Portainer vs Sematext Container Monitoring
Portainer
portainer.ioSematext Container Monitoring
sematext.comSide by side
| Figure | Portainer | Sematext Container Monitoring |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $12.92/mo | $2.52/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 7 | 4 |
| Spec score · Container Monitoring | 8.9 (#6) | 8.6 (#10) |
| API | Portainer exposes an HTTP REST API that automates UI operations and can proxy requests to underlying Docker and Kubernetes APIs. | Sematext Cloud exposes a REST API for remote account and app management, including app creation and alert-rule definition. |
| API authentication | API access uses per-user access tokens sent in the X-API-Key header, with permissions matching the user account. | API calls use an account API key in an Authorization header with the apiKey scheme, with access limited by account roles. |
| Company legal name | The Business Edition agreement identifies the maker as Portainer.io Limited, an Auckland, New Zealand company. | LinkedIn identifies the maker as Sematext Group, Inc., a privately held software-development company. |
| Headquarters | Auckland, New Zealand | Brooklyn, New York, USA |
| Integrations | The product pages identify Talos Omni integration for provisioning Kubernetes clusters and support deployment from Helm charts. | The integrations directory lists more than 100 integrations and categories for cloud services, databases, messaging, CI/CD, notification hooks and container orchestration. |
| Purpose | Portainer is a centralized multi-cluster management platform for managing Kubernetes clusters and container environments. | Container Monitoring provides visibility into the health and performance of distributed infrastructure. |
| Rating on Capterra | 4.6 out of 5 from 17 reviews | 4.8 out of 5 from 29 reviews |
| Rating on G2 | 4.8 out of 5 from 298 reviews | 4.7 out of 5 from 38 reviews |
| Rating on Gartner Peer Insights | 4.6 out of 5 from 44 reviews | 4.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings |
| Rating on GetApp | 4.6 out of 5 from 17 reviews | 4.8 out of 5 from 29 reviews |
| Support | The Scale plan includes 9x5 next business day support, while Enterprise offers prioritized 9x5 support with a 24/7 option. | The product page says support is available by email, live chat, or phone. |
| Trial | Enterprises can request a free trial license for 15 nodes lasting 45 days. | The product page offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. |
| 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. | Container Monitoring provides centralized visibility into container health and performance across distributed infrastructure. |
Plans
Portainer
- Business Edition free tierFree
- Home & Student$155 a year
- Starter$1,045 a year
- Starter$1,045 a year
- Scale$2,095 a year
- Scale$2,095 a year
- EnterprisePriced on request
Sematext Container Monitoring
- Free trialFree
- Infra Monitoring (annual)$2.52 a month
- Infra Monitoring — Basic$2.80 a month
- Infra Monitoring (monthly)$2.80 a month
In their own words
Sematext Container Monitoring
Sematext Container Monitoring provides visibility into containerized and distributed infrastructure. Its lightweight Sematext Agent runs as a container and gathers host and container metrics, logs, and events. Deployment options include Kubernetes DaemonSet, Docker Swarm, Rancher, Nomad, Portainer, Mesos, DC/OS, or a docker run command. The service can discover applications in containers and start monitoring agents automatically. Dashboards and alert rules are supplied for collected data, while a shared dashboard lets you filter metrics, logs, and events together. Troubleshooting views show hot containers, top processes, and Kubernetes details such as replica counts and pod restarts. Supported environments include Docker platforms, Kubernetes services, AWS ECS and EKS, AKS, GKE, OpenShift, and others. The product lists more than 100 integrations. A free plan and 14-day trial are available; the trial requires no credit card. Basic Infra Monitoring starts at $2.80 a month, with metered usage.