Dockge vs Portainer on Proxmox LXC: Which Docker Manager Should You Run in 2026?

If you're managing Docker stacks on Proxmox, you've probably run Portainer at some point. It's the default answer, it's everywhere in tutorials, and it works. But a growing number of home labbers have been quietly switching to Dockge — a lighter, compose-focused manager that does one thing and does it well.

This isn't a "Portainer is dead" post. It's a practical breakdown for engineers who want to know which tool actually fits their Proxmox home lab in 2026 — not the one with the most GitHub stars or the most Reddit hype.

What Is Dockge and Why Is Everyone Talking About It?

Dockge (pronounced "dockee") is an open-source Docker Compose stack manager built by Louis Lam — the same developer behind Uptime Kuma. It launched in late 2023 but has exploded in popularity through 2025 and into 2026 as Portainer's complexity and licensing model started grating on home labbers running simple single-node setups.

The core idea is file-first compose management. Your stacks live on disk as compose.yaml files. Dockge reads them, lets you edit and deploy via a clean web UI, and never locks your data into its own database. If Dockge disappears tomorrow, your stacks still work because they're just files.

Portainer also supports Docker Compose, but it stores compose files internally, adds a layer of abstraction over the raw files, and historically has pushed users toward its paid Business tier to unlock features like role-based access, custom templates, and multi-node management.

The Key Differences (Where It Actually Matters)

Storage Model

This is the biggest architectural difference and the reason experienced homelabbers gravitate toward Dockge.

Dockge: Stacks live in /opt/stacks/ (or whatever path you configure) as plain directories with a compose.yaml inside. You can cd into any stack and run docker compose up -d from the terminal. The UI is a window into those files — not the source of truth itself.

Portainer: Stacks are stored in Portainer's internal database. If you want to edit the compose file manually, you edit it inside Portainer's UI, not on disk. This creates a subtle but annoying mismatch when you're used to managing things via SSH and your editor of choice.

UI and Performance

Dockge loads fast. Snappy, reactive, no waiting for dashboards to hydrate. You open a stack, see the compose file, see the running containers and their logs, and that's it. The stack view is a single page with everything you need.

Portainer is heavier. It's built to manage Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, and multi-host environments, so the UI reflects that scope — which means a lot of menus and sub-pages you'll never use on a single-node Proxmox box.

On an LXC container with 2 vCPUs and 2 GB RAM, Portainer's resource overhead is noticeably higher, especially if you enable the agent for remote management.

Feature Surface

Portainer wins here, but it's worth asking whether you need those features.

Portainer extras:

Dockge:

If you're a solo engineer running 10–30 compose stacks on a home lab Proxmox node, Dockge covers 95% of what you need. The 5% it doesn't cover (multi-node, RBAC) are things most home labbers won't use anyway.

Multi-Node Support

Dockge added multi-server support in 2024 via its Agent model, similar in spirit to Portainer's. You can monitor and manage stacks across multiple nodes from a single Dockge instance. It's not as polished as Portainer's multi-host view, but it works for the home lab use case where you have two or three nodes.

Portainer is still stronger here, especially if you're running a lab with separate Proxmox nodes for different workloads and want a single pane of glass across all of them.

Installing Dockge on Proxmox LXC

The community-scripts project has an automated script that spins up a Debian LXC and installs Dockge in a single command. Run this from your Proxmox shell:

bash -c "$(wget -qLO - https://github.com/community-scripts/ProxmoxVE/raw/main/ct/dockge.sh)"

Default specs: 2 GB RAM, 18 GB disk, 2 vCPUs. Dockge runs on port 5001.

Alternatively, if you already have a Docker LXC running, you can install Dockge as an addon:

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/community-scripts/ProxmoxVE/main/tools/addon/dockge.sh)"

Once it's up, navigate to http://[LXC-IP]:5001 and you're in. Set your admin password on first run.

To add your first stack, create a directory under /opt/stacks/:

mkdir -p /opt/stacks/my-app
cat > /opt/stacks/my-app/compose.yaml << 'EOF'
services:
  app:
    image: nginx:alpine
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    restart: unless-stopped
EOF

Dockge auto-detects the stack and shows it in the UI. Click Deploy and you're done.

Installing Portainer on Proxmox LXC

For Portainer, the community-scripts approach is also the cleanest path:

bash -c "$(wget -qLO - https://github.com/community-scripts/ProxmoxVE/raw/main/ct/portainer.sh)"

Or if you prefer Docker directly on an existing LXC:

docker volume create portainer_data
docker run -d \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -p 9443:9443 \
  --name portainer \
  --restart=always \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v portainer_data:/data \
  portainer/portainer-ce:latest

Portainer UI runs on port 9443 (HTTPS) or 9000 (HTTP).

Running Both: A Valid Pattern

Some home labbers run both on the same node — Dockge as the primary day-to-day compose manager, and Portainer for its template library and any edge management scenarios. They don't conflict as long as you're not having both try to manage the same stacks simultaneously.

If that sounds like overkill, it probably is. Pick one and stick with it.

Which One Should You Actually Use?

Here's the honest breakdown:

Go with Dockge if:

Go with Portainer if:

For most readers of this blog — engineers running a personal home lab on Proxmox — Dockge is the better default in 2026. It's lighter, faster, file-first, and doesn't nag you about upgrading to a paid plan.

Recommended Hardware for a Dockge/Portainer Proxmox Node

If you're building or upgrading your home lab node, here are the pieces I'd consider for a compose-heavy Proxmox host in 2026:

Migrating From Portainer to Dockge

If you're already on Portainer and want to move, the process is straightforward because Portainer-managed stacks that were created from files (not from the built-in editor) can usually be exported:

1. In Portainer, open each stack and copy the compose content 2. On your host, create /opt/stacks/[stack-name]/compose.yaml with that content 3. Make sure env vars are in a .env file in the same directory 4. Install Dockge and point it at /opt/stacks 5. Dockge auto-discovers the stacks — click Deploy to confirm they come up 6. Shut down Portainer once everything is confirmed healthy

The main gotcha: Portainer-managed volumes don't get renamed or moved. Your data is still in Docker volumes (docker volume ls), so containers restarting from Dockge will find the same data as long as your compose volume declarations haven't changed.

The Bottom Line

Dockge and Portainer solve the same core problem — giving you a web UI for your Docker workloads — but they make opposite tradeoffs. Portainer is broad, capable, and complex. Dockge is narrow, fast, and elegant.

For a single-node Proxmox home lab in 2026, Dockge is the better fit for most engineers. It gets out of your way, keeps your compose files where they belong (on disk), and doesn't require you to learn a new mental model on top of Docker Compose.

That said, if you're running a multi-node setup or need shared access with RBAC, Portainer still earns its place. Use the right tool for your actual setup, not the one with the most hype.

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