Google Cloud Deploy vs Knative

Google Cloud Deploy automates application delivery through an ordered set of target environments. It deploys to Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Run, GKE attached clusters, and custom targets, with releases promoted or rolled back through the web console, CLI, or API. Deployment options include canary and parallel rollouts, verification, deploy hooks, and automated promotion. IAM roles and conditions determine which authenticated users and service accounts can act. Cloud Audit Logs and Cloud Logging support audit trails and platform logs. Teams can invoke the service from CI through its CLI or API, including documented GitHub Actions and GitLab connections. Skaffold and Cloud Build render and deploy manifests, alongside artifact repositories and testing or workflow tools. The first active multiple-target pipeline each month costs nothing; each additional active multiple-target pipeline costs $5 a month per billing account. Underlying services may add charges. The regional system limit is 18,000 API requests per minute.

Knative is open-source Kubernetes middleware for building, deploying, and managing serverless workloads. Knative Serving handles stateless HTTP services, including deployment, routing, and automatic scaling. Services can scale from zero when idle and rise again with incoming traffic. Serving also supports blue-green deployments, canary releases, and traffic splitting between revisions. Knative Eventing routes asynchronous events through CloudEvents over HTTP. Knative Functions provides a framework for packaging stateless functions as containers. Installation can use a local quickstart or a production setup on an existing Kubernetes cluster with YAML or the Knative Operator. The project runs on Kubernetes across cloud providers and on-premises environments, with Linux, macOS, and Windows listed for installation. Integrations include Istio, Contour, Gateway API, Kafka, RabbitMQ, and NATS. The open-source plan is free, with self-managed Kubernetes deployment.