A Portainer alternative with roles and audit in the free edition.
FleetOps is an open-source, self-hosted web UI for Docker, Podman and Kubernetes. Like Portainer, it manages local and remote hosts from one place. Unlike Portainer Community Edition, per-environment roles, namespace scoping and an audit log are free, on any number of nodes.
In short
Choose FleetOps if several people share Docker hosts or clusters and you want to know who changed what, without a per-node license. It is one ~17 MB binary, every list updates live from Docker events and Kubernetes watches, and it never phones home.
Stay with Portainer if you run Docker Swarm, deploy Compose stacks from Git today, or need SSO now. FleetOps is younger (0.x), and stacks with GitOps are next on its roadmap.
FleetOps vs Portainer
Portainer details from portainer.io, checked October 2026. Something out of date? Tell us.
| FleetOps Community | Portainer CE | Portainer Business | |
|---|---|---|---|
| License | Apache-2.0 | zlib (open source) | Commercial, per node |
| Docker and Podman hosts | |||
| Kubernetes clusters | |||
| Remote hosts with no inbound port | Dial-out agent | Edge agent | Edge agent |
| Per-environment roles | Viewer, operator | Basic | Fine-grained RBAC |
| Kubernetes namespace scoping | – | ||
| Audit log of every change | Free, 90 days | – | |
| Docker Swarm | – | ||
| Compose stacks and GitOps | Next on roadmap | ||
| SSO | Planned | – |
Try it next to Portainer
Both only need the Docker socket. If port 9000 is taken, change -p 9000:9000 to a free port such as -p 9100:9000.
docker run -d --name fleetops -p 9000:9000 \
-v fleetops-data:/data \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
--group-add "$(stat -c %g /var/run/docker.sock)" \
fleets/fleetops
Questions
What is the best free alternative to Portainer?
For teams that want roles and an audit log without paying, FleetOps Community is a strong choice: it is Apache-2.0, has no node or user limit, and includes per-environment roles, Kubernetes namespace scoping and an audit log. For a single host where you mostly edit Compose files, Dockge is simpler.
Can FleetOps and Portainer run on the same host?
Yes. Both only need the Docker socket. Publish FleetOps on a free port, for example -p 9100:9000, and try it next to Portainer before you switch.
Does FleetOps import Portainer settings?
No. FleetOps reads containers, images, volumes and networks straight from Docker, so there is nothing to import for them. Users, roles and remote environments are set up again in FleetOps.
Is FleetOps lighter than Portainer?
FleetOps is a single static binary of about 17 MB, and its CI checks that idle memory stays under 50 MiB on a host with 50 containers.