Host Docker & Portainer Run any app in containers — with a clean web UI

Docker is the container runtime — it runs and manages containers on your server. Portainer is a web UI that sits on top of Docker, making it easier to manage containers, stacks, volumes, and networks without using the command line. You install Docker first, then optionally add Portainer.

Yes. Portainer Community Edition (CE) is free and open source. It covers all core features for managing containers, stacks, volumes, and networks. Portainer Business Edition adds enterprise features like RBAC and SSO, but CE is sufficient for most teams.

Docker itself is lightweight — it adds minimal overhead. The specs depend on the containers you run. For a personal server with a few containers: 2 cores, 2 GB RAM. For a production stack with databases and multiple services: 4 cores, 8 GB RAM.

Yes. Docker containers are isolated — each app runs in its own environment with its own dependencies and ports. Use a reverse proxy (Nginx Proxy Manager or Traefik) to route traffic from a single IP to multiple containers.

Docker Swarm is Docker's built-in clustering and orchestration feature. It lets you run containers across multiple servers (nodes) for high availability and load balancing. Portainer supports Swarm management from its web UI.