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Portainer vs K9s: catalog facts
Portainer	K9s
Freemium Community Edition is free and open source. Business Edition is a paid subscription, free…	Free The open-source application is available without a license fee.
Windows, Linux, Web, Self-hosted	Windows, macOS, Linux
One console for Docker, Swarm and Kubernetes across several hosts Deploys Compose stacks and Helm charts from the browser	Live cluster navigation and log inspection
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	Requires access credentials and permissions for a Kubernetes cluster.
Self-hosted, Web application	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License not stated	License: Apache-2.0
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
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026

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