Beszel vs Portainer CE

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureBeszelPortainer CE
CategoryMonitoring & StatusDashboards & Startpages
LicenseMITZlib
LanguageGoTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM128 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarydocker, kubernetes, helm
GitHub stars★ 24,108★ 38,184
First released20242016
ReplacesUptimeRobotRancher, Docker Desktop

Why pick each one

Choose Beszel if…

  • Extremely lightweight
  • Simple multi-host view
  • Easy setup
Beszel details

Choose Portainer CE if…

  • Very beginner-friendly
  • Broad orchestrator support
Portainer CE details

Frequently asked questions

Is Beszel or Portainer CE better?

Neither is universally better. Portainer CE has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Beszel and Portainer CE free and open-source?

Yes. Beszel is licensed under MIT and Portainer CE under Zlib. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Beszel and Portainer CE with Docker?

Beszel: yes. Portainer CE: yes.

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