Built for the fleet that is too small for Balena and too real for scripts
The four products people usually shortlist against us are excellent at what they optimise for: a managed IoT operating system, broad container administration, firmware OTA, and general Linux configuration. We optimise for one thing: turning the Compose file you already have into a safely managed fleet of 5 to 500 devices, at a price that makes sense for a small commercial team.
| Capability | Simple Docker OpsThis product | Balena | Portainer | Mender | Qbee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deploy | |||||
| Your Compose file is the deployment unitNo new manifest format to learn or maintain | Yes: Unchanged docker-compose.yml | Partly: Compose with Balena extensions; Balena builds the images | Yes: Compose via Edge Stacks | Partly: Through a Compose update module | Partly: Compose supported inside its config model |
| Keeps your existing Linux and Docker EngineNo proprietary host OS to flash | Yes: Debian, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS, any systemd Linux | No: Requires balenaOS | Yes: Agent container on any host | Yes: Client on any Linux; full OTA needs a partition layout | Yes: Agent on any Linux |
| Releases pinned to image digestsThe bytes that passed test are the bytes that ship | Yes: Every release resolved to digests at creation | Partly: Balena-built images are versioned per release | No: Deploys tags as written | No: Not a focus | No: Not a focus |
| Architecture validation before rolloutMixed arm64 and amd64 fleets | Yes: Blocks a release a device cannot run | Partly: Per device type | No: Not a focus | Partly: Device types | No: Not a focus |
| Roll out safely | |||||
| Staged rollouts in waves | Yes: Waves, max parallel, per-fleet | Partly: Manual release pinning per device or fleet | Partly: Staggered updates in Business Edition | Yes: Phased deployments | No: Not a focus |
| Health gates between wavesContainer state plus HTTP/TCP probes for a minimum healthy time | Yes: Built in, per release | No: Not a focus | No: Not a focus | Partly: Update-module scripts | No: Not a focus |
| Automatic rollback on failure | Yes: Threshold-based; pause or roll back | No: Roll back by pinning the previous release | No: Manual | Yes: Strong at the firmware level | No: Manual |
| Works for devices that are offline for daysPull-based desired state, no inbound ports | Yes: Agent reconciles when it reconnects | Yes: Yes | Yes: Edge agent polls | Yes: Yes | Yes: Yes |
| Operate | |||||
| Container status, health and logs in one console | Yes: Per device and per fleet | Yes: Yes | Yes: Yes | Partly: Update status; logs via other tools | Yes: Yes |
| Encrypted secrets and private registries per fleet | Yes: AES-256-GCM at rest, injected at deploy | Yes: Device and fleet variables | Yes: Business Edition | Partly: Limited | Partly: Limited |
| Setup on a new device | Yes: One install command, pairs in minutes | No: Flash a balenaOS image | Yes: Run the agent container | Partly: Install client; partition layout for full OTA | Yes: Install the agent |
| No Kubernetes anywhere | Yes: None, by design | Yes: None | Partly: Optional; the product also manages Swarm and Kubernetes | Yes: None | Yes: None |
| Fit and price | |||||
| Free tier | Yes: 5 devices, no time limit | Yes: 10 devices | Partly: Community Edition self-hosted; hosted tiers are non-commercial | No: Trial | Yes: 5 devices |
| A 25-device commercial fleet, per month | Yes: $10 (Developer) | No: $159 (Prototype, includes 30) | No: From about $105 (Starter) | Partly: $34 (Basic, up to 50) | No: €149 (Startup, up to 50) |
| A 100-device commercial fleet, per month | Yes: $25 (Team) | No: About $369 ($159 + $3 per extra device) | No: Per-node pricing; quote | No: $291 (Professional, up to 250) | No: €490 (Scaleup, up to 250) |
| Built for | Yes: 5 to 500 devices on Linux you already run | Partly: IoT programmes that want a managed OS | Partly: Teams administering Docker, Swarm and Kubernetes | Partly: Firmware OTA with strict update guarantees | Partly: General Linux configuration and CVE tracking |
Yes Partly or with caveats No, or not the product's focusCompetitor details and prices are taken from their public documentation and price pages, September 2026, in the vendor's listed currency. If something has changed, tell us and we will correct it.
Choose one of them if you need
- A managed host operating system with full OTA and a broad device catalogue: Balena
- Firmware updates with A/B partitions and strict update guarantees: Mender
- One console for Docker, Swarm and Kubernetes clusters: Portainer
- General Linux configuration, remote access and CVE tracking: Qbee
Choose Simple Docker Ops if you need
- Your existing Linux and Docker Engine kept exactly as they are
- Compose as the deployment format, every release pinned to image digests
- Rollouts in waves with health gates and automatic rollback, because a broken release at 50 sites is a truck roll
- Transparent pricing from free to 500 devices, with no cliff after the free tier
Also in the market: AWS IoT Device Management (hyperscale building blocks you assemble yourself), Ansible (push-based configuration, awkward for devices that are often offline), self-hosted PaaS tools such as Coolify and Dokploy (a server model, not a physical fleet), and SSH plus scripts (the operational pain we exist to remove).
Add your first device free.
Five devices and one gigabyte of registry on the Free plan. No card, no sales call, no Kubernetes.
curl -fsSL https://simpledockerops.com/install | sudo sh