Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

CapRover VS Portainer

Compare CapRover VS Portainer and see what are their differences

CapRover logo CapRover

Build your own PaaS in a few minutes!

Portainer logo Portainer

Simple management UI for Docker
  • CapRover Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-24
  • Portainer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-24

CapRover features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    CapRover provides a simple UI/UX, making it easy to deploy and manage applications even for users with minimal technical skills.
  • Docker Integration
    CapRover leverages Docker and Docker Compose, allowing seamless container management and deployment.
  • One-Click App Deployment
    It supports one-click deployment of popular applications, reducing the complexity involved in setting up standard tools and frameworks.
  • Scalability
    CapRover allows easy scaling of applications horizontally and vertically, facilitating better resource management and performance.
  • Platform Agnostic
    CapRover can be installed on any Linux server, providing flexibility in terms of hosting options.
  • Cost-Effective
    As an open-source solution, CapRover can be a more cost-effective option compared to proprietary PaaS services.
  • Custom Domains and SSL
    CapRover supports custom domains and can automatically manage SSL certificates using Let's Encrypt.
  • Extendability
    Developers can extend CapRover functionalities through plugins and community contributions.

Possible disadvantages of CapRover

  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While basic usage is straightforward, utilizing more advanced features and customizations can have a steeper learning curve.
  • Limited Language Support
    CapRover has limited built-in support for languages and frameworks compared to some proprietary PaaS options, requiring additional configuration.
  • Community Support
    Being an open-source project, it relies on community support, which may not be as reliable or fast as commercial support.
  • Resource Usage
    Running CapRover and Docker containers adds overhead, potentially requiring more powerful hardware compared to more lightweight solutions.
  • Lack of Advanced Monitoring
    CapRover’s built-in monitoring and logging capabilities are basic. Advanced monitoring typically requires integration with third-party tools.
  • Manual Server Management
    Unlike fully managed services, using CapRover requires users to handle underlying server maintenance, including updates and security patches.

Portainer features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Portainer provides a simple and intuitive web-based UI that makes it easy for users to manage Docker environments and Kubernetes clusters, reducing the need for command-line operations.
  • Multi-platform Support
    Portainer supports a wide range of platforms including Docker, Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, and Azure ACI, allowing users to manage different containerization technologies from a single interface.
  • Simplified Management
    Portainer allows for easy deployment, configuration, and management of containers and services, streamlining operational tasks and improving productivity.
  • RBAC and Authentication
    Portainer includes built-in role-based access control (RBAC) and authentication mechanisms, enabling secure access management and user permissions control.
  • Monitoring and Insights
    Portainer provides built-in monitoring and analytics features that give insights into resource utilization, container health, and performance metrics.
  • Community Support
    Portainer has a large and active community, offering extensive documentation, forums, and third-party resources to help users troubleshoot issues and optimize their environments.

Possible disadvantages of Portainer

  • Limited Advanced Features
    Compared to other enterprise-grade container management solutions, Portainer might lack some advanced features and customizations needed for large-scale, complex deployments.
  • Scalability Concerns
    While good for small-to-mid-sized environments, Portainer may face challenges in highly scaled or extremely high-availability environments due to its architecture and performance limitations.
  • Dependency on External Tools
    For certain specialized tasks or detailed performance monitoring, Portainer often requires the integration of external tools, which can complicate the overall setup and management process.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Use
    While basic features are user-friendly, leveraging advanced functionalities like managing Kubernetes can come with a steep learning curve for new users.
  • Resource Consumption
    Deploying Portainer adds an extra layer of resource consumption. The overhead might be minimal for small systems but could become significant in resource-constrained environments.

CapRover videos

#AWS #Lightsail for Beginners - Setup #CapRover Web Host Manager, your own #PaaS

More videos:

  • Review - #AWS #Lightsail for Beginners - Host Static Sites and Deploy #Docker Container Apps on #CapRover

Portainer videos

Putting a UI around Docker with Portainer

More videos:

  • Demo - Portainer - The EASIEST WAY to manage your Docker apps! (Overview + Demo)
  • Review - Portainer for Docker Management

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to CapRover and Portainer)
Cloud Computing
77 77%
23% 23
DevOps Tools
26 26%
74% 74
PaaS
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
34 34%
66% 66

User comments

Share your experience with using CapRover and Portainer. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare CapRover and Portainer

