Google Cloud Load Balancing vs PureLB
Google Cloud Load Balancing
cloud.google.com
PureLB
purelb.ioSide by side
| Figure | Google Cloud Load Balancing | PureLB |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Load Balancing Software | 7.2 (#11) | 6.8 (#18) |
| Intended users | The product is presented for application workloads that need global or regional traffic distribution, including hybrid and multicloud environments. | PureLB is designed for operators running Kubernetes clusters on bare-metal Linux nodes who need external reachability for LoadBalancer services. |
| Purpose | Cloud Load Balancing is a fully managed service that distributes traffic across apps for performance and resilience, scaling from zero to millions of users. | PureLB provides Kubernetes LoadBalancer services for bare-metal deployments by allocating IP addresses from configured pools and announcing them through Linux networking or optional BGP. |
| Support | Google Cloud support packages can include 24/7 coverage, phone support, and access to a technical support manager; community help is also available through Stack Overflow and Google Cloud Slack. | The project lists its Kubernetes Slack #purelb-users channel and GitHub Issues as ways to get help. |
Plans
In their own words
Google Cloud Load Balancing
Google Cloud Load Balancing has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
PureLB
PureLB is a Kubernetes Service LoadBalancer for bare-metal Linux clusters. It allocates external IP addresses from configured pools and announces them through Linux networking, with optional BGP for remote addresses. ServiceGroups use exactly one pool type: local, remote, or Netbox. Local addresses are attached to host interfaces, and a Kubernetes Lease election chooses which node announces each address; another node can take over if that node fails. Remote addresses are placed on a dummy interface on every node and advertised through BGP, allowing an upstream router to distribute traffic with ECMP. Pools can contain IPv4, IPv6, or both for dual-stack deployments. Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions configure pools and node agents. Installation uses kubectl manifests or Helm, with Helm recommended for production. PureLB requires a Kubernetes cluster with an operational CNI and Linux nodes. It is free, open source, Apache 2.0 licensed, and self-hosted. Prometheus metrics are exposed on port 7472 at /metrics. NetBox integration is documented but currently unsupported and may not work with recent versions.