Crossplane vs Cycloid
Crossplane
crossplane.io
Cycloid
cycloid.ioSide by side
| Figure | Crossplane | Cycloid |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $45/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 3 |
| Spec score · Cloud Management Software | 7.6 (#18) | 8.5 (#7) |
| Spec score · Platform Engineering Software | 7.7 (#19) | 8.6 (#6) |
| Deployment | Crossplane installs into an existing Kubernetes cluster using a Helm chart; the installation guide requires an actively supported Kubernetes version and Helm v3.2.0 or later. | The platform is offered as SaaS, dedicated SaaS, self-hosted and hybrid deployment options, with air-gapped operation described for self-hosted deployments. |
| Integrations | The community extension list includes providers for AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, GitHub, GitLab, Argo CD, and other services. | Cycloid says teams can connect external tools such as Sentry, SonarQube, Notion, Git and cloud providers through plugins. |
| Support | The commercial page lists Upbound as offering security, support, official providers, and a platform for managing infrastructure with Crossplane. | The pricing page lists open-hours support for Advanced and 24/7 support with an SLA for Enterprise. |
Plans
In their own words
Crossplane
Crossplane is a free, open-source CNCF framework for building control planes that manage cloud-native software. Its Composition feature lets teams define custom APIs with pipelines of functions instead of maintaining controllers. Managed resources are Kubernetes custom resources that can represent external services such as AWS RDS instances. Community providers cover AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, GitHub, GitLab and Argo CD, among others. A package manager installs managed resources and composition functions and can distribute configurations across control planes. Crossplane installs into an existing Kubernetes cluster with a Helm chart; the guide requires an actively supported Kubernetes version and Helm v3.2.0 or later. Operations support one-time, scheduled and resource-change-triggered pipelines, but are marked alpha in Crossplane v2. The framework uses Kubernetes RBAC. Its default crossplane-admin ClusterRole has full access to secrets and namespaces and can bind roles to other entities. The project is Apache 2.0 licensed and identifies as vendor neutral.
Cycloid
Cycloid is an internal developer portal and platform for infrastructure self-service, orchestration, and governance. Developers can request and deploy infrastructure through Blueprints and Forms, using standardized workflows involving Terraform, Ansible, Helm, and Argo CD. Governance features include policy checks, role-based access controls, approvals, and audit trails. Teams can connect tools such as Sentry, SonarQube, Notion, Git, and cloud providers through plugins, and coordinate CI/CD workflows with GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, or Cycloid's Native Runner. Cloud Cost Management lists AWS, GCP, and Azure, with other providers available for integration if needed. Deployment options include SaaS, dedicated SaaS, self-hosted, and hybrid; air-gapped operation is described for self-hosted deployments. Cycloid says its API is documented in Swagger, and its CLI documentation lists GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows. A free SaaS plan covers up to five users and one workspace. The listed Advanced plan is $45 a month billed annually; pricing notes give a starting point of $29/user/mo annually. Infra Import is beta and excluded from the standard support SLA.