Fairwinds Polaris vs Nirmata Control Hub
Fairwinds Polaris
fairwinds.comNirmata Control Hub
nirmata.comSide by side
| Figure | Fairwinds Polaris | Nirmata Control Hub |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $1,250/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 4 |
| Spec score · Kubernetes Security Software | 8.9 (#2) | 7.9 (#12) |
| Headquarters | Arlington, Massachusetts, United States | Santa Clara, California, United States |
| Intended users | Fairwinds describes Polaris as a tool for Kubernetes teams seeking to validate configuration best practices. | The pricing page describes Essentials for teams seeking centralized visibility and control, Advanced for mission-critical production workloads, and Enterprise for large enterprises. |
| Purpose | Polaris is an open source policy engine for Kubernetes that validates and remediates resource configuration. | Nirmata Control Hub centralizes Kubernetes policy governance, compliance, image risk, exceptions, and remediation. |
| Security | Fairwinds says it is SOC 2 Type II compliant. | Nirmata states that it has SOC 2 Type 2 compliance and encrypts sensitive customer data such as access tokens and passwords. |
Plans
Nirmata Control Hub
- Nirmata Enterprise Kyverno$1,250 a month
- Nirmata Essentials$1,800 a month
- Nirmata Advanced$4,500 a month
- Nirmata EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
Fairwinds Polaris
Fairwinds Polaris is an open source policy engine for validating and remediating Kubernetes resource configuration. It includes more than 30 built-in policies, and teams can add their own using JSON Schema. Checks cover security practices such as least privilege, privilege escalation, root execution, and host IPC or PID settings, along with resource requests and limits, readiness and liveness probes, and image tags. Polaris can run as a dashboard, an admission controller, or a command-line tool for checking local YAML files in CI/CD. Its validating webhook rejects workloads that trigger danger-level checks; warning-level findings pass and appear in the dashboard or webhook logs. A mutating webhook or command-line run can automatically remediate supported issues, including missing limits and probes and some unsafe security settings. The dashboard can audit local files or connect to a live cluster, and can be installed with kubectl or Helm. The validating webhook requires a valid TLS certificate. Polaris is free and runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, web, and self-hosted environments.
Nirmata Control Hub
Nirmata Control Hub has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.