CasaOS vs Portainer CE

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted dashboards & startpages options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureCasaOSPortainer CE
CategoryDashboards & StartpagesDashboards & Startpages
LicenseApache-2.0Zlib
LanguageGoTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM512 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, one-clickdocker, kubernetes, helm
GitHub stars★ 37,004★ 38,184
First released20212016
ReplacesGoogle homepageRancher, Docker Desktop

Why pick each one

Choose CasaOS if…

  • Very beginner-friendly
  • Polished interface
CasaOS details

Choose Portainer CE if…

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

Frequently asked questions

Is CasaOS 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 CasaOS and Portainer CE free and open-source?

Yes. CasaOS is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Portainer CE under Zlib. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run CasaOS and Portainer CE with Docker?

CasaOS: yes. Portainer CE: yes.

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