Portainer

Portainer is a browser based management interface for Docker. It runs as a Docker container itself and provides a dashboard accessible from any browser on your network.

What it provides

Docker's command-line interface is precise but not always approachable, particularly when you are getting started or when you want a quick overview of what is running. Portainer gives you all containers, their status, resource usage, logs, and network connections in one interface. You can start, stop, restart, and remove containers without opening a terminal.

It also supports stacks: groups of containers defined together in a Docker Compose file. You can paste a compose configuration directly into Portainer and deploy it in a few clicks. Most self-hosted applications publish a compose file in their documentation, which makes this workflow straightforward.

How it is deployed

Portainer Community Edition is free. It deploys as a single Docker container and is then accessible through a browser at the Pi's local IP address. It stores its own configuration in a persistent Docker volume so settings survive container restarts.

Portainer Business Edition extends the Community Edition with additional features for teams and multi-environment setups. For a single home lab, the Community Edition covers everything you need. The official documentation at portainer.io covers installation for all common platforms.