Clusternet vs Portainer
Clusternet
clusternet.io
Portainer
portainer.ioSide by side
| Figure | Clusternet | Portainer |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $12.92/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 7 |
| Spec score · Kubernetes Management Platforms | 8.8 (#4) | 8.7 (#5) |
| Access control | Clusternet supports dynamic RBAC rules for visiting managed clusters. | Business Edition features include role-based access control, LDAP and OAuth authentication, Active Directory user sync, and SSO provider templates. |
| Integrations | The documentation lists integration with Submariner and support for installing Helm charts from a private registry. | The product pages identify Talos Omni integration for provisioning Kubernetes clusters and support deployment from Helm charts. |
| Purpose | Clusternet is an open-source add-on for managing Kubernetes clusters across public, private, hybrid, and edge environments. | Portainer is a centralized multi-cluster management platform for managing Kubernetes clusters and container environments. |
| Support | The contribution guide says users can ask for help through the project mailing list, CNCF Slack channel, Google Group, or a GitHub issue. | The Scale plan includes 9x5 next business day support, while Enterprise offers prioritized 9x5 support with a 24/7 option. |
| What it does | Clusternet is an open source add-on for managing Kubernetes clusters across public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, and edge environments. | Portainer is a self-hosted control plane that manages Docker, Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, Podman and Azure ACI environments through a web interface. |
Plans
Portainer
- Business Edition free tierFree
- Home & Student$155 a year
- Starter$1,045 a year
- Starter$1,045 a year
- Scale$2,095 a year
- Scale$2,095 a year
- EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
Clusternet
Clusternet is a free, open-source add-on for managing Kubernetes clusters across public and private cloud, hybrid, on-premises, and edge environments. It lets operators manage member clusters from a parent cluster and access them as though they were local. It deploys Kubernetes resources, custom resource definitions, and Helm charts, with configuration tailored to individual clusters. Application scheduling can replicate workloads or distribute them by cluster weight or available capacity. Clusternet supports clusters from AWS, Google Cloud, Tencent Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud, along with on-premises systems, k3s, and edge clusters. It can discover and register clusters created by Cluster API and configure network tunnels for clusters in VPC networks, at the edge, or behind a firewall. Dynamic RBAC rules control access to managed clusters, and Submariner integration can connect workloads across clusters. Installation options include Helm and manual setup. A kubectl plugin is available through Krew or as a binary. Linux builds are listed for several architectures. Clusternet is a CNCF Sandbox project.