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Docker vs Portainer comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 11, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Docker
Ranking in Container Management
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
Development Platforms (1st), Software Supply Chain Security (2nd), AI Software Development (4th)
Portainer
Ranking in Container Management
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Container Management category, the mindshare of Docker is 4.7%, up from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Portainer is 4.3%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Container Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Docker4.7%
Portainer4.3%
Other91.0%
Container Management
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2787357 - PeerSpot reviewer
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
Containerization has standardized deployments and drives faster, more reliable delivery
As Docker is already a very mature tool, there are areas where it can be improved based on real-world usage. One area I consider is the Windows container experience. The pain point here is that Windows containers are heavier and slower than Linux containers because I have worked in both environments and felt that Windows containers are heavier and slower than Linux containers. This also limits the ecosystem and tooling maturity compared to Linux containers. Improvements could include performance optimization and better parity with Linux container features. Apart from that, observability and debugging is another area. The pain point is the limited native metrics available and limited logging and tracing features. Improvements could include adding a good amount of metrics, logging, and tracing, as well as better built-in observability features and easier container introspection. Network complexity is also present. I face issues with Docker networking that can become confusing in complex setups, and debugging container-to-container issues is not always intuitive. Improvements can be made with simpler networking abstractions and better built-in troubleshooting tools. Docker is excellent for containerization and CI/CD, but it can be improved in areas of built-in security, network simplicity, and observability. These points should be kept in mind and worked on.
EB
Developer with 1-10 employees
A GUI solution that helps to administer a docker using a browser
The first time using Portainer involves a learning curve. It takes longer as you're unfamiliar with the processes and might be lazy to consult the manual. Initially, you may rely on intuition within the GUI. However, after repeating the same tasks three or four times, the process becomes much quicker.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Docker is easy to understand and follow. It provides good scalability to the application."
"The solution's most valuable feature is having containers independent of the operating system or environment."
"We are able to stop our containers or stop the service with a single command."
"The solution's most valuable feature is the Dockerfile, which makes the life of developers easy. Developers get a real understanding of container creation."
"The solution helps save costs."
"Docker's containerization property is its main selling point."
"The scalability of Docker is good."
"Docker has had a major positive impact by standardizing how applications are built, shipped, and deployed, which improved speed, reliability, and collaboration across my teams."
"Portainer comes with the ability to take the information of docker definition. Using it, I can visually observe how the container has been created. It allows me to create networks. I can also visually generate volumes and working stacks."
 

Cons

"There are elements of stability that are problematic. One of the most recent upgrades created a major incident on our cloud, whereby the containers were not restarting automatically."
"Marketing of Docker is one area that needs to improve."
"If you install Docker on a host, it creates its own firewalls. It can become an issue. Usually, when you want to install Docker, you need to restart the firewall or restart the active tables on the machine, but this is not the case with Kubernetes. It uses the default set up by the next administrator, but with Docker, you have to restart the firewall and restart Docker before the firewall on the system will be okay. If you do not the rules will not be created."
"Enhancing artificial intelligence capabilities and cluster management should be a priority. It should facilitate some security management."
"The Kubernetes blocks need improvement since Docker has many holes in it."
"Docker could improve by having more advanced features."
"However, I have deducted 1.5 points because there are still some gaps around security, observability, and networking simplicity that can be addressed."
"One of the challenges I face with Docker is debugging containers within the infrastructure. It can be tricky to debug applications inside containers, which is a common issue among developers. If easier tools or methods were available to debug applications within Docker containers, it would be very beneficial."
"Portainer needs to be more intuitive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For commercial use, it's about $30 per month. The license itself isn't expensive, but if there are many users, the price becomes high."
"Docker is a free-to-use solution. However, Docker Enterprise is not free."
"Its convenience edition is free of cost."
"The pricing of the solution is fairly cheap."
"The offering and service are quite free."
"Docker is cost-effective and open-source."
"I use the solution's open-source version."
"This is an open-source solution, so there are no licensing costs."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
University
7%
Manufacturing Company
17%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise35
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Docker?
We are using Docker to host applications.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Docker?
The setup cost has balanced out, and I find Docker's pricing reasonable. Docker Engine is free and open source for Linux, and Docker Desktop is free for individual developers and small teams, but a...
What needs improvement with Docker?
As Docker is already a very mature tool, there are areas where it can be improved based on real-world usage. One area I consider is the Windows container experience. The pain point here is that Win...
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Comparisons

 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kubernetes and others in Container Management. Updated: January 2026.
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