Portainer Pricing (2026)

You're paying per-node, not per-seat, which means the cost scales with your infrastructure footprint rather than headcount. That's a deliberate bet that container orchestration value tracks with cluster size, not team size — so a 5-person team managing 50 nodes pays more than a 20-person team managing 10.

From $1045/mo 3 plans hybrid Free trial Best Portainer alternatives → Portainer's competitors →
Starter
$1045/mo
Scale Popular
$2095/mo
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Verified Sep 19, 2026 Official pricing page
Screenshot of Portainer's pricing page showing its plans and prices
Their pricing page, captured Sep 19, 2026

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Starter

$1045/mo
  • 5, 10, or 15 nodes
  • Community support
  • Up to 16 vCPUs per node
  • Online purchase only, not via resellers

Scale

Popular
$2095/mo
  • 5 to 25 nodes
  • 9x5 next business day support
  • Up to 24 vCPUs per node
  • Vendor onboarding
  • Available through resellers

Enterprise

Contact Sales
  • 32 to unlimited vCPUs per node
  • Prioritized 9x5 support, 24/7 option
  • Production and non-production nodes
  • Customizable license agreement
  • Assigned support engineer
  • Security assessment report
  • TAA compliance certificate
  • Managed platform services option

Does Portainer have a free plan?

No. There's no free-forever plan. There is a free trial that lasts 45 days, and paid plans start at $1045/mo.

Want free? Buildkite, CircleCI, and env0 have free plans: see all Portainer alternatives →

AI Pricing Analysis

Pricing Model

You're paying per-node, not per-seat, which means the cost scales with your infrastructure footprint rather than headcount. That's a deliberate bet that container orchestration value tracks with cluster size, not team size — so a 5-person team managing 50 nodes pays more than a 20-person team managing 10.

Tier Strategy

Starter at $1045/mo is built for teams with a modest fleet of nodes who just need centralized container management without a sales call. Scale doubles the price and presumably the node ceiling or feature set for orgs whose Kubernetes/Docker footprint has grown past what Starter covers, while Enterprise kicks in once you need custom node counts, support SLAs, or compliance features that only a quote can price.

Competitive Positioning

At four-figures-a-month before you even hit Enterprise, Portainer is priced for infrastructure teams at mid-size to large companies, not solo devs or small startups — this isn't competing with free/cheap container UIs, it's going after teams who'll pay for a polished management layer across many nodes. The 15-node, 45-day extended trial for Enterprise signals they're chasing larger deployments where the sales cycle is longer and the node count matters more than feature checklists.

Growth Lever

Expansion here is almost entirely node-count driven — as your cluster grows, you either outgrow Starter's node allowance or need Scale's higher ceiling, and eventually Enterprise's custom limits. The separate pricing tracks for Industrial/IoT and Home/Student use show they're segmenting by use case too, so growth also comes from upselling within a vertical rather than just adding nodes to an existing plan.

Want the strategist's read on the live page? Read the AI teardown of Portainer's pricing page →

Portainer Pricing FAQ

How much does Portainer cost?
Paid plans start at $1045/mo, going up to $2095/mo for larger teams. There's also an Enterprise tier with custom pricing.
Is there a free plan?
No free plan. But there is a free trial, so you can test it out before paying.
Can I try it before paying?
Yes — there's a free trial that lasts 45 days.
How does the pricing work?
You're paying per-node, not per-seat, which means the cost scales with your infrastructure footprint rather than headcount. That's a deliberate bet that container orchestration value tracks with cluster size, not team size — so a 5-person team managing 50 nodes pays more than a 20-person team managing 10.
Which plan makes sense for me?
Starter at $1045/mo is built for teams with a modest fleet of nodes who just need centralized container management without a sales call. Scale doubles the price and presumably the node ceiling or feature set for orgs whose Kubernetes/Docker footprint has grown past what Starter covers, while Enterprise kicks in once you need custom node counts, support SLAs, or compliance features that only a quote can price.

More DevOps pricing

All DevOps pricing →

Comparing Portainer to something specific? Try Portainer vs Buildkite, Portainer vs CircleCI, or Portainer vs env0. Or see the best Portainer alternatives, ranked.

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