I see you’re open to Docker now - I’m a huge fan of Dockge which is a nice web GUI for managing your Docker Compose files. I tried just using Docker run commands to set up my containers and it was a painful experience. Tried Portainer for a bit as well, but when I came across Dockge, everything just fell into place. You can copy Docker run commands in there and it will convert to Docker compose as well as easily update, set up stacks with multiple related containers, etc.
I also love Tailscale for remotely accessing my network. This video was really helpful in setting up Tailscale for a few of my Docker containers I want to access remotely.
If you decide you don’t have the time to learn all this, I have used Umbrel in the past and they just released a big update. It has an “app store” that handles setting up your Docker containers for you.
Good luck, it’s a fun journey!
Dockge is really just a nice GUI for Docker compose. It still creates docker-compose.yml files and you could always switch back to just managing that way with no impact. It can convert Docker run commands to Docker compose, usually it’s pretty close but may need a little tweaking. It also shows the terminal output from the container, which is helpful for troubleshooting. It feels more lightweight to me and does only what I need, nothing more.
I had been managing my own Docker compose files for a while, so Portainer may do some or all of this also, but it always felt a little bloated, so this was a good fit.