Chaos Mesh vs Steadybit

Chaos Mesh is a free, open-source platform for running fault simulations in development, testing, and production environments. It runs on Kubernetes and manages experiments through Kubernetes CustomResourceDefinitions and the Kubernetes API. Fault simulations cover areas including Pods, networks, DNS, HTTP, I/O, time, stress, kernels, block devices, JVMs, physical machines, and AWS, Azure, and GCP. Schedule, Workflow, and StatusCheck resources support recurring experiments, serial or parallel workflows, and application health checks. Selectors and namespace controls help scope experiments to chosen targets. Chaos Dashboard offers a web interface and HTTP API for creating, managing, and observing experiments, with role-based access control enabled by default. Chaos Mesh is licensed under Apache License 2.0 and can be installed from its Helm repository using Helm 3. Compatibility varies by release: version 2.8 supports Kubernetes 1.30 through 1.35, while version 2.7 supports 1.26 through 1.28. Its privileged Chaos Daemon runs as a Kubernetes DaemonSet by default, though that permission can be disabled. Community support is available through CNCF Slack and GitHub Discussions.

Steadybit is a chaos engineering platform for teams assessing reliability through planned testing. A no-code editor and templates support experiment design, while a live run view shows progress. Reliability Advice flags risks against best practices and suggests experiments and mitigations. Discovery identifies targets and metadata so teams can visualize and group system components. Tests can inject faults and check health across network, resource, and application layers. The platform supports scheduled experiments and blast-radius controls, with open source integrations for Kubernetes, AWS, Azure, GCP, Datadog, Grafana, Prometheus, Kafka, and RabbitMQ. Teams can also create integrations and custom actions with Extension Kits, ActionKit, and AdviceKit. Steadybit is available as SaaS and supports on-premises deployments, including air-gapped environments. Teams, roles, and fine-grained permissions help govern testing. Pricing is available on request; there is no free plan, but a 30-day free trial is offered. Professional has standard support during 9–5; Enterprise lists on-prem installation, SAML, audit logs, enterprise support, and tailored onboarding.