Portainer Raspberry Pi: manage Docker from your browser

Once Docker is running on your board, a Portainer Raspberry Pi setup is the natural next step. Portainer is a free, lightweight web interface for managing Docker containers, images, volumes, and networks — no terminal required. This guide walks you through a complete installation on ARM hardware and shows you how to get the most out of the dashboard.

What you need before setting up Portainer Raspberry Pi

• Raspberry Pi 3, 4, or 5 running 32-bit or 64-bit OS
• Docker Engine installed — follow the Docker Raspberry Pi ARM guide if you have not done this yet
• Port 9443 reachable from your local network (or 9000 for plain HTTP)

Portainer Raspberry Pi: step-by-step installation

Portainer itself runs as a Docker container. First create the volume that stores its configuration data:

docker volume create portainer_data

Then run the container:

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

The /var/run/docker.sock bind-mount is what gives Portainer control over the Docker daemon. Portainer ships official ARM images under the same latest tag, so this command works identically on any ARM board.

First login and initial setup

Open https://<your-pi-ip>:9443 in your browser. Portainer prompts you to create an admin account. Do this within five minutes of container start — the service locks itself after the timeout as a security measure. On the next screen, select Get Started to connect to the local Docker environment.

Managing containers and stacks

The Containers view lists every running and stopped container. You can start, stop, restart, and view logs with one click. The Stacks section accepts Docker Compose files directly in the browser — paste your docker-compose.yml and click Deploy to bring up a full multi-service setup without touching the terminal.

To update a container, click Recreate. Portainer pulls the latest image tag and restarts the service with the same configuration. This is especially useful when running several self-hosted services that need regular updates.

Keeping Portainer up to date

To upgrade Portainer itself, pull the new image and recreate the container:

docker pull portainer/portainer-ce:latest
docker stop portainer && docker rm portainer
# run the original docker run command again

For version-specific upgrade notes, see the official Portainer upgrade documentation.