kOps vs KubeClipper

kOps is a free, open-source tool for creating, upgrading, maintaining, and destroying production-grade, highly available Kubernetes clusters. It also provisions the cloud infrastructure those clusters require, with the control plane managed by the customer. AWS and Google Cloud are officially supported; DigitalOcean, Hetzner, and OpenStack are in beta, while Azure is in alpha.

Configuration uses a YAML manifest-based API with templating and dry-run modes. State synchronization supports dry runs and automatic idempotency, and kOps can generate Terraform. It offers popular CNI networking providers out of the box and supports ARM64 architectures. kOps runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows; kubectl is required to install and use it. SSH access to masters and nodes is allowed from any address by default, although no public key is installed by default. SSH sources can be restricted in cluster configuration or with a command option. The security documentation says Pods can access the underlying instance IAM role and describes its permission scope as broad. The project points users to public office hours and Kubernetes Slack channels for support.

KubeClipper is a free, open-source service for managing Kubernetes clusters on an organization’s own infrastructure. Its web interface, APIs, and kcctl command-line tool support cluster deployment and lifecycle operations across cloud, hypervisor, and bare-metal environments. Users can create, delete, upgrade, back up, restore, and scale clusters, and register clusters built elsewhere. Deployment can be online, offline, or through a proxy; a graphical wizard helps set up clusters and required plugins. Node tools include automatic registration, information collection, and a terminal. Access controls include role-based and custom permissions, with OIDC login for external users. Backups cover etcd data and Kubernetes resource objects, using filesystem or S3 storage such as NFS or MinIO; files produced by resources and files on persistent volumes are outside that backup scope. The project lists x86/64 and arm64 support and extensible management of CRI, CNI, CSI, and CRD components. Worker-node addition and removal are the currently supported node changes.