What's Up Status 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?
What's Up Status
Static status and link dashboard from JSON
VS
Portainer CE
Lightweight management UI for Docker and Kubernetes
| Feature | What's Up Status | Portainer CE |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Dashboards & Startpages | Dashboards & Startpages |
| License | MIT | Zlib |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 34,425 | ★ 38,184 |
| First released | 2021 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Heimdall | Rancher, Docker Desktop |
Why pick each one
Choose What's Up Status if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 34.4k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is What's Up Status 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 What's Up Status and Portainer CE free and open-source?
Yes. What's Up Status is licensed under MIT and Portainer CE under Zlib. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run What's Up Status and Portainer CE with Docker?
What's Up Status: yes. Portainer CE: yes.