Argo Rollouts vs Spinnaker
Argo Rollouts
argoproj.github.io
Spinnaker
spinnaker.ioSide by side
| Figure | Argo Rollouts | Spinnaker |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Progressive Delivery Software | 9.0 (#1) | 7.2 (#23) |
| Spec score · Rollback Management | 9.0 (#1) | 7.3 (#17) |
| Spec score · Continuous Delivery Software | 8.9 (#2) | 7.2 (#27) |
| Spec score · Kubernetes Deployment Tools | 8.9 (#2) | 7.3 (#23) |
| Deployment strategies | It supports blue-green, canary, and rolling update strategies. | Built-in strategies include blue/green and canary deployments, and users can define custom strategies. |
| Installation | The controller can be installed with standard cluster-level manifests or with a namespace-level installation that requires the CRDs to be installed separately. | The recommended installation path is a Kubernetes cluster; local Debian packages are also documented for smaller deployments. |
| Purpose | Argo Rollouts is a Kubernetes controller and set of CRDs for advanced deployment and progressive delivery. | Spinnaker is an open-source, multi-cloud continuous delivery platform for releasing software changes. |
| Security | The project documents cosign verification of signed container images and SLSA Level 3 provenance for container image attestations. | Spinnaker supports authentication through systems such as OAuth 2.0, SAML, or LDAP, and authorization through role providers including Google Groups, GitHub Teams, SAML roles, or LDAP groups. |
Plans
In their own words
Argo Rollouts
Argo Rollouts is a self-hosted Kubernetes controller for managing how application updates reach users. It supports BlueGreen, Canary and Rolling Update strategies, with weighted traffic shifting through ingress controllers or service meshes. Without a traffic-routing provider, it can adjust ReplicaSet counts instead. Metric integrations let it assess KPIs and automate promotion or rollback, while leaving room for manual judgment. Supported providers include NGINX, AWS ALB, Istio and Traefik for traffic, and Prometheus, Datadog, New Relic, Graphite and InfluxDB for metrics. It can operate independently of Argo CD and respond to Kubernetes manifest changes whether they come from GitOps or traditional CI/CD. Each cluster running Rollout workloads needs its own controller and CRD; a Rollout specification covers one application, not dependencies among applications. Shared-resource or worker-queue applications may be a poor fit, and infrastructure applications are not recommended. Argo Rollouts is free and open source. It runs on Linux, macOS, Windows or self-hosted environments.
Spinnaker
Spinnaker is a free, open-source, self-hosted multi-cloud continuous delivery platform for releasing software changes. Its pipelines can run integration and system tests, manage server groups, monitor rollouts, and start from Git, Jenkins, Travis CI, Docker, or CRON events. Built-in blue/green and canary strategies are available, and teams can define custom strategies. Documented providers include AWS, Azure, Cloud Foundry, Google Compute Engine, Kubernetes, Oracle Cloud, and App Engine. At least one provider must be enabled and configured before applications can be deployed. CI integrations include Jenkins, Travis, AWS CodeBuild, Concourse, Google CodeBuild, and Artifactory; source integrations include GitHub, Bitbucket Server/Stash, and GitLab. Authentication supports OAuth 2.0, SAML, or LDAP, while authorization can use groups or team-based role providers. SSL secures UI and API communication. Kubernetes is the recommended installation route, with local Debian packages documented for smaller deployments. The local guide recommends at least four cores and 16GB RAM and warns that single-machine installations may have downtime.