Homer 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.

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FeatureHomerPortainer CE
CategoryDashboards & StartpagesDashboards & Startpages
LicenseApache-2.0Zlib
LanguageVueTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM64 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, kubernetes, helm
GitHub stars★ 11,537★ 38,184
First released20192016
ReplacesHeimdallRancher, Docker Desktop

Why pick each one

Choose Homer if…

  • Extremely lightweight
  • Trivial to host
  • Fast
Homer details

Choose Portainer CE if…

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

Frequently asked questions

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

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

Can I run Homer and Portainer CE with Docker?

Homer: yes. Portainer CE: yes.

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