1Panel vs Umbrel
| Tagline | Modern Linux server and web-app management panel with app store deploys | Beautiful personal server OS with one-click app installs for home servers |
| Category | Self-Hosting Platforms & PaaS | Self-Hosting Platforms & PaaS |
| Replaces | Heroku, Render | Heroku, Render, Netlify |
| GitHub stars | 36k | 11k |
| Language | Go | Nodejs |
| License | GPL-3.0 | ⊘ Proprietary |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 2/5 Easy |
| Deploy options | Docker Manual | Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | today | 1 month ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
1Panel
- More of a server/hosting control panel than a git-push PaaS; no native buildpack or git-deploy pipeline.
- No horizontal autoscaling or clustering across nodes.
- Documentation and community are strongest in Chinese; English resources lag.
- No managed cloud option or edge/CDN.
Umbrel
- Core OS is proprietary, limiting customization and community extensibility
- No CI/CD pipelines or Git-based deployment workflows
- App store is curated and closed; adding custom apps requires workarounds
- Not suitable for multi-user or enterprise deployments; designed for single personal use
Bottom line
Both are a similar lift to self-host; choose 1Panel for the larger community and ecosystem. 1Panel has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.