KubeSphere vs Palette
KubeSphere
kubesphere.io
Palette
spectrocloud.comSide by side
| Figure | KubeSphere | Palette |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $65/mo | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 8 | 1 |
| Spec score · Container Orchestration Software | 8.9 (#1) | 8.0 (#9) |
| Spec score · Kubernetes Management Platforms | 8.9 (#1) | 8.0 (#8) |
| Spec score · Container Management Software | 9.0 (#1) | 8.1 (#11) |
| Spec score · Multi-Cloud Management Software | 8.9 (#3) | 8.1 (#9) |
| API | KubeSphere's architecture includes a REST API backend with an API server and controller manager. | The product page says all Palette functionality is exposed through an API for integration with systems and workflows. |
| Headquarters | Beijing, China | San Jose, California, USA |
| Integrations | Official materials identify integrations or ecosystem collaboration with Jenkins, Grafana, Loki, Higress, KubeKey, OpenELB, KubeEye, Fluent Operator, and OpenFunction. | The maker lists integrations including Argo CD, Kubeflow, Redis, Istio, Datadog, Splunk, Prometheus, Grafana, and Calico. |
| Notable release | KubeSphere's newsroom lists version 4.2.1 as officially released on January 12, 2026. | Palette release 4.10.27 was published on October 15, 2026; the release notes also identify Palette CLI 4.10.10 for that release. |
| Public API | The project publishes a REST API reference and an OpenAPI/Swagger specification with API-version discovery endpoints. | Palette exposes REST APIs following OpenAPI conventions for custom integrations and workflows. |
| Purpose | KubeSphere is a Kubernetes-based distributed operating system for cloud-native application management with a plug-and-play architecture for third-party applications. | Palette manages Kubernetes clusters and their lifecycle across cloud, data center, and edge environments. |
| Rating on G2 | 4.3 out of 5 from 12 reviews. | 4.5 out of 5 from 13 reviews |
| Support | KubeSphere Enterprise offers one-stop professional technical support services. | Technical support is offered in Standard, Pro, and Premium tiers, with response times and coverage varying by tier. |
| What it does | KubeSphere is a Kubernetes-based distributed operating system and multi-tenant container platform for managing cloud-native applications. | Palette manages the lifecycle of Kubernetes environments across cloud, data center and edge locations. |
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.