Google Cloud Organization Policy vs Kyverno
Google Cloud Organization Policy
cloud.google.comKyverno
kyverno.ioSide by side
| Figure | Google Cloud Organization Policy | Kyverno |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Cloud Governance Software | 8.7 (#3) | 8.6 (#5) |
| Spec score · Infrastructure Policy as Code Tools | 8.8 (#3) | 8.5 (#7) |
| Intended users | The documentation describes organization policy administrators as configuring organization-wide constraints and project owners and teams as benefiting from compliance guardrails. | The project describes Kyverno as designed for platform engineering teams and enabling security, compliance, automation, and governance through policy as code. |
| Purpose | The service gives administrators centralized and programmatic control over Google Cloud resources by configuring constraints across a resource hierarchy. | Kyverno is a Kubernetes-native policy engine for defining and enforcing policy as code. |
| Support | Basic Support is included for Google Cloud customers and provides documentation, community support, and Cloud Billing issue support; paid technical support tiers are also available. | The project directs users to its Kubernetes Slack channels, GitHub, and mailing list for questions and discussion. |
| What it does | The service centrally and programmatically governs Google Cloud resources across an organization hierarchy. | Kyverno is a cloud-native policy engine for automating Kubernetes security, compliance, governance and best-practice checks. |
Plans
Google Cloud Organization Policy
- Organization Policy Service APIFree
In their own words
Google Cloud Organization Policy
Google Cloud Organization Policy lets administrators set constraints on Google Cloud resources across organizations, folders, and projects. Descendant resources inherit policies by default, so teams can establish restrictions across a resource hierarchy. Examples include limiting resource sharing by domain, restricting IAM service account use, and limiting where new resources may be created. Organizations can define custom constraints for resource creation and updates. Policies can be managed in the Google Cloud console, CLI, or REST API; the API exposes policy and constraint resources at organization, folder, and project levels. Dry-run policies record violations in audit logs without blocking the action, while Policy Intelligence tools can test proposed changes, identify non-compliant resources, monitor workflow impact, and show policy coverage. The service is free, with the Organization Policy Service API listed at free. Policies use YAML and JSON. Changes can take up to 15 minutes to take effect, and most enforcement is not retroactive. Basic Support is included for Google Cloud customers; paid technical support tiers are also available.
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.