Antrea vs Kube-OVN
Antrea
antrea.ioKube-OVN
kubeovn.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | Antrea | Kube-OVN |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Container Networking Software | 9.0 (#1) | 7.7 (#11) |
| Spec score · Software-Defined Networking Software | 9.0 (#1) | 7.7 (#5) |
| Deployment | A standard installation is performed by applying one YAML manifest, with Helm and cloud-specific guides also documented. | The documentation provides one-click installation scripts for building production-ready container networks. |
| Integrations | The documentation lists integrations and guides for Prometheus, Octant, Multus, and Fluentd. | Documented integrations include Cilium, MetalLB, OpenStack, Submariner, and OVN interconnect. |
| Purpose | Antrea implements the Container Network Interface and Kubernetes NetworkPolicy to provide pod networking and security for Kubernetes workloads. | Kube-OVN combines OVN and Open vSwitch with Kubernetes to provide cloud-native network orchestration. |
| Support | The project directs users to its Kubernetes Slack channel, mailing lists, community meetings, and office hours. | The project links to Slack for community discussion and Alauda for support. |
Plans
In their own words
Antrea
Antrea provides networking and security for Kubernetes workloads by implementing the Container Network Interface and Kubernetes NetworkPolicy. It uses Open vSwitch as its data plane, including for Kubernetes Service load balancing. Depending on infrastructure and use case, clusters can use VXLAN or Geneve overlays or run without an overlay. Antrea extends Kubernetes policy controls with tiers, rule priorities, cluster-level policies, and Node policies. It can federate clusters with a unified data plane, multi-cluster Services, and security posture. Diagnostics include command-line and UI tools for packet tracing, policy analysis, and flow inspection; metrics can be exported to Prometheus. Pod traffic encryption with IPsec or WireGuard is supported between Linux nodes, but not on Windows nodes. Deployment guides cover Amazon EKS, Azure AKS, and Google GKE, with GKE marked Alpha. The project requires a Kubernetes cluster and the Open vSwitch kernel module on every node, and its overview says it has been tested with Kubernetes 1.23 or later. Antrea is an open-source CNCF sandbox project under Apache License 2.0.
Kube-OVN
Kube-OVN combines OVN and Open vSwitch with Kubernetes for cloud-native network orchestration. Its documented features include subnet management, static IP allocation, gateways, hybrid underlay and overlay networks, VPC features, QoS, ACLs, and traffic mirroring. VPC networks provide tenants with separate address spaces and networking resources. The project recommends it for Kubernetes environments needing KubeVirt support or multi-tenant networking; KubeVirt virtual machines can live-migrate without network interruption. Documented integrations include Cilium, MetalLB, OpenStack, Submariner, and OVN interconnect. With Cilium chaining, Kube-OVN network abstractions can be used with Cilium eBPF monitoring and security capabilities. The project runs on x86_64 and arm64, and its documentation provides one-click installation scripts. It is free under Apache-2.0, deployed on-premises, and uses a centralized control plane. The project advises against it for OpenShift, public-cloud managed Kubernetes, and cases requiring an all-in-one CNI, ingress, service mesh, and observability stack.