K3s vs Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform
K3s
k3s.io
Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform
kubermatic.comSide by side
| Figure | K3s | Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Container Orchestration Software | 7.7 (#13) | 7.9 (#12) |
| Spec score · Container Management Software | 7.8 (#15) | 7.9 (#14) |
| Integrations | The upgrade documentation describes Kubernetes-native automated upgrades using Rancher's system-upgrade-controller. | The vendor lists native support for Prometheus, Grafana, and Loki, and says teams can connect their preferred CI/CD system, Terraform provider, or Ansible playbooks. |
| Security | The security documentation provides hardening guidance and CIS benchmark self-assessment guides, which assume K3s runs with embedded etcd. | KKP includes multi-tenancy, role-based access control, cluster authentication and authorization, and policy blueprints and presets. |
Plans
Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform
- Community Edition (CE)Free
- Enterprise Edition (EE)Priced on request
In their own words
K3s
K3s is a certified, lightweight Kubernetes distribution for IoT and edge computing. It runs self-hosted on Linux and is released for x86_64, ARMv7, and ARM64. The distribution arrives as one binary or a minimal container image; the site describes the binary as under 70 MB, while documentation says under 100 MB. Documented uses include edge systems, homelabs, IoT, continuous integration, development, ARM single-board computers, air-gapped environments, and embedded Kubernetes. SQLite is the default datastore, with etcd, MySQL, and Postgres available. K3s packages containerd or cri-dockerd, Flannel, CoreDNS, Traefik, ServiceLB, Kube-router, local-path-provisioner, and Spegel. High-availability deployments can use embedded storage or external MySQL, PostgreSQL, or etcd. Air-gapped installation supports private registries, manually deployed images, or an embedded registry mirror. Security guidance includes hardening and CIS self-assessment material. Automated Kubernetes-native upgrades use Rancher’s system-upgrade-controller.
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.