KubeLinter vs Kyverno

KubeLinter is a free, open-source static analyzer for Kubernetes YAML files, Helm charts, and Kustomize manifests. It checks production-readiness and security practices, including non-root containers, least privilege, and keeping sensitive information in secrets. Users can enable or disable checks and create custom checks for organizational policies. Failed checks produce remediation recommendations and a non-zero exit code. KubeLinter can generate several output formats in one run, including SARIF and JSON, and supports pull request scanning. Documented installation methods include Go, release binaries, Homebrew or LinuxBrew, nix-shell, and Docker. Container images are signed with cosign, with a public verification key supplied. The project uses the Apache License 2.0 and lists no paid tiers. Its README identifies StackRox as creator and Red Hat as current maintainer. The README also warns that commands, flags, and configuration formats may change. The latest listed release is v0.8.3.

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.