Kubernetes vs. Portainer

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Kubernetes
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Kubernetes is an open-source container cluster manager.N/A
Portainer
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Portainer is a centralized container management platform for containerized apps and IoT device management. It helps accelerate container adoption and reduce time-to-value on Kubernetes, Docker, and Swarm with a management portal, allowing users to deliver and manage containerized applications from the data center to the edge. Portainer helps - Reduce the operational complexity associated with multi-cluster management Bridge the skills gap and facilitate feature…
$0
Pricing
KubernetesPortainer
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Portainer Business - 3 Nodes Free
$0
Home & Student
$149
per year
Starter
$995
per year
Professional
$2995
per year
Enterprise
Contact Sales for Pricing
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
KubernetesPortainer
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
KubernetesPortainer
Considered Both Products
Kubernetes

No answer on this topic

Portainer
Chose Portainer
Portainer vs. Rancher: Portainer and Rancher are both popular container management platforms that support Docker and Kubernetes. However, Rancher provides more advanced features such as multi-cluster management and native support for Istio, a popular service mesh technology. …
Chose Portainer
Portainer is a lot easier to use when compared to Kubernetes. it is easy to get over whelmed by all the options in Kubernetes but portainer makes it simple to build and deploy even to Kubernetes.
Chose Portainer
Portainer is a user-friendly container management platform focused on Docker, providing a simplified graphical interface. Kubernetes (K8s) is a robust container orchestration platform that automates deployment and scaling, suitable for complex container environments. Docker is …
Chose Portainer
In Kubernetes management, in my opinion I would say that Lens is superior. But if you only want to manage a few stacks, Portainer is superior because the gui offers a comprehensive way of managing all the deployed images and its versions.
Chose Portainer
Portainer takes the cup in terms of usability and features. It is also more useful for smaller deployments, whereas Kubernetes in our opinion and experience, could probably be more suited to certain other use cases. Portainer is also a fresh feel among all the preexisting …
Chose Portainer
The reason I chose Portainer is that graphically it wins over Yacht, it has many more options to use even in the free version. You can connect more than one environment to one panel which makes it much easier to use multiple instances of Portainer and saves a lot of time.
Chose Portainer
Had already more experience using Portainer and it was covering all immediate needs where scalability was not a concern. Definitely easier to use and to get started for anyone.
Chose Portainer
Portainer is, in my opinion, the most accessible and straight-forward means of entering the world of deploying and managing containers while also maintaining the ability to progress into advanced professional deployments and use.
Chose Portainer
  • Ease of use
  • ability to deploy docker compose
  • Cost
Chose Portainer
Portainer has made our rapid prototyping an easy task without requesting too much, especially while deploying micro-services on a self-deployed AMI instance. Above all, Portainer enables all configurations that we were expecting to be feasible, becoming the evident choice …
Chose Portainer
Portainer is much easier to use and it's deployment is faster than other solutions which you can run locally or on-prem in a datacenter.
Also Portainer is compatible with many different kinds of environments, where other solutions can only be used on some of the well-known cloud …
Chose Portainer
Portainer was just easier to use and set up. Having had extensive experience with the community edition, it was easy to opt for business.
Chose Portainer
I have not found any application as good as Portainer.
Features
KubernetesPortainer
Container Management
Comparison of Container Management features of Product A and Product B
Kubernetes
9.0
4 Ratings
11% above category average
Portainer
8.3
94 Ratings
3% above category average
Security and Isolation9.04 Ratings8.590 Ratings
Container Orchestration9.74 Ratings00 Ratings
Cluster Management9.74 Ratings8.475 Ratings
Storage Management8.14 Ratings8.480 Ratings
Resource Allocation and Optimization8.44 Ratings7.883 Ratings
Discovery Tools9.04 Ratings8.670 Ratings
Update Rollouts and Rollbacks9.04 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-Healing and Recovery9.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Analytics, Monitoring, and Logging8.74 Ratings8.290 Ratings
Best Alternatives
KubernetesPortainer
Small Businesses
Portainer
Portainer
Score 9.1 out of 10
GitLab
GitLab
Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat OpenShift
Score 9.2 out of 10
Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat OpenShift
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat OpenShift
Score 9.2 out of 10
Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat OpenShift
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
KubernetesPortainer
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(19 ratings)
9.0
(94 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(3 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(3 ratings)
8.4
(15 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(3 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
KubernetesPortainer
Likelihood to Recommend
Kubernetes
K8s should be avoided - If your application works well without being converted into microservices-based architecture & fits correctly in a VM, needs less scaling, have a fixed traffic pattern then it is better to keep away from Kubernetes. Otherwise, the operational challenges & technical expertise will add a lot to the OPEX. Also, if you're the one who thinks that containers consume fewer resources as compared to VMs then this is not true. As soon as you convert your application to a microservice-based architecture, a lot of components will add up, shooting your resource consumption even higher than VMs so, please beware. Kubernetes is a good choice - When the application needs quick scaling, is already in microservice-based architecture, has no fixed traffic pattern, most of the employees already have desired skills.
