Clusterfudge vs srelens
Clusterfudge
clusterfudge.dev
srelens
srelens.comSide by side
| Figure | Clusterfudge | srelens |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Local Kubernetes Tools | 8.0 (#8) | 8.3 (#3) |
| Helm | Helm lifecycle management uses an embedded Go SDK and does not require a Helm CLI dependency. | Helm releases can be inspected, upgraded, rolled back or uninstalled with rendered-diff previews. |
| Linux dependency | The Linux download requires libgtk-3 and libwebkit2gtk-4.1. | Linux desktop packages require a WebKitGTK runtime, which Debian and RPM packages install automatically. |
| System requirements | The download page lists macOS 12+ or Linux with WebKit2GTK 4.1, a 64-bit x86_64 or ARM64 processor, 4 GB RAM, and 50 MB disk space as minimum requirements. | The published desktop targets are macOS 11 or newer, Windows 10 x64 or newer, and Linux x86_64. |
Plans
In their own words
Clusterfudge
Clusterfudge is an open-source desktop client for managing multiple Kubernetes clusters. It connects to several kubeconfig contexts simultaneously and detects EKS, GKE, AKS, K3s, and OpenShift. The app handles 27+ Kubernetes resource types, custom resources, and real-time watch updates. Helm lifecycle management uses an embedded Go SDK, so a Helm CLI dependency is not required. AI debugging can run Claude Code, Gemini CLI, or ChatGPT Codex locally; secrets, passwords, tokens, and API keys are automatically redacted before context is passed to the selected tool. A pod scanner checks Kubernetes Pod Security Standards and offers remediation advice. Clusterfudge also provides multi-tab PTY sessions, searchable logs with severity highlighting, and a file-backed audit trail that prunes after 90 days. It is free forever under the MIT license, requires no account, and runs on macOS 12+ or Linux. The maker says there are no external network calls unless requested and no telemetry, analytics, or tracking.
srelens
srelens is a Kubernetes desktop workspace for browsing, inspecting, and operating clusters. It covers more than 40 resource kinds, including workloads, networking, storage, RBAC, admission, autoscaling, and custom resources. Investigation tools include live watches, log streaming, in-pod terminals, port forwarding, Helm release views, and a schema-aware YAML editor. CPU and memory metrics for nodes and pods come through Kubernetes Metrics Server. Users can scale or restart workloads and cordon, drain, or evict nodes; destructive actions require confirmation. The desktop app connects directly to Kubernetes API servers using local kubeconfig credentials, without an intermediary srelens cloud service. Available operations depend on the selected context’s credentials and RBAC permissions. Added kubeconfig files stay local, and pasted configs are stored in the application directory. Secret values are masked by default and revealed per key. The built-in MCP server connects to clients such as Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Codex. srelens is free, open source under the MIT license, and requires no account or license key.