From “I’ll just run Plex” to 17 containers: why I finally ditched Portainer for Dockhand
My journey into containers started pretty innocently: Plex, and a vague idea that maybe I should also try AdGuard or Pi-hole at some point.
Plex came first because, like many Synology users, I originally used the built-in Plex package from Synology’s apps. It worked, but I quickly realized one annoying thing: updates were a problem. The Synology package was always far behind the official releases, so eventually I decided it was time to move Plex into Docker.
At first, I went with Synology Container Manager because it was already there and I wanted the easiest possible path. But, as usual, “just one container” was not enough for long. Pretty quickly I moved to Docker Compose.
Then, after a couple of days of reading Reddit, watching YouTube, and going through articles, I switched to Portainer. And honestly, that’s where I stayed for quite a while — over two years.
Portainer was great. The free Business Edition license for up to three nodes was also a nice bonus. Over time, my stacks became more organized, my home network setup evolved, and with VLANs, firewall rules, and macvlan for containers, I finally reached my own little homelab zen.
The funny part is that I originally thought: “Yeah, I’ll probably run five containers max.”
Fast-forward a bit, and I had 17.
But one problem kept bothering me: container updates.
Yes, there is Watchtower, but the project has not felt like the best long-term choice for a while. I wanted something cleaner, more controlled, and more modern.
And that is where my new favorite tool comes in: Dockhand.
I was honestly reluctant to change anything. After using Portainer for so long, I did not feel like migrating or testing yet another tool just for fun. But I gave Dockhand a try because the project is new, looks very promising, and, most importantly, has the thing I was really looking for: proper container updates.
The ability to set update schedules for selected containers is fantastic. That feature alone was enough to get my attention.
So I migrated, dropped Portainer, and moved fully to Dockhand.
And I have to say: I recommend it to anyone who is still undecided.
The container inspection features are excellent. CPU usage, RAM usage, upload/download stats, and the general visibility into what is happening with containers are really well done. After a few days of using it, I am genuinely impressed.
Right now, I think Dockhand may be the best available option for anyone running a homelab.
I basically just wanted to say how much I like this app, but apparently I needed a whole origin story first. ;)