apko vs ko
apko
apko.devko
ko.buildSide by side
| Figure | apko | ko |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Container Build Tools | 7.8 (#14) | 8.3 (#8) |
| Integrations | The project documents use with Docker and provides an apko build action for GitHub Actions CI/CD pipelines. | ko provides a Terraform provider for using image builds in Infrastructure-as-Code workflows. |
| Project status | The README describes apko as a work in progress and says details are subject to change. | ko is a Cloud Native Computing Foundation Sandbox project. |
| Purpose | apko builds and publishes OCI container images from apk packages. | ko is a simple, fast container image builder for Go applications. |
Plans
In their own words
ko
ko is an open-source builder for container images of Go applications. It runs `go build` locally, so Docker does not need to be installed. The project positions it for a single Go application with few operating-system base-image dependencies, such as one without cgo or OS package requirements. Builds can target all platforms supported by the configured base image or selected platforms such as linux/amd64 and linux/arm64. For Kubernetes, `ko resolve` builds images for `ko://` references in YAML and replaces those references with image references; `ko apply` can apply the resolved configuration. ko reuses the normal Go build cache and avoids pushing image blobs already present in the remote registry. It generates and uploads SPDX-format SBOMs by default, with an option to disable this. Registry credentials can come from Docker configuration, with built-in environment credential support for Google, Amazon, Azure, and GitHub container registries. A Terraform provider supports Infrastructure-as-Code workflows. ko supports Go applications only and defaults to CGO_ENABLED=0. Windows container image support is experimental and requires a Windows base image.