashed, restart a container, go back to sleep. I tried Portainer, btop, Uptime Kuma \u2014 all great tools, but I ended up with three dashboards open and still had to SSH in to actually fix things. So I built homebutler. It's a single Go binary (~15MB) that packs a CLI, a TUI dashboard (Bubble Tea), and a ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Homebutler \u2013 Self-healing homelab in a single Go binary"}, {"id": 756236680, "item_id": 47264792, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47264792", "by": "sandreas", "date": "2026-03-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Maintenance is managable thanks to docker and portainer stacks", "excerpt": "I self-host private git, notes, audio, photos and syncthing - basically everything I don't want to store in the cloud. Hardware is an old Fujitsu D3417-B, XEON 1225, 64GB ECC and a single 2TB WD SN850x. OS is Proxmox on ZFS with a docker portainer vm sharing the Main storage from the host. Internal DNS is fully SSL via duckdns, letsencrypt and NGinx proxy manager. Hosted are Gitea Immich Audiobookshelf Navidrome Flat", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's your experience self-hosting in 2026?"}, {"id": 750637826, "item_id": 46914864, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46914864", "by": "czhu12", "date": "2026-02-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Been fortunate enough to get a sponsorship from the Portainer folks", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve been developing an open source Heroku alternative so we may never again be gouged for nice deployment pipelines. https://canine.sh It supports all the quality of life features like opening a shell via a cli, which I found was one of my favorite parts of Heroku (canine run \u2014myproject /bin/bash) Been fortunate enough to get a sponsorship from the Portainer folks, which allows me to maintain and develop full time!", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "An Update on Heroku"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 759157554, "item_id": 47447347, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47447347", "by": "KronisLV", "date": "2026-03-19", "stance": "warn", "quote": "even with lowered MTU I still get odd networking related issues", "excerpt": "Hey that\u2019s pretty cool, nice to see someone paying attention to Docker Swarm (it\u2019s nice for simple deployments, like multi-server Compose). You might want to add some screenshots to the docs though. There was also Swarmpit but it didn\u2019t really get that much love, sadly: https://github.com/swarmpit/swarmpit/issues/719 Portainer is pretty nice feature wise but even with lowered MTU I still get odd networking related is", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cockpit is a web-based graphical interface for servers"}]}], "who": [{"by": "hydrogen7800", "context": "non-technical user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46492145", "date": "2026-01-04"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["managing docker stacks", "container management", "managing docker compose on remote hosts", "docker management", "docker management gui"], "compared": [{"slug": "proxmox", "name": "Proxmox", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "docker", "name": "Docker", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "canine", "name": "Canine", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "tailscale", "name": "Tailscale", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "heroku", "name": "Heroku", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47445599", "title": "Cockpit is a web-based graphical interface for servers", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50109715", "title": "What I self-host", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49505310", "title": "OpenClaw 2.0, Accidentally", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48967256", "title": "Minecraft: Java Edition now uses SDL3", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47962032", "title": "Should I Run Plain Docker Compose in Production in 2026?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47648798", "title": "Show HN: Homebutler \u2013 Self-healing homelab in a single Go binary", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1, "compare": 1}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 2, "warn": 1}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 801772513, "item_id": 50110782, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50110782", "by": "rhymnz", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I like it.", "excerpt": "Personally I use docker with portainer to handle the stacks/containers, have done for many years. I like it.", "context": "", "use_case": "managing Docker stacks", "switched_from": "", "story": "What I self-host"}, {"id": 792102227, "item_id": 49506389, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49506389", "by": "rcarmo", "date": "2026-08-31", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "scoped Proxmox tokens and Portainer", "excerpt": "I created https://github.com/rcarmo/piclaw to use for long-running background tasks (spec to plan to targeted code) because I needed something that could run on a server (I never run agents locally) and check on via any browser. I don\u2019t think any messaging app will provide a good (or trustworthy) way to get to my own machines, so Tailscale+web it is. Right now these things manage most of my homelab (scoped Proxmox to", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenClaw 2.0, Accidentally"}, {"id": 783624754, "item_id": 48976547, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48976547", "by": "bennyp101", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "moved it a couple of days ago to a portainer VM on proxmox with 6GB ram", "excerpt": "I've been running this[0] for a few years now, moved it a couple of days ago to a portainer VM on proxmox with 6GB ram, its running perfectly fine for 3 of us, and works fine from tablets and PC. Can also run on the nintendo switch if you setup a cname to redirect to your server IP, i.e: mco.lbsg.net x.x.x.x play.lbsg.net x.x.x.x Then choose the \"Lifeboat\" server [0] https://jamesachambers.com/minecraft-java-bedrock-", "context": "", "use_case": "Container management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Minecraft: Java Edition now uses SDL3"}, {"id": 768336960, "item_id": 48021060, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48021060", "by": "esperent", "date": "2026-05-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using portainer for years, it's decent.", "excerpt": "> Lack of a user-friendly way of managing a Docker Compose installation on a remote host I've been using portainer for years, it's decent.", "context": "", "use_case": "Managing Docker Compose on remote hosts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Should I Run Plain Docker Compose in Production in 2026?"