chaosd vs LitmusChaos

Chaosd is free Apache-2.0 software for injecting and recovering faults on physical machines. It can create process, network, CPU or memory pressure, disk, and host faults. Use it as a command-line tool or run it as a background service controlled through HTTP requests. Chaosd is deployed separately from Chaos Mesh; PhysicalMachineChaos experiments require service mode on each targeted physical or virtual machine. The documented environment requires glibc 2.17 or later, and the binary download described is a Linux amd64 tarball. Network experiments using tc or iptables require sudo or root privileges. Deployment prerequisites include tc, ipset, and iptables; source builds additionally list stress-ng and byteman. Experiments can be searched and recovered by UID. TLS certificates are shown for service security, and running without generated certificates is not recommended.

LitmusChaos is an open-source chaos engineering platform for finding infrastructure weaknesses through controlled tests. It is designed for developers, Kubernetes developers, and SREs, and supports Kubernetes along with cloud and network fault injection. Experiments can be declared, scheduled, browsed, and analyzed, and can run in sequence or in parallel. ChaosHub provides tested experiments that users can tune to get started. Probes let teams define and check steady-state hypotheses within chaos scenarios. Litmus exports Prometheus metrics so teams can assess impact through in-house dashboards or external visualization and APM tools. The platform can be installed on a user's own cluster, with Helm offered as an installation option, or used through hosted SaaS; its deployment model is hybrid. A Backstage plugin displays experiments, Chaos Hubs, environments, and experiment runs. The Litmus MCP Server works with Model Context Protocol clients, including Claude Desktop, to discover, run, and observe experiments, using tokens and scoped access. The project is CNCF-hosted and identifies itself as a CNCF Incubating Project. The hosted SaaS and open-source platform plans are both listed at free.