7mo ago

Anyone else get an email from Portainer?

Just got an email thanking me for being a 5-node/free user, but Portainer isn't free and I need to stop being a cheap-ass and pay them because blah blah economic times enshittification blah blah blah.

I've moved off them a while ago, but figured I'd see if they emailed EVERYONE about this?

A good time to ditch them if you haven't, I suppose.

49 comments

I used portainer only as fancy docker dashboard and to start stop services. It was buggy and even with the git implementation really frustrating to use. Also that they do not store the compose files is simply not ok.
Dockge fully replaced portainer for my needs.
- I love Dockge. Have also replaced Portainer with it.
  But I hate that I can't just restart a single container easily with it. It's a small enough issue since most of the time I need to restart the entire compose file because of dependencies, but still.
  
  You can go to the terminal tab and just run the cli command.
  Not perfect, but something to avoid needing to ssh in at least.
  
  Agreed. Really annoying.
  
  To be fair, Dockge is very, very new. I imagine features like that will turn up soon enough.
- The complete and utter lack of a mobile friendly interface is beyond frustrating. No android, i don't want you to snap zoom to the search bar every fucking time i go to my stacks page!?
- Just for you to known, they store the compose file. It's in their compose folder on the data volume.
  
  Oh yeah, sorry i know. Was too lazy to type it out. They number the created compose files in numbered directories instead of naming it after the stack.
  The problem is, that they do not support at all the direct modification of those files and the abstraction of numbering them instead of giving them real names is annoying when you want to start them via cli.
  
  Technically true, but if you actually try to interact with those compose files directly then shit gets really fucky.
- Dockge looks interesting, I gotta check that out

I've never really seen why portainer is used beyond a shiny UI. Docker compose file is enough for me
- Terminals are powerful and flexible, but still slower than a dedicated UI to see states at a glance, issue routine commands, or do text editing.
  Terminal absolutists are as insufferable as GUI purists. There is a place and time for both.
  
  I open up two terminal windows. The first runs watch docker ps and the second is where I make changes.
  
  Beautifully said. I can't say I've come across too many GUI purists, but I've definitely been shamed by terminal absolutists who are fine with turning a 1 second process into a 10 second one. There's a time and place for both.
  See also: bass players who use a pick.
  
  That's what aliases / functions in .bashrc (or whatever shell you use) are for. You don't need to always write the full code.
- Being a terminal purist is wonderful for those of us who live our lives deep in the caverns of Linux, but in actual production use you very often find situations where less technical users have to interact with the systems that we build.
  For my work, I need a way for low level tech support and technicians to go in and restart a container from time to time, and these people curl up in a ball and scream if you show them a command prompt. Having a UI removes a lot of friction.

I use portainer, but I don't think I ever gave them my information. How would they even have my email?
- If you register for a free 5-node license, you have to enter your contact data.
  
  Are you using portainer-ee? Never had to do that using portainer-ce

Why would you bother? Portainer isn't anything very useful for Docker. Set up your compose files and go to bed.
Lazydocker if you need an SSH TUI.

Yes, I got it too. $ 149/yr for a "home and student" noncommercial license? No thanks.
But for businesses, the pricing seems fair.
- I didn't even bother to look since, well, I just moved to compose files sitting in a folder instead but uh, $150? Seriously?
  That'd be the most expensive bit of all of my stacks, including hosting and power costs.
  
  At least for my personal use, I'm not willing to spend money on portainer. The free edition is fine.
- I didn't get the email and have the 5 node free business plan, but cant see the home/student price on the site. I guess it time to look at switching to dockge or something
  
  As long as Portainer CE will be free, I'll stick with it.

portainer sucks anyways. shells dont work really. dockGE is free. https://github.com/louislam/dockge
- I am very happy with dockge!

So dumb. How many hobbyists will pay that? A tiny fraction. Then in 4-5 years these guys will be sitting around wondering why their new business customer numbers fell off a cliff.
Don’t bite the hand that proselytizes for you at the office.

I dont ever recall giving portainer my real email.

They reduced the free option from 5 nodes to 3 a while back. Looks like only the people who had the 5 node license received that email.

Does anyone know if dockge allows you to directly connect to a git repo to pull compose files?
This is what I like most about portainer. I work in the compose files from an IDE and the check them into my self hosted git repo.
Then on portainer, the stack is connected to the repo so only press a button to pull the latest compose and there is a check box to decide if I want the docker image to update or not.
Works really well and makes it very easy to roll back if needed.
- No, but it is designed that way that you can simply point dockge to the local cloned repo. Then you simply have to git pull and your done.
- I personally never understood the need for fancy docker guis. You can do that from the command line easily. If you want to automate it you can use Ansible.

I've been screwing around with yacht.sh as an open source alternative. It's aight.
- seems to have issues with chrome on a macBook; more reason to move to firefox?
  
  Pretty much, yeah.

Wait.
Does Portainer ask your email? I haven't used it in years. I though it was just a container that you run, with mounted docker socket, and that's it.
Is it now doing some "telemetry" and sending user data, like email, to their servers? If so, I'm glad I'm not using that anymore.

Got one aswell, i have used their free 5 node business option but since switched over to dockge and I'm happy
Ofc portainer does so much more but I just don't need it anymore
- I recently switched to Dockge and it suites my needs. I like some aspects of Dockge better, but I like the network and image management features of portainer.
  
  Yeah, network and image management is what I miss most

CE FTW

This is why I never got into portainer

49 comments