Falco vs Kyverno
Falco
falco.orgKyverno
kyverno.ioSide by side
| Figure | Falco | Kyverno |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Kubernetes Security Software | 7.9 (#11) | 8.6 (#4) |
| Spec score · Container Security Software | 7.8 (#13) | 8.7 (#3) |
| Deployment | The project provides installation options for Linux hosts, Docker containers, and Kubernetes, including official Helm charts. | Kyverno is installed in a Kubernetes cluster, with Helm recommended for production deployments and YAML manifests also available. |
| Founded | 2016 | 2019 |
| Integrations | Falco's plugins include sources for GitHub webhooks, Kubernetes audit events, AWS EKS audit events, CloudTrail logs, Docker events, Okta audit logs, and Nomad events. | CNCF lists common integrations with Argo CD, Backstage, Flux and Kubernetes for GitOps and platform governance. |
| Project status | Falco is an open source project hosted by the CNCF and is described on its site as a CNCF graduated project. | The CNCF lists Kyverno as a Graduated project, with graduation recorded in March 2026. |
| Purpose | Falco provides runtime security across hosts, containers, Kubernetes, and cloud environments, detecting abnormal behavior, potential threats, and compliance violations in real time. | Kyverno is a Kubernetes-native policy engine for defining and enforcing policy as code. |
| Support | Community support is available through Kubernetes Slack and the project's mailing list; the project also lists partner-provided enterprise offerings. | The project directs users to its Kubernetes Slack channels, GitHub, and mailing list for questions and discussion. |
Plans
In their own words
Falco
Falco is a free, open source runtime security project for Linux and self-hosted environments. It monitors hosts, containers, Kubernetes, and cloud environments for abnormal behavior, potential threats, and compliance violations in real time. Events are compared with built-in detection rules, and users can create rules for their own environments. Sources include Linux kernel system calls, Kubernetes audit logs, cloud events such as AWS CloudTrail, and events from GitHub and Okta. For kernel event monitoring, Falco uses an eBPF driver by default and offers a kernel module for wider compatibility. Installation options cover Linux hosts, Docker containers, and Kubernetes, including official Helm charts; supported architectures include x86_64 and ARM64. Falcosidekick can forward events to more than 50 systems, including email, chat, message queues, serverless functions, and databases. Falco is hosted by the CNCF as a graduated project. Detection depends on having appropriate rules in place, while resource use varies with server load and workload. The project recommends testing performance in the target environment.
Kyverno
Kyverno is a free, open-source policy engine for defining and enforcing policy as code in Kubernetes. Its stable policy types can validate, mutate, generate or delete resources, and verify container image signatures and attestations. The Kyverno CLI can test policies against Kubernetes resource manifests in CI before they are applied to a live cluster. Documentation describes use with Helm, YAML manifests, GitHub Actions and GitOps tools such as ArgoCD. Kyverno is installed in a Kubernetes cluster; Helm is recommended for production, and YAML manifests are also available. A standard installation requires an admission controller, while background, reports and cleanup controllers are optional. Production installations should use high availability mode. The project supports CEL-based policy types and describes applying Kubernetes-style policies outside Kubernetes as part of its mission. Its webhooks default to fail-closed, so matching requests can fail if the API server cannot reach Kyverno. The project documents Cosign signatures for images and manifests, and lists CLI binaries for Linux, macOS and Windows.