Portainer vs Spacelift Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
Starter
- Community support
- Max of 16 vCPUs per node
- The Starter plan(s) are available via online purchases only. Purchases cannot be made through Resellers.
Scale
- 9x5 next business day support
- Max of 24 vCPUs per node
- Vendor onboarding
- Purchases via Resellers
Enterprise
- Prioritized 9x5 next business day support
- Choose from 32 vCPUs - Unlimited vCPUs per node
- Production and Non-Production Node Options
- Customizable License Agreement
- Assigned Support Engineer
- Security Assessment Report
- TAA Compliance Certificate
- Managed Platform Services Option
- 24/7 Support Option
IIoT Professional
- All Business Edition features
- Onboarding assistance included
- 9×5 support
- Click-through license agreement
- Professional Services available (add-on)
- Async edge agent: offline-safe operation
- Fleet grouping and staged rollouts
IIoT Enterprise
- Everything in Professional
- Industrial App Portal ; included
- Prioritized 9×5 support
- Assigned support engineer
- Customizable license agreement
- Vendor onboarding available
- Multi-instance (prod, dev, test)
- Security assessment report
- Professional Services available (add-on)
Home & Student
- All Portainer Business Edition features
- Up to 15 nodes
- Docker, Swarm, and Kubernetes support
- Full RBAC and access control
- GitOps and app templates
- Community support via GitHub Discussions
Starter +
- Spaces
- IaC support
- Workflow customization
- VCS integration
- Resource visualization
- Cloud cost estimation
- Spacelift Terraform provider
- Dependencies
- Cloud integrations
- Drift detection
- Policy as Code engine
Business
- 3 private workers
- Blueprints
- Templates
- Advanced scheduling
- Private provider registry
- Targeted replans
- Dedicated Slack support channel
- Dedicated Customer Success Manager
- Silver Support + CSM
Enterprise
- 5-30 private workers
- Concurrent-VCS connections
- Audit trail
- SSO integration with SAML 2.0
- OIDC API Keys
- Private source control system
- Enhanced Onboarding Support
- Gold Support + CSM
- MFA
Enterprise +
- 12-30 private workers
- Self-hosted
- FedRAMP
- On-prem / Airgapped
- Gold Support + CSM + Executive escalation
- Unmanaged Resources (coming soon)
Portainer vs Spacelift FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- One or both use custom pricing, so it depends on your specific needs.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Both offer free plans, so you can try each without paying. Start with whichever fits your workflow better and upgrade when you hit the limits.
- How do they charge?
- Different approach here. Portainer uses hybrid pricing, while Spacelift goes with custom. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. Portainer: At ~$105-$209/mo for self-serve tiers, Portainer is positioned as an accessible mid-market option in the container management space — cheaper than enterprise Kubernetes platforms but priced above pure open-source alternatives. They're clearly targeting DevOps and infrastructure teams at growth-stage companies who've outgrown DIY but aren't ready for Rancher or OpenShift pricing. Spacelift: At $20K/year as an entry point for paid plans, Spacelift is positioning squarely in the mid-to-enterprise IaC automation space — not competing on price with open-source Atlantis or lightweight CI hacks, but going after teams that have outgrown DIY and need something closer to Terraform Cloud Business or Env0's enterprise tier.
Still deciding? See the best Portainer alternatives or the best Spacelift alternatives, ranked with verified pricing.
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