Kubernetes vs Spinnaker
Kubernetes
kubernetes.io
Spinnaker
spinnaker.ioSide by side
| Figure | Kubernetes | Spinnaker |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Rollback Management | 8.0 (#12) | 7.3 (#17) |
| Purpose | Kubernetes is an open source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. | Spinnaker is an open-source, multi-cloud continuous delivery platform for releasing software changes. |
| Security | Kubernetes expects TLS for control-plane traffic and supports encryption at rest for data stored in the control plane. | Spinnaker supports authentication through systems such as OAuth 2.0, SAML, or LDAP, and authorization through role providers including Google Groups, GitHub Teams, SAML roles, or LDAP groups. |
| Support | The Kubernetes project says Kubernetes services, support, and tools are widely available. | The homepage says Slack is the fastest way to get questions answered. |
Plans
In their own words
Kubernetes
Kubernetes is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It supports stateless, stateful, and data-processing workloads, and can run locally, in a cloud, or in a datacenter; users can also choose a managed service rather than operate a cluster themselves. It coordinates gradual updates while monitoring application health and can roll back a change if something goes wrong. Pods receive IP addresses and groups of Pods can share a DNS name, with load balancing across them. Kubernetes can mount storage from local, public-cloud, or network systems such as iSCSI or NFS. Secrets and configuration can be updated without rebuilding images. Scaling can be manual or automatic based on CPU use. Security mechanisms include Secrets, Pod security standards, RuntimeClasses, network policies, admission controllers, and audit logging. Kubernetes is free, with a listed plan price of free. It does not include application-level services such as databases, message buses, caches, or cluster storage systems.
Spinnaker
Spinnaker is a free, open-source, self-hosted multi-cloud continuous delivery platform for releasing software changes. Its pipelines can run integration and system tests, manage server groups, monitor rollouts, and start from Git, Jenkins, Travis CI, Docker, or CRON events. Built-in blue/green and canary strategies are available, and teams can define custom strategies. Documented providers include AWS, Azure, Cloud Foundry, Google Compute Engine, Kubernetes, Oracle Cloud, and App Engine. At least one provider must be enabled and configured before applications can be deployed. CI integrations include Jenkins, Travis, AWS CodeBuild, Concourse, Google CodeBuild, and Artifactory; source integrations include GitHub, Bitbucket Server/Stash, and GitLab. Authentication supports OAuth 2.0, SAML, or LDAP, while authorization can use groups or team-based role providers. SSL secures UI and API communication. Kubernetes is the recommended installation route, with local Debian packages documented for smaller deployments. The local guide recommends at least four cores and 16GB RAM and warns that single-machine installations may have downtime.