Like many people, I chose Portainer when I started self-hosting apps on my NAS. It was among the most widely recommended tools, and indeed, it proved to be a no-nonsense way to manage Docker containers. It has become one of the first tools I now install whenever I switch to a new NAS model for testing and reviews. However, over time, that convenience became a burden. I just wanted something that worked well while staying out of the way — the bells and whistles didn’t matter much.

That’s when I decided to drop Portainer and replace it with Komodo, which has proven to be a clean, open-source, and dead-simple container dashboard. No complex integrations, no surprises. Just a clear interface for managing containers directly via the Docker API. This is exactly why Komodo is now my perfect container manager instead of Portainer.

Why Portainer wasn’t working for me anymore

Its time’s up

The more I used Portainer, the more I realized I didn’t fully trust what I was looking at. I’d open the dashboard, click through a few containers, glance at logs, and then head straight to the terminal to verify what Portainer had shown me. That is anything but a workflow — more like anti-workflow, if I may.

Portainer initially started as a lightweight layer over Docker, but it has continued to grow. At some point, it began to feel like I was maintaining Portainer rather than using it to maintain my containers. From the internal database to login flows and the occasional weirdness with stack deployments, it slowly became more than I wanted to deal with. An update once wiped my session and prompted me to “reclaim” the instance, as if I were booting it up for the first time. Another time, it failed to display the correct state of a Compose-based deployment because I had made changes outside Portainer’s UI. Sure, it wasn’t completely broken, but it didn’t feel reliable either.

And as Portainer evolved, it started putting some of its most useful features — like advanced RBAC, Git integration, and full API access — behind a paid Business Edition. For someone running a handful of containers on a few servers, that was unnecessary and even overkill. I didn’t want to hit a wall every time I needed to scale or automate something.

Why Komodo is way better

At least for my needs

Komodo is the kind of tool you start using and immediately wonder why more software isn’t like this. It’s just one binary. You run it, and you get a clean, fast dashboard that talks directly to the Docker socket. There’s no login needed, with no sync issues. You shut it down, and it's just gone, leaving nothing behind.

What I love most is that it doesn’t pretend to be smarter than your Docker — its layout is intuitive, and the actions you perform are immediate. Want to stop a container? Click stop. Need to tail logs? They’re right there, updating in real-time. You get exactly what you expect, and that’s rare in modern dashboards. Additionally, it is open-source and free.

The interface doesn’t bury you in detail, but it doesn’t dumb things down either. It strikes a balance between glanceable info and deeper inspection. I can see environment variables, ports, health checks, and image tags all in one click. And because Komodo Periphery is stateless, I never have to worry about syncing or restoring anything. It’s a UI that exists purely to observe and act, not to manage some separate version of reality.

But what really sets Komodo apart is what it doesn’t do: no features behind paywalls, no vendor lock-in, no interference with your compose files. It’s fully open-source, supports unlimited servers and stacks, and provides built-in monitoring and notifications without requiring external tools or paid upgrades. Git integration is there if you want it, and it won’t break if you edit files outside the UI. It’s automation-friendly, with a fully open API, and just tells you what’s actually running.

Why Portainer is still a great choice

It’s not that bad

To be clear, this isn’t a piece to roast Portainer. It’s a solid project. It just isn’t built for the kind of self-hosted, minimal setup I now prefer. But there are definitely use cases where it still makes sense — and maybe even excels.

If you’re working with a team or managing a multi-node cluster, Portainer’s RBAC features, edge agents, and user management tools can be incredibly useful. It’s built for coordination at scale, not simplicity. Similarly, if you’re just starting out with Docker and want something that is widely used with a lot of public support, Portainer is still the way to go, especially with its templates and UI flows that don’t require fiddling with the command line.

There’s also something to be said for persistence. Portainer remembers things. It stores the state and tracks changes. If you’re in an environment where history and metadata matter a lot, it might be a better tool for the job. And if you’ve already got it configured and stable, ripping it out just to save a few seconds may not be worth the hassle anyway.

Simplicity over everything else

Docker is a powerful way to boost what your current NAS is capable of doing on its own. And managing all of it requires a dashboard that, instead of making your job tougher, just melts into your workflow without standing out or troubling you. Komodo has proved to be that tool for me, convincing me to leave Portainer behind. And if you want to boost your workflows even more, containerizing important programs with Docker may be the secret solution you’ve been looking for.