CapRover Reviews

Heroku vs self-hosted PaaS
CapRover is in many ways similar to Dokku. It uses Docker for deployment just like Dokku but CapRover does not support buildpack deployments as it uses Dockerfiles only. This is not necessarily a bad thing since Dockerfile deployments are great in Dokku as well. You don’t have to write your own dockerfiles however for simple deployments as there are multiple defaults for...
Source: www.mskog.com

Portainer Reviews

Top 10 Best Container Software in 2022
If you are hunting for a container software that can easily integrate with Ubuntu, then LXC is a reliable option. For semi-managed clustering, you can go for CoreOS. The business purposes solved by Portainer covers querying dockerHub repositories and it is in deed a good tool for beginners.
OpenShift alternatives
The main advantage of Portainer is the flexibility of the software. In addition to Kubernetes, Docker Swarm and Docker can be used to manage clusters and containers. Portainer is based on open-source software and is offered in a freely available community version as well as a paid version with enterprise support. The software can be installed in cloud environments, on edge...
Source: www.ionos.com
7 Best Containerization Software Solutions of 2022
Portainer has one pricing edition that costs $0. A free trial of Portainer is also available if your for more advanced features.
Source: techgumb.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, CapRover should be more popular than Portainer. It has been mentiond 107 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

CapRover mentions (107)

  • Does Your Startup Need Complex Cloud Infrastructure?
    Docker Compose Anywhere looks cool. Looks similar, on principle, to [CapRover](https://caprover.com/) which I highly appreciate. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Coolify The self-hosting revolution for the 99%
    I was using https://caprover.com but I'm slowly migrating all services to Coolify. CapRover still has a few things that it does better (better custom-domain support, more 1-click apps, integrated NetData monitoring, etc.), but overall Coolify is a lot more beginner-friendly and simpler to use. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Open-source alternative to Heroku, Vercel, and Netlify
    Would be great to see a comparison to some better known alternatives like - Dokku [0] - CapRover [1] [0] https://dokku.com/ [1] https://caprover.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Netlify just sent me a $104K bill for a simple static site
    Yeah there are a bunch of selfhostable things: Caprover (https://caprover.com/) Dokku (https://github.com/dokku/dokku. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • The 2024 Web Hosting Report
    The modern iteration of these tools has taken the developer experience learnings from the Platform as a Service (PaaS) category, and will bring them to your own VM, giving you your own personal PaaS. Example of this include Dokku, Coolify, Caprover, Cloud66 and many more! - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
View more

Portainer mentions (35)

  • Deploy multiple apps on a single VPS with Docker
    Portainer also provides an open-source version. In comparison to Sliplane and Dokku, it lacks a deploy pipeline. It comes with a web-based UI and offers some features to manage more advanced cluster setups. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Every Project Deserves its CI/CD pipeline, no matter how small
    Portainer is a really great web UI which will help us to manage all our Docker hosts and Docker Swarm clusters very easily. Let's take a look at its interface where it lists all our stacks available in the swarm. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • paperless-ngx on Synology DS220+
    I've installed the container manager from Synology (Docker) and added portainer.io for better access. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Selfhosting Vaultwarden, How Is It Done?
    There are some docker management systems around, portainer.io seems popular, with a GUI (graphical user interface) and configurable templates. Also cloud management systems/cloud hosting seem to offer a GUI to create and manage containers. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Dashy - Cant get the widgets to show
    I am really new to the home lab game. I have been using linux heavily since I got my two pi's and set up docker, portainer.io, pi hole, dashy, etc. The problem I am having is no matter how many ways I try to add a widget as simple as a clock to my dashy it just break the whole page. I enabled highlighting in my nano so I could see any errors but I am still not finding what I am doing wrong. Does anybody have... Source: over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing CapRover and Portainer, you can also consider the following products

Heroku - Agile deployment platform for Ruby, Node.js, Clojure, Java, Python, and Scala. Setup takes only minutes and deploys are instant through git. Leave tedious server maintenance to Heroku and focus on your code.

Kubernetes - Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers

Dokku - Docker powered mini-Heroku in around 100 lines of Bash

Docker - Docker is an open platform that enables developers and system administrators to create distributed applications.

Coolify - An open-source, hassle-free, self-hostable Heroku & Netlify alternative.

Rancher - Open Source Platform for Running a Private Container Service