
podman-tui
Podman Terminal UI
The Lens
podman-tui is a terminal dashboard for Podman. Containers, pods, images, volumes, and networks, all managed from a keyboard-driven UI instead of memorizing podman subcommands. It connects to a local Podman or a remote one over SSH, so you can drive a server's containers without a browser or a heavy desktop app. It comes from the containers org, the same upstream community behind Podman itself, and it is free under Apache-2.0.
Setup is about as light as it gets. It is a single Go binary, no daemon of its own, no Electron, no login. If you already run Podman, you are a download away from a working TUI. Because it talks to Podman's API directly, it inherits Podman's rootless, daemonless model, which is the whole reason a lot of people moved off Docker in the first place.
For anyone living in the terminal who manages containers on servers, this is an easy yes. It is the free, lightweight counterpart to Docker Desktop's GUI, minus the licensing questions Docker Desktop raises for bigger companies. Solo, small team, or large: same answer, it is free and it stays out of your way.
The catch is scope. It manages Podman and only Podman. If your shop runs Docker or a mix, this is not your tool; look at lazydocker for the Docker side. And a TUI is still a TUI, great for triage and quick edits, not a replacement for proper orchestration once you are on Kubernetes.
Free vs Self-Hosted vs Paid
fully freeFree: Everything. Apache-2.0, the full TUI, local and remote (SSH) management. No paid tier exists.
Self-hosted: It is a client, not a service. Drop the binary on your machine or a jump host and point it at any Podman socket.
Paid: None. This is the free alternative to Docker Desktop's paid GUI for container management.
Free under Apache-2.0, backed by the Podman community. No paid tier, no catch beyond it being Podman-only.
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License: Apache License 2.0
Use freely. Patent grant included.
Commercial use: ✓ Yes
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