Canonical OpenStack vs Cloudforet
Canonical OpenStack
canonical.com
Cloudforet
cloudforet.ioSide by side
| Figure | Canonical OpenStack | Cloudforet |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 2 |
| Spec score · Cloud Management Software | 9.4 (#1) | 9.0 (#4) |
| Architecture | Its cloud-native architecture is based on Kubernetes, OCI images and snaps, which Canonical says decouples OpenStack from the underlying Ubuntu OS. | Cloudforet uses loosely coupled microservices with Kubernetes, gRPC, Helm, Prometheus and Istio. |
| CLI | The OpenStack client command line interface supports bulk operations and administrative automation. | The cfctl command-line client supports service discovery, environment switching, token authentication and table, YAML, JSON and CSV output; binaries are documented for macOS, Linux, Windows and Docker. |
| Documentation depth | Official documentation includes tutorials, step-by-step how-to guides, technical reference material and conceptual explanations. | Docs cover user administration, projects, dashboards, inventory, costs, alerting, IAM, architecture, microservices, plugins, APIs, CI/CD and contribution workflows. |
| Licence | OpenStack software is fully open source and existing OpenStack software uses the Apache License 2.0. | The main Cloudforet repository is licensed under Apache License 2.0. |
| Rating on Capterra | 4.6 out of 5 from 13 reviews | 0.0 out of 5 from 0 reviews |
| Rating on G2 | 4.2 out of 5 from 14 reviews | 4.9 out of 5 from 6 reviews |
| Self-hosting | Users can deploy Canonical OpenStack themselves using published documentation and tutorials. | Installation documentation provides AWS and on-premises Kubernetes deployment paths using Helm charts and separate application and plugin namespaces. |
| What it does | Canonical OpenStack provides elastic, on-demand compute, networking and storage through a self-service portal or upstream OpenStack APIs. | Cloudforet is an open-source platform for unified management of public, private and hybrid cloud resources. |
Plans
Canonical OpenStack
- Canonical OpenStackFree
- Private Cloud Build$75,000, paid once
- Private Cloud Build PlusPrice not published
In their own words
Canonical OpenStack
Canonical OpenStack lets organizations run applications in their own data centers while giving teams self-service access to computing resources on demand. It is based on upstream OpenStack code and described by Canonical as 100% open source. Automation uses MAAS and Juju, spanning bare-metal provisioning through applications. Its architecture uses Kubernetes, OCI images, and snaps; Canonical says this decouples OpenStack from the underlying Ubuntu operating system. Canonical Ceph is included by default and supports up to 128 TB of data per node. The stack also includes an expandable Kubernetes layer, observability, Landscape system management, and MAAS bare-metal automation. Listed workloads include HPC and AI/ML, telco NFVI, sovereign clouds, local or regional public clouds, and edge infrastructure. Organizations can deploy the cloud themselves or have Canonical design, build, test, and validate it. The plan costs nothing, with no license or subscription charge; commercial support and consulting are separate. Support includes 24/7 phone and ticket coverage, with a stated one-hour response for Severity 1 issues. On-demand Kubernetes is currently in beta.
Cloudforet
Cloudforet is an open-source platform for centralized management of public and private clouds. It is self-hosted and uses inventory collector plugins to gather assets and scan resources across connected cloud accounts. The platform lists infrastructure as code, batch remote commands and an application catalog for software such as databases and middleware. Cost features include billing analysis, resource optimization and budget management; incident tools include real-time notifications and post-mortem features. Projects and project groups organize resources, while role-based access controls user access. Cloud service plugins are listed for AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, with stated coverage also including Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Alibaba Cloud. Monitoring and notification integrations include CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, Google Cloud monitoring, Zabbix, Grafana, Slack, Telegram and email. Authentication options include local credentials, Google OAuth2, Active Directory and Keycloak. Cloudforet is free, with community support through GitHub Discussions. Its Minikube installation guide is for developers, not production.