Gardener vs Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform
Gardener
gardener.cloud
Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform
kubermatic.comSide by side
| Figure | Gardener | Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 2 |
| Spec score · Kubernetes Management Platforms | 7.6 (#16) | 7.9 (#11) |
| Lifecycle | Gardener supports cluster lifecycle management, self-healing, and autoscaling across the stack. | KKP supports full cluster lifecycle management, including upgrades and rollbacks, and an integrated add-on controller for additional software, configuration, and policy. |
| Purpose | Gardener is a managed Kubernetes service framework for delivering fully managed clusters at scale through your own Gardener installation. | KKP automates deployment, scaling, and lifecycle management of Kubernetes clusters across hybrid cloud, multi-cloud, on-premises, and edge environments. |
| Scale | The site says Gardener can run thousands of clusters while maintaining performance, resilience, and cost efficiency. | The product page says KKP can manage thousands of clusters from a single control plane across 20+ public cloud providers and on-premises environments. |
| Security | Gardener mandates the DISA Security Technical Implementation Guide for Kubernetes and provides adopters a compliance checker for demonstrating DISA Kubernetes STIG compliance. | KKP includes multi-tenancy, role-based access control, cluster authentication and authorization, and policy blueprints and presets. |
| Support | The documentation directs users to community channels, GitHub Issues, and the Gardener community on Slack for assistance and questions. | Kubermatic Kubernetes Subscription offers upstream Kubernetes support with 24x7 business-critical response and service-level agreements. |
Plans
Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform
- Community Edition (CE)Free
- Enterprise Edition (EE)Priced on request
In their own words
Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform
Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform (KKP) automates Kubernetes cluster deployment, scaling, and lifecycle management across hybrid cloud, multi-cloud, on-premises, and edge environments. Its customer-managed control plane can manage thousands of clusters across more than 20 public cloud providers and on-premises environments. Development teams can provision and deploy environments through a self-service portal. KKP supports cluster upgrades and rollbacks, plus an add-on controller for software, configuration, and policy. KubeVirt support brings virtual machines and containerized workloads into one interface. Security controls include multi-tenancy, role-based access, cluster authentication and authorization, and policy blueprints and presets. Prometheus, Grafana, and Loki have native support; teams can also connect CI/CD systems, Terraform providers, or Ansible playbooks. KKP is self-hosted and installed with the Kubermatic Installer, and requires a Kubernetes master cluster. Community Edition costs nothing under Apache License 2.0. Enterprise Edition has no listed price and bills worker-node vCPU and memory on a consumption basis; master cluster nodes are excluded.