}, {"id": 762382753, "item_id": 47648922, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47648922", "by": "swq115", "date": "2026-04-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I tried Portainer, btop, Uptime Kuma \u2014 all great tools", "excerpt": "I run a few servers at home (Mac Mini M4 + Raspberry Pi) and got tired of the same 3 AM routine \u2014 SSH in, check what crashed, restart a container, go back to sleep. I tried Portainer, btop, Uptime Kuma \u2014 all great tools, but I ended up with three dashboards open and still had to SSH in to actually fix things. So I built homebutler. It's a single Go binary (~15MB) that packs a CLI, a TUI dashboard (Bubble Tea), and a ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Homebutler \u2013 Self-healing homelab in a single Go binary"}, {"id": 759164723, "item_id": 47447795, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47447795", "by": "nativeit", "date": "2026-03-19", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "where I\u2019ve used both Cockpit and Portainer, but generally tend to stick with the CLI", "excerpt": "I have been using Webmin/Virtualmin for all of my 15-years as a web host. I love it, although it can be a little idiosyncratic in places, once you know how to operate with it, you won\u2019t ever need anything else. It\u2019s never been the most bleeding-edge or fully-featured, but it\u2019s also never fallen behind with security and compatibility updates, and it\u2019s had a surge in new development lately, which is exciting. On a Debi", "context": "", "use_case": "Docker management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cockpit is a web-based graphical interface for servers"}, {"id": 759157554, "item_id": 47447347, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47447347", "by": "KronisLV", "date": "2026-03-19", "stance": "warn", "quote": "even with lowered MTU I still get odd networking related issues", "excerpt": "Hey that\u2019s pretty cool, nice to see someone paying attention to Docker Swarm (it\u2019s nice for simple deployments, like multi-server Compose). You might want to add some screenshots to the docs though. There was also Swarmpit but it didn\u2019t really get that much love, sadly: https://github.com/swarmpit/swarmpit/issues/719 Portainer is pretty nice feature wise but even with lowered MTU I still get odd networking related is", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cockpit is a web-based graphical interface for servers"}, {"id": 756826179, "item_id": 47301636, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47301636", "by": "techcode", "date": "2026-03-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "https://portainer.myhome.top", "excerpt": "Setup AdGuard-Home for both blocking ads and internal/split DNS, plus Caddy or another reverse proxy and buy (or recycle/reuse) a domain name so you can get SSL certificates through LetsEncrypt. You don't need to have any real/public DNS records on that domain, just own the domain so LetsEncrypt can verify and give you SSL certificate(s). You setup local DNS rewrites in AdGuard - and point all the services/subdomains", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "My Homelab Setup"}, {"id": 756236680, "item_id": 47264792, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47264792", "by": "sandreas", "date": "2026-03-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Maintenance is managable thanks to docker and portainer stacks", "excerpt": "I self-host private git, notes, audio, photos and syncthing - basically everything I don't want to store in the cloud. Hardware is an old Fujitsu D3417-B, XEON 1225, 64GB ECC and a single 2TB WD SN850x. OS is Proxmox on ZFS with a docker portainer vm sharing the Main storage from the host. Internal DNS is fully SSL via duckdns, letsencrypt and NGinx proxy manager. Hosted are Gitea Immich Audiobookshelf Navidrome Flat", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's your experience self-hosting in 2026?"}, {"id": 752540417, "item_id": 47033776, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47033776", "by": "kppjeuring", "date": "2026-02-16", "stance": "compare", "quote": "DStack is not a replacement for tools like Portainer or Komodo.", "excerpt": "Hi HN, A couple of weeks ago I shared DStack, a small Bash tool that lets you manage named Docker Compose projects from anywhere in the terminal. The idea is simple: Instead of constantly cd-ing into different project directories just to run docker compose up or down, you register stacks once and run them by name. After sharing it on Reddit and getting feedback, I focused on refining it rather than adding complexity.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "DStack, a lightweight Docker Compose stack manager"}, {"id": 750637826, "item_id": 46914864, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46914864", "by": "czhu12", "date": "2026-02-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Been fortunate enough to get a sponsorship from the Portainer folks", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve been developing an open source Heroku alternative so we may never again be gouged for nice deployment pipelines. https://canine.sh It supports all the quality of life features like opening a shell via a cli, which I found was one of my favorite parts of Heroku (canine run \u2014myproject /bin/bash) Been fortunate enough to get a sponsorship from the Portainer folks, which allows me to maintain and develop full time!", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "An Update on Heroku"}, {"id": 743874320, "item_id": 46492145, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46492145", "by": "hydrogen7800", "date": "2026-01-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used portainer since I like having the GUI", "excerpt": "I'm one of those non-technical users. For the past week or so I've been messing with getting a servarr stack going with a vpn. Mapping a network drive to the host device, configuring the docker images, port forwarding, etc., is all foreign to me and I'm still not sure I understand what port-forwarding is. I used portainer since I like having the GUI. I can just view the dashboard and poke around to explore, rather th", "context": "non-technical user", "use_case": "Docker management GUI", "switched_from": "", "story": "2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop"}, {"id": 733940626, "item_id": 45871289, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45871289", "by": "czhu12", "date": "2025-11-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Also got a sponsorship from the portainer folks", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve been working on https://canine.sh which is a free, open source Heroku alternative for 2 years now. It\u2019s exactly the product I wish I had when I started my previous company. Running on PaaS is incredible for devex but the pricing is bonkers, and the vendor lock in makes it really hard to deal with annual price increases. We spent close to 400k / year for just 128GB combined fleet in our last startup on Heroku. Ca", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (Nov 2025)"}]}