Portainer
Hacker ApprovedContainer management tool in Developer tools
People recommend it as a simple web GUI for deploying Docker stacks and containers, and it works well on a single host. Its most common caveat is odd networking issues.
People recommend it as a simple web GUI for deploying Docker stacks and containers, and it works well on a single host. Its most common caveat is odd networking issues.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 78%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Simple GUI for managing containers
“Personally I use docker with portainer to handle the stacks/containers”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “What I self-host” “It is simple and can do it all instead of using cli.”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Should I Run Plain Docker Compose in Production in 2026?” “I used portainer since I like having the GUI.”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop” Quick deployment of compose files
“Dropping a docker compose file into Portainer and I'm up and running with a new service in a few seconds.”
Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Opencloud – An alternative to Nextcloud written in Go” “I like Docker(compose) + Portainer for small deployments”
Comment from 5 Nov 2025 in “Preventing Kubernetes from pulling the pause image from the internet” Works well on a single host
“For container workloads on 1 host Portainer works as well as k8s IMHO”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Should I Run Plain Docker Compose in Production in 2026?” “It all works perfectly and has a marginal cost of about zero”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “2026 is the Year of Self-hosting” Feature-rich and does it all
“Portainer is pretty nice feature wise but even with lowered MTU I still get odd networking related issues”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “Cockpit is a web-based graphical interface for servers” “It is simple and can do it all instead of using cli.”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Should I Run Plain Docker Compose in Production in 2026?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Odd networking-related issues
“Portainer is pretty nice feature wise but even with lowered MTU I still get odd networking related issues”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “Cockpit is a web-based graphical interface for servers” “the DX is pretty casual (when it works and doesn't have weird networking issues)”
Comment from 23 Apr 2026 in “I Am Building a Cloud”
What people recommend instead
The same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Davit | 17 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
| PortainerThis page | 14 | 4 | 78% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
16 of the 20 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Personally I use docker with portainer to handle the stacks/containers”
“For container workloads on 1 host Portainer works as well as k8s IMHO”
“It is simple and can do it all instead of using cli.”
“the DX is pretty casual (when it works and doesn't have weird networking issues)”
“Portainer's attempt to hide them”
“Portainer still needs to be run as rootful container? Then thanks, but no thanks.”
“Portainer is pretty nice feature wise but even with lowered MTU I still get odd networking related issues”
“I ended up using Portainer”
“https://portainer.myhome.top”
“It all works perfectly and has a marginal cost of about zero”
“Problems: when you have issues you need to look into pertainer logs to see why it failed.”
“I used portainer since I like having the GUI.”
“a docker upgrade took my entire stack down because of an api mismatch with portainer”
“Also got a sponsorship from the portainer folks”
“Dropping a docker compose file into Portainer and I'm up and running with a new service in a few seconds.”
“I like Docker(compose) + Portainer for small deployments”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.