Kubernetes Alternatives

Kubernetes is described as 'Open source orchestration system for Docker containers' and is a popular Virtualization tool in the network & admin category. There are more than 50 alternatives to Kubernetes, not only websites but also apps for a variety of platforms, including Linux, Mac, Windows and Self-Hosted apps. The best Kubernetes alternative is Heroku. It's not free, so if you're looking for a free alternative, you could try virt-manager or Vagrant. Other great sites and apps similar to Kubernetes are OpenShift, Rancher, Docker Swarm and Apache Mesos.

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Alternatives list

  1. Heroku icon
     124 likes

    Heroku is a platform as a service (PaaS) that enables developers to build, run, and operate applications entirely in the cloud.

    177 Heroku alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Subscription
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
     
    • Heroku is the most popular Web-based alternative to Kubernetes.

    • Heroku is the most popular commercial alternative to Kubernetes.

    • Heroku is Paid and ProprietaryKubernetes is Free and Open Source
  2. virt-manager icon
     81 likes

    Comprehensive desktop tool for managing virtual machines using libvirt, supporting KVM, Xen, and Linux Containers. It offers performance stats, resource allocation and virtual hardware configuration with VNC and SPICE clients for graphical consoles.

    34 virt-manager alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
     
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    1
    Comments about virt-manager as an Alternative to Kubernetes
    Guest
    Positive
    3

    virt-manager can handle clusters of several physical VM hosts, each running many VMs. It offers advanced orchestration features such as migrating VMs between hosts with no downtime, storage provisioning, networking/firewall configuration and live snapshots. A major difference between Kubernetes and virt-manager (as well as the libvirt ecosystem in general) is that Kubernetes manages containers, whereas libvirt manages full VMs running on a hypervisor such as KVM, Xen or ESX.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Kubernetes Icon
    virt-manager icon
    • Most users think virt-manager is a great Kubernetes alternative.

    • virt-manager is the most popular Linux alternative to Kubernetes.

    • virt-manager is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to Kubernetes.

    • virt-manager is Free and Open SourceKubernetes is also Free and Open Source
    • virt-manager is Lightweight, Privacy focused, Security-focused and CustomizableKubernetes is not according to our users
  3. Vagrant icon
     107 likes

    Create and manage virtualized development environments. Vagrant is a tool for building complete development environments. With an easy-to-use workflow and focus on automation, Vagrant lowers development environment setup time, increases development/production parity, and makes...

    22 Vagrant alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • VirtualBox
    • VMware Workstation Pro
    • VMware Fusion
    • FreeBSD
     
    • Some users think Vagrant is a great Kubernetes alternative, some don't.

    • Vagrant is the most popular Windows & Mac alternative to Kubernetes.

    • Vagrant is Free and Open SourceKubernetes is also Free and Open Source
    • Vagrant is LightweightKubernetes is not according to our users
  4. OpenShift icon
     89 likes

    Red Hat OpenShift is a trusted, comprehensive, and consistent platform to develop, modernize, and deploy applications at scale, including today’s AI-enabled apps. Deliver better experiences faster with a complete set of services for bringing apps to market on your choice of infrastructure.

    65 OpenShift alternatives

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
    • Self-Hosted
    • Amazon Web Services
    • Microsoft Azure
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
     
    • OpenShift is the most popular SaaS & Self-Hosted alternative to Kubernetes.

    • OpenShift is Freemium and Open SourceKubernetes is Free and Open Source
  5. Rancher icon
     47 likes

    Rancher is an open source container management platform built for organizations that deploy containers in production. Rancher makes it easy to run Kubernetes everywhere, meet IT requirements, and empower DevOps teams.

    34 Rancher alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  6. Docker Swarm icon
     15 likes

    Docker Swarm is native clustering for Docker. It allows you create and access to a pool of Docker hosts using the full suite of Docker tools. Because Docker Swarm serves the standard Docker API, any tool that already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to...

    19 Docker Swarm alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Self-Hosted
    • Docker
     
  7. Apache Mesos icon
     20 likes

    Apache Mesos is a cluster manager that simplifies the complexity of running applications on a shared pool of servers.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
     
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    9
  8. Rancher Desktop is an open-source desktop application for Mac, Windows and Linux. It provides Kubernetes and container management. You can choose the version of Kubernetes you want to run. You can build, push, pull, and run container images.

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  9. Lazydocker icon
     16 likes

    Memorising docker commands is hard. Memorising aliases is slightly less hard. Keeping track of your containers across multiple terminal windows is near impossible. What if you had all the information you needed in one terminal window with every common command living one keypress...

    29 Lazydocker alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Docker
     
  10. Nomad is an easy-to-use, flexible, and performant workload orchestrator that can deploy a mix of microservice, batch, containerized, and non-containerized applications.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Self-Hosted
     
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    1
    Comments about HashiCorp Nomad as an Alternative to Kubernetes
    Guest
    Positive
    0

    It is simple and stable. It has very versatile config.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Kubernetes Icon
    HashiCorp Nomad icon
    • HashiCorp Nomad is Freemium and ProprietaryKubernetes is Free and Open Source
  11. Qovery icon
     11 likes

    Qovery is the first Container as a Service (CaaS) platform that allows any developer to deploy an application in just a few seconds.

    Cost / License

    • Subscription
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
     
  12. Porter icon
     2 likes

    Porter is an alternative to Heroku that runs in your own cloud (AWS, GCP, DigitalOcean, etc). Get started on Porter without the overhead of DevOps and fully customize your infra later when you need to.

    Cost / License

    • Subscription
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
     
12 of 52 Kubernetes alternatives