Kubescape vs Monokle

Kubescape is an open-source platform for Kubernetes security across configuration, images, compliance, and activity in running clusters. It analyzes Kubernetes manifests, Helm charts, and live clusters for misconfigurations. Its operator scans deployed container images for vulnerabilities using Grype and public vulnerability databases, and monitors active clusters for suspicious behavior and threats. Kubescape supports CIS, NSA-CISA, MITRE ATT&CK, and SOC 2 frameworks. Its policy engine uses Open Policy Agent to evaluate Kubernetes objects against posture controls written in Rego; the operator runs as microservices that continuously monitor cluster posture. Integrations are available for GitHub, GitLab CI/CD, Lens, and Visual Studio Code. The CLI can download artifacts for local use, including in offline and air-gapped environments. Results can be exported as JSON or JUnit XML or rendered as HTML or PDF. The CLI and Kubernetes operator are self-hosted and free under Apache License 2.0. ARMO Platform is a compatible provider for uploading scan results and downloading custom artifacts; its price depends on vCPUs and other cloud resources.

Monokle Desktop is a free IDE for creating, exploring, and validating Kubernetes YAML configurations. It supports template-based resource creation, forms, Kubernetes-aware editing, schemas, and CRDs. Users can compare Git branches or repositories, resources across namespaces and clusters, and local configuration with the state of a running cluster. Real-time validation makes configuration issues visible; custom policies and output from CLI tools can also be checked. Helm charts and Kustomize overlays can be dry-run and previewed before deployment. For cluster inspection, Monokle can show resources, dependencies, Kubernetes events, and pod logs to help with troubleshooting. Listed integrations include Flux, Argo CD, Istio CRDs, Cert-Manager CRDs, Sealed Secrets, CDK8s, Tanka, and KPT. The download page describes it as a manifest creation, validation, and compliance IDE for developers, as well as a cluster inspection and troubleshooting tool for SREs. Monokle Desktop is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows. Kubeshop announced that Monokle Cloud and its accompanying GitHub app would be shut down, while open-source products would continue in their GitHub repositories.