KubeSphere vs KubeStellar
KubeSphere
kubesphere.ioKubeStellar
kubestellar.ioSide by side
| Figure | KubeSphere | KubeStellar |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $65/mo | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 8 | 0 |
| Spec score · Kubernetes Management Platforms | 8.9 (#1) | 7.5 (#17) |
| Integrations | Official materials identify integrations or ecosystem collaboration with Jenkins, Grafana, Loki, Higress, KubeKey, OpenELB, KubeEye, Fluent Operator, and OpenFunction. | The maker lists ArgoCD, FluxCD, Kyverno, MVI, OpenZiti, and Turbonomic among its partners. |
| License | KubeSphere 4.x and later use Apache License 2.0 with extra conditions requiring producer permission or a commercial licence for third-party commercial offerings, SaaS, or removing the product identity. | The site states that KubeStellar Console is licensed under Apache 2.0. |
| Purpose | KubeSphere is a Kubernetes-based distributed operating system for cloud-native application management with a plug-and-play architecture for third-party applications. | KubeStellar Console is an AI-powered dashboard for managing multiple Kubernetes clusters. |
| Support | KubeSphere Enterprise offers one-stop professional technical support services. | The maker offers direct email support at [email protected] and community support through Slack. |
Plans
KubeSphere
- KubeSphere Backup FreeFree
- KubeSphere Community EditionFree
- KubeSphere Community EditionFree
- KubeSphere Backup Basic$65 a month
- KubeSphere Backup Standard$200 a month
- KubeSphere Backup Enterprise$340 a month
- KubeSphere Backup ExclusivePriced on request
- KubeSphere EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
KubeSphere
KubeSphere is a Kubernetes-based platform for managing cloud-native applications, with a plug-in architecture for third-party applications and open-source tools. Its Community Edition is an open-source container platform and costs nothing, with free-forever availability for a self-managed Kubernetes platform. The platform supports multi-tenancy and multi-cluster management, with monitoring, event and audit-log queries, tenant log collection, alerting and notifications. Delivery features include Jenkins-based CI/CD and automated Source-to-Image and Binary-to-Image workflows. KubeSphere supports online or offline installation, one-click upgrades and cluster scaling across infrastructure environments. Its REST API backend includes an API server and controller manager. Enterprise adds image security hardening, two-factor authentication, vulnerability fixes and permission controls at platform, cluster and application levels. Enterprise is available by on-demand subscription or private deployment, with extensions available by subscription; pricing is available from sales. Its lightweight architecture can run with 2 CPU cores and 4 GB of memory.
KubeStellar
KubeStellar Console is a free dashboard for managing workloads and operations across Kubernetes clusters. It shows real-time cluster health, cross-cluster resources, workloads, and mission progress, with cluster groups and customizable layouts. Clusters can be discovered through a user’s kubeconfig; examples include OpenShift, EKS, GKE, kind, and k3s. AI Missions accept natural-language requests to investigate issues, troubleshoot, repair, upgrade, or deploy across clusters. Users can approve or reject suggested actions. The Console also supports cluster provisioning and policy enforcement, and its security dashboard includes CIS, NSA, and PCI compliance scoring, RBAC analysis, and privileged-container detection. Documentation lists 20+ dashboards, 110+ card types, and 93+ stats blocks; custom cards can be built with AI, JSON definitions, or TSX code. The marketplace offers community dashboards, card presets, and themes. Licensed under Apache 2.0, it runs on Linux and macOS and can be self-hosted or used on the web. AI Missions require an optional Anthropic API key.