Portainer

Spec sheet

What it does

Portainer is a self-hosted control plane that manages Docker, Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, Podman and Azure ACI environments through a web interface.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.portainer.io

Purpose

Portainer is a centralized multi-cluster management platform for managing Kubernetes clusters and container environments.Read 30 Sep 2026 · portainer.io

Trial

Enterprises can request a free trial license for 15 nodes lasting 45 days.Read 30 Sep 2026 · portainer.io

API

Portainer exposes an HTTP REST API that automates UI operations and can proxy requests to underlying Docker and Kubernetes APIs.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.portainer.io

Integrations

The product pages identify Talos Omni integration for provisioning Kubernetes clusters and support deployment from Helm charts.Read 30 Sep 2026 · portainer.io

Support

The Scale plan includes 9x5 next business day support, while Enterprise offers prioritized 9x5 support with a 24/7 option.Read 30 Sep 2026 · portainer.io

Headquarters

Auckland, New ZealandRead 28 Sep 2026 · portainer.io

Access control

Business Edition features include role-based access control, LDAP and OAuth authentication, Active Directory user sync, and SSO provider templates.Read 30 Sep 2026 · portainer.io

API authentication

API access uses per-user access tokens sent in the X-API-Key header, with permissions matching the user account.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.portainer.io

API documentation depth

Separate versioned API references exist for Business Edition and Community Edition, with additional command examples.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.portainer.io

Audit and logging

The feature list includes authentication and activity logs and Syslog export for centralized logging.Read 30 Sep 2026 · portainer.io

Business licence

Business Edition is distributed under a proprietary commercial agreement rather than the Community Edition zlib licence.Read 15 Oct 2026 · portainer.io

Community licence

The Portainer Community Edition repository is released under the permissive zlib license.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com

Company facts

LinkedIn lists Portainer.io as privately held, founded in 2017, headquartered in Auckland and employing 51-200 people.Read 15 Oct 2026 · linkedin.com

Company legal name

The Business Edition agreement identifies the maker as Portainer.io Limited, an Auckland, New Zealand company.Read 15 Oct 2026 · portainer.io

Company location

The Portainer website says it is proudly made in New Zealand.Read 30 Sep 2026 · portainer.io

Container management

The platform manages container workloads, images, networks, volumes and application stacks from one console.Read 15 Oct 2026 · portainer.io

Deployment controls

Business Edition lists fleet governance policies, automatic policy drift remediation, resource quotas, pod security constraints, and ITSM-aligned change windows.Read 30 Sep 2026 · portainer.io

Documentation and support

Documentation covers installation, configuration, APIs and troubleshooting; community users use forums, Slack, GitHub and an AI bot, while paid customers receive ticket support governed by SLA.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.portainer.io

Fleet governance

Business Edition provides fleet governance policies, automatic drift remediation, policy deployment and centralized multi-environment management.Read 15 Oct 2026 · portainer.io

GitOps

Deployments can use Git repositories, automatic GitOps updates, webhooks, stored shared credentials, deployment gates and code-only deployment enforcement.Read 15 Oct 2026 · portainer.io

Identity and access

Business Edition includes RBAC, LDAP and OAuth authentication, Active Directory synchronization, SSO templates, authentication logs and activity logs.Read 15 Oct 2026 · portainer.io

Kubernetes features

Kubernetes tooling includes workload, volume and network management, kubeconfig imports, resource quotas, pod-security constraints, rolling restarts and Talos provisioning through Omni.Read 15 Oct 2026 · portainer.io

License limit

Starter and Scale subscriptions have fixed node counts for their term and can be adjusted at renewal; Enterprise licenses allow mid-term node additions.Read 30 Sep 2026 · portainer.io

Limit: Android app

A Google Play reviewer reported certificate-verification failures when connecting the mobile app to a self-signed Portainer server.Read 15 Oct 2026 · play.google.com

Limit: backups and logs

G2 reviewers cite missing Docker-volume backup support, dated container-log tooling and weak failed-deployment notifications.Read 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com

Limit: Kubernetes depth

G2 reviewers report that advanced Kubernetes manifests and CRDs can exceed the UI's capabilities and require kubectl or another dashboard.Read 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com