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Portainer
Many developers, especially lesser experienced developers, don't have a really good background in setting up containers from the command line. Portainer is invaluable to them. Giving a UI to them gives them much more confidence and allows them to learn properties and capabilities of containers under far less stress. On the flip side of this, giving then a UI on a production system can lead to chaos...never give junior developers access to production servers.
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Pros
Kubernetes
  • Complex cluster management can be done with simple commands with strong authentication and authorization schemes
  • Exhaustive documentation and open community smoothens the learning process
  • As a user a few concepts like pod, deployment and service are sufficient to go a long way
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Portainer
  • Separating server maintenance with application development, providing a clear user interface for developers who don't want to worry about the underlying server.
  • RBAC for container deployment linked to a SAML IDP, not something particularly easy in a native Docker instance but point and shoot in Portainer, allowing the use of Azure / Okta etc to provide user access.
  • Image management with multiple repositories is super clear and reduces incidents
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Cons
Kubernetes
  • Local development, Kubernetes does tend to be a bit complicated and unnecessary in environments where all development is done locally.
  • The need for add-ons, Helm is almost required when running Kubernetes. This brings a whole new tool to manage and learn before a developer can really start to use Kubernetes effectively.
  • Finicy configmap schemes. Kubernetes configmaps often have environment breaking hangups. The fail safes surrounding configmaps are sadly lacking.
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Portainer
  • When setting up static IPs for a new container, having the used ones for a specific network at hand would be cool or something like a mini IPAM of some sort...
  • Using the developertools to see "oh, it's a 40x or 500" when something doesn't seem to load because the ui just states "Didn't work" is kinda annoying. expandable toasts or something would be nice.
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Likelihood to Renew
Kubernetes
The Kubernetes is going to be highly likely renewed as the technologies that will be placed on top of it are long term as of planning. There shouldn't be any last minute changes in the adoption and I do not anticipate sudden change of the core underlying technology. It is just that the slow process of technology adoption that makes it hard to switch to something else.
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Portainer
It is an excellent tool.
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Usability
Kubernetes
It is an eminently usable platform. However, its popularity is overshadowed by its complexity. To properly leverage the capabilities and possibilities of Kubernetes as a platform, you need to have excellent understanding of your use case, even better understanding of whether you even need Kubernetes, and if yes - be ready to invest in good engineering support for the platform itself
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Portainer
Accessibility for Non-Experts: even with some people having a bit longer on-boarding it is still very simple Quick setup is insanely useful, we can get it running in 10 seconds after installing docker Portainer has once again super clean UI and is very user friendly. Deployment/monitoring and management are super easy. I can tell just from a glance if something is out of date (watching at you Watchtower not doing your job for some reason)
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Support Rating
Kubernetes
No answers on this topic
Portainer
One of their staff members jumped on a video call immediately with me and led me through the problem and solution during a quick session of screen sharing. In this day and age that is above and beyond, especially when it comes to software. It took approximately 5-10 minutes to diagnose and fix, including pleasantries!
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Implementation Rating
Kubernetes
No answers on this topic
Portainer
It is really easy. Just follow the documentation.
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Alternatives Considered
Kubernetes
Most of the required features for any orchestration tool or framework, which is provided by Kubernetes. After understanding all modules and features of the K8S, it is the best fit for us as compared with others out there.
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Portainer
Portainer takes the cup in terms of usability and features. It is also more useful for smaller deployments, whereas Kubernetes in our opinion and experience, could probably be more suited to certain other use cases. Portainer is also a fresh feel among all the preexisting container management solutions and brings positivity and a new breeze in the industry.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Kubernetes
  • Because of microservices, Kubernetes makes it easy to find the cost of each application easily.
  • Like every new technology, initially, it took more resources to educate ourselves but over a period of time, I believe it's going to be worth it.
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Portainer
  • Increased productivity: Portainer's user-friendly interface and streamlined container management can help increase the productivity of IT teams.
  • Cost savings: By simplifying container management, Portainer can help reduce the time and resources required to manage container environments, potentially leading to cost savings.
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ScreenShots

Portainer Screenshots

Screenshot of Portainer is a universal container management platform to help adopt and manage Docker, Kubernetes, Nomad and Edge environments.