Kubus vs Kunobi

Kubus is a free, open-source Kubernetes GUI that runs locally and brings cluster resources, logs, shells, port forwards, metrics, and Helm into one desktop app. It can combine selected kubeconfig contexts in merged lists, with a cluster column identifying each resource's context. Alongside built-in Kubernetes resource types, it discovers custom resource definitions live. For troubleshooting, Kubus streams logs from multiple pods and provides container terminals, ephemeral debug containers, and node shells. Users can browse, install, upgrade, roll back, and uninstall Helm releases without the Helm binary. Kubus uses existing kubeconfig credentials and supports GKE, EKS, and AKS through their credential plugins; connections can also use SSH jump hosts or SOCKS and HTTP proxies. The local server binds to 127.0.0.1, and the maker says there is no cloud, account, or telemetry; Secret values are redacted by default. It is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux, though new releases no longer support Intel Macs. Metrics and health charts require metrics-server in the cluster.

Kunobi is a Kubernetes management platform for visibility and control of deployments across clusters and GitOps sources. It runs locally on macOS, Windows and Linux, connecting directly to clusters over the user's network. Kunobi says kubeconfig and cluster credentials stay on the user's device and that it does not proxy or store cluster traffic. Its interface brings Git and cluster resources together, with native Flux and Argo CD support and views for Helm releases and configuration changes. It advertises dedicated views for more than 105 resources, including Kubernetes core, Flux, Argo CD, cert-manager and Prometheus. The Free plan supports up to three clusters and can connect external AI tools through an MCP server. Pro lists unlimited clusters, integrations with EKS, GKE and AKS, cross-cluster log tailing, PromQL queries, metrics exploration and AI cluster actions with an approval firewall. Enterprise includes SAML SSO, SCIM provisioning, live onboarding, unified billing and usage analytics. Free costs nothing; Pro is listed at $912 a month with limited-time launch pricing, while paid pricing is also listed from $12/mo.