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KubeSphere vs Portainer: catalog facts
KubeSpherePortainer
Freemium

The Community Edition is free; other products are offered alongside it.

Freemium

Community Edition is free and open source. Business Edition is a paid subscription, free…

Web, Self-hosted Windows, Linux, Web, Self-hosted
  • Web console for multi-tenant Kubernetes management
  • Built-in DevOps, microservices and observability scenarios
  • One console for Docker, Swarm and Kubernetes across several hosts
  • Deploys Compose stacks and Helm charts from the browser
  • A large platform that takes effort to deploy and run
  • License terms for the current edition are not stated in the research
  • Role-based access control and several fleet features are Business Edition only
  • The agent needs access to the Docker socket, which is effectively root on the host
Self-hosted Self-hosted, Web application
Closed source Open source
License not stated License not stated
Not stated if an account is needed Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline Not stated if it works offline

Checked October 2, 2026

Checked September 22, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.