Array APV vs kube-vip
Array APV
arraynetworks.com
kube-vip
kube-vip.ioSide by side
| Figure | Array APV | kube-vip |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 0 |
| Spec score · Load Balancing Software | 7.6 (#5) | 6.9 (#15) |
| Deployment | Array says its products can be deployed as physical or virtual appliances, on hyper-converged infrastructure, or on AWS, Azure, and Google. | It runs inside the Kubernetes cluster it serves, without relying on external hardware or software. |
| Integrations | The x850 datasheet lists integration with OpenStack Load Balancing-as-a-Service, VMware Cloud Orchestrator, and Microsoft System Center standards. | The documentation describes a kube-vip cloud provider for assigning IP addresses to Kubernetes LoadBalancer Services and lists vendor API integrations. |
| Purpose | APV Series application delivery controllers provide application availability, scalability, performance, security, and traffic control. | kube-vip provides a virtual IP and load balancer for Kubernetes control planes and Services of type LoadBalancer. |
| Support | Array directs product usage issues to Customer Support and lists [email protected] for feedback or suggestions in the vAPV administration guide. | The project README directs users to raise issues on its GitHub repository and consult the documentation. |
In their own words
Array APV
Array APV is an application delivery controller series for managing application availability, scalability, performance, security, and traffic. It balances server traffic across Layers 2, 3, 4, and 7, with health checks, persistence, clustering, and failover. Administrators can configure Layer 7 policies in the WebUI or CLI and combine them for customized traffic management. APV includes SSL/TLS acceleration and offloading, connection multiplexing, caching, and compression, along with certificate and key management. The x850 datasheet describes WebWall web application security and DDoS protection. Listed integrations include OpenStack Load Balancing-as-a-Service, VMware Cloud Orchestrator, and Microsoft System Center standards. Deployment options include physical or virtual appliances, hyper-converged infrastructure, and cloud platforms; vAPV documentation names VMware ESXi, Hyper-V, KVM, Citrix XenServer, Nutanix, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Management options include secure CLI, WebUI, SSH remote management, role-based administration, and real-time monitoring. Array identifies banking, healthcare, manufacturing, government, education, and service providers among the sectors it serves. Pricing is on request.
kube-vip
kube-vip is free, open-source software that gives Kubernetes clusters a virtual IP and load balancing for control-plane traffic and LoadBalancer Services. It targets Linux, self-hosted deployments such as bare metal, on-premises systems, virtualization, and edge devices including ARM hardware and Raspberry Pi. Virtual IPs may be IPv4, IPv6, or DNS names. Networking modes are ARP, BGP, routing tables, and WireGuard; the documented modes are disjunctive, so only one can be enabled at a time. kube-vip can run as a static Pod or DaemonSet inside the cluster it serves. Control-plane options include leader election, kubeadm static Pods, and K3s or other distribution DaemonSets. Service support includes BGP across nodes, address pools, CIDR or ranges, DHCP, and UPnP. It uses Apache-2.0 licensing and provides Layer 4 routing, not Layer 7 routing.