KubeLedger vs OpenCost

KubeLedger tracks Kubernetes CPU, memory, and GPU usage by namespace for usage accounting and cost allocation. Its accounting includes node overhead and resources that cannot be allocated, while comparisons between usage and requests over time can help identify over-provisioning and plan capacity. Built-in dashboards show hourly CPU and memory trends for seven days, daily accounting for 14 days, and monthly accounting for 12 months. Charts and datasets can be exported as PNG, CSV, or JSON, and integrations include a Prometheus exporter and an official Grafana dashboard. The site says KubeLedger retains a full year of analytics with a fixed footprint under 100 MB. Installation guidance covers Kubernetes and OpenShift through Kustomize or Helm. KubeLedger requires read-only access to Kubernetes API endpoints, including the Metrics API. Internal use is free at free; source code is available, but the product cannot be sold as a managed service. An optional MCP server offers ten read-only tools, but is disabled by default and lacks authentication at the tool layer.

OpenCost is a vendor-neutral open source project for measuring and allocating Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure costs. It breaks down costs in real time to Kubernetes concepts and containers for showback, chargeback, and reporting. Allocation covers CPU, GPU, memory, load balancers, and persistent volumes, and it can monitor cloud resources outside Kubernetes. The included web UI visualizes Kubernetes allocations and related cloud costs. Its API provides real-time and historical Kubernetes cost reports using on-demand list prices and cloud provider cost and usage reports. Listed cloud providers include Alibaba, AWS, GCP, Microsoft Azure, Open Telekom Cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, OVHcloud, Scaleway, and STACKIT. Metrics and visualization integrations include Prometheus, Cortex, Thanos, Victoria Metrics, Grafana, and Grafana Cloud. OpenCost requires a Kubernetes cluster and Prometheus; Helm is recommended for full functionality. Cloud costs appear when provider billing data becomes available, usually several hours to 24 hours later, and on-demand pricing is not reconciled against billed actual costs. Cloud costs are not supported for on-premises clusters. OpenCost is free under Apache 2.0.