kOps vs Omni
kOps
kops.sigs.k8s.io
Omni
siderolabs.comSide by side
| Figure | kOps | Omni |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $10/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 5 |
| Spec score · Kubernetes Management Platforms | 7.8 (#12) | 8.9 (#2) |
| Configuration | It provides a YAML manifest based API, templating, and dry run modes for creating manifests. | Omni applies declarative cluster templates across a fleet and keeps clusters reconciled to the specification. |
| License | The kubernetes/kops repository lists the Apache-2.0 license. | Omni is distributed under the Business Source License; production use requires a commercial license while non-production use does not. |
| Purpose | kOps creates, destroys, upgrades, and maintains production grade, highly available Kubernetes clusters and provisions the required cloud infrastructure. | Omni manages provisioning, upgrades, configuration, and backups for Talos clusters across bare metal, edge, or cloud. |
| Support | kOps maintainers hold public office hours for developers and users, and the project points users to Kubernetes Slack channels for help. | The official documentation directs users to a community Slack channel, status page, GitHub release notes and security-advisory email. |
Plans
Omni
- Omni · HobbyFree
- Omni · Hobby$10 a month
- Omni · Startup$25 a month
- Omni · EdgePriced on request
- Omni · EnterprisePrice not published
In their own words
kOps
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.
Omni
Omni is a fleet management service for provisioning, configuring, upgrading, and backing up Talos clusters across bare metal, edge, and cloud. Platform teams can use it as SaaS or self-host it, including in disconnected and air-gapped environments. It supports infrastructure such as KubeVirt, libvirt, vSphere, and Proxmox, as well as providers built by the team. Declarative templates keep clusters aligned with specified configurations. Fleet-wide Talos and Kubernetes upgrades include health checks, atomic updates per node, and automatic rollback on failure. Omni connects to nodes through WireGuard; KubeSpan can extend encryption across clusters and sites. Workload Proxy routes HTTP service traffic to a cluster through that tunnel using an identity-provider-gated URL. SAML or OIDC authentication, per-cluster roles, and change auditing are available through the UI or API. Hobby costs $10 per month for up to 10 nodes and 2 users; Startup costs $25 per node per month for up to 50 nodes and unlimited clusters. A 14-day trial requires no credit card.