Limit: TrustRadius themes

TrustRadius reviewers identify Active Directory setup and Kubernetes support as areas needing improvement.Read 15 Oct 2026 · trustradius.com

Multi-cluster

The platform provides centralized governance across Kubernetes clusters on EKS, AKS, GKE, bare metal, or on-premises infrastructure.Read 30 Sep 2026 · portainer.io

Network requirements

The standard server UI/API uses TCP 9443, the optional Edge Agent tunnel uses 8000, and the Agent uses 9001; ports can be changed during installation.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.portainer.io

Notable news: rebrand

Portainer announced a brand rework on March 5, 2026, explaining that its product had expanded from Docker into Kubernetes and edge operations.Read 15 Oct 2026 · portainer.io

Observability and SIEM

Portainer offers baseline node, pod, resource and cluster-log visibility, and can stream unified audit events to SIEM systems.Read 15 Oct 2026 · downloads.portainer.io

Praise: TrustRadius themes

TrustRadius reviewers commonly describe Portainer as intuitive, easy to navigate, useful for stacks and monitoring, and effective for centralized troubleshooting.Read 15 Oct 2026 · trustradius.com

Praise: usability

G2 reviewers repeatedly praise the clean interface, quick setup, simple stack deployment and reduced need for Docker command-line work.Read 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com

Rating on Apple App Store

3.0 out of 5 from 1 ratingRead 15 Oct 2026 · apps.apple.com

Rating on Capterra

4.6 out of 5 from 17 reviewsRead 15 Oct 2026 · capterra.com

Rating on G2

4.8 out of 5 from 298 reviewsRead 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com

Rating on Gartner Peer Insights

4.6 out of 5 from 44 reviewsRead 15 Oct 2026 · gartner.com

Rating on GetApp

4.6 out of 5 from 17 reviewsRead 15 Oct 2026 · getapp.com

Rating on Google Play

4.4 out of 5 from 47 reviewsRead 15 Oct 2026 · play.google.com

Rating on TrustRadius

9.8 out of 10 from 233 reviews and ratingsRead 15 Oct 2026 · trustradius.com

Registry integrations

The product provides container image registry management and supports central, team-specific and cloud registries such as Azure Container Registry.Read 15 Oct 2026 · downloads.portainer.io

SDK and tooling

Portainer publishes a Terraform provider and the portainerctl command-line utility in its GitHub organization.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com

Security guidance

Portainer recommends creating a non-default administrator name, enforcing HTTPS on port 9443, uploading trusted certificates and using a VPN instead of exposing the service publicly.Read 15 Oct 2026 · portainer.io

Self-hosted deployment

Portainer Server and Agent run as lightweight containers, with installation instructions for Kubernetes and other supported environments.Read 30 Sep 2026 · docs.portainer.io

Self-hosting

Portainer is deployed on customer infrastructure using Docker or Kubernetes and is designed for on-premises, cloud and disconnected edge environments.Read 15 Oct 2026 · portainer.io

Storage requirement

The server requires persistent storage for its database and configuration, and Git deployments can consume substantial space because repositories are cloned locally.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.portainer.io

Supported environments

Portainer lists Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Swarm, Podman, and Azure ACI as supported container environments.Read 30 Sep 2026 · docs.portainer.io

System requirements

The current Community Edition requirements page lists Docker 28.5.1/29.2.1, Kubernetes 1.32-1.34, Podman 5.6.0 and ARM64 or x86_64 architectures for version 2.39.0 LTS.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.portainer.io

Target users

Portainer describes Business Edition as its product for businesses and organizations and Community Edition as a free open-source option for home users and hobbyists.Read 30 Sep 2026 · docs.portainer.io

User interface

Portainer provides a graphical interface intended to simplify container deployment and troubleshooting without requiring users to work directly with the CLI, YAML, or manifests.Read 30 Sep 2026 · docs.portainer.io

Plans and prices

Every Portainer plan and price →

Where Specifiction places it

• GitOps Tools#3 of 358.8
• Container Monitoring#6 of 498.9
• Container Management Software#4 of 288.8
• Kubernetes Management Platforms#5 of 298.7