LXD vs ZStack

LXD is an open-source platform for managing system containers and virtual machines on Linux. It brings LXC-based containers and KVM-based virtual machines together, with images for many Linux distributions and Windows virtual machines. Management options include a command line, REST API, web UI and third-party tools; the same HTTP API supports local and remote access. An official web UI is available by default starting with LXD 5.21.0 LTS. Features include resource limits, scheduled and expiring snapshots, projects, hardware passthrough, live migration and advanced networking. Containers run unprivileged by default, and virtual machines support UEFI Secure Boot and vTPM. LXD can run from a laptop to a data-center deployment; documentation describes clusters of up to 50 servers with thousands of instances. LXD is free, with the open-source plan listed at free. Ubuntu Pro Personal is also free for up to five physical Ubuntu systems. Enterprise workstation and server subscriptions are $25 a year and $500 a year, respectively.

ZStack Cloud is self-hosted infrastructure software for managing compute, networking, and storage in data centers. The product range spans private cloud, virtualization, AI infrastructure, hyperconverged infrastructure, storage, networking, container cloud, and multi-cloud management. ZCF combines compute, storage, networking, containers, and security in a software-defined private-cloud platform with a unified portal, operations, and identity management. It manages hosts, disks, images, and snapshots, and supports scheduling and elastic scaling. ZStone provides block, file, and object storage; Zaku manages Kubernetes clusters and containers alongside virtual machines. ZStack Cloud Enterprise integrates with Alibaba Cloud and offers a RESTful API, backup and recovery options, high-availability policies, and a UI migration service for mainstream Windows and Linux cloud hosts. Listed free plans provide full features for three months for ZStack ZSphere or one year for ZStack Cloud. ZStack describes its products as enterprise infrastructure, including for private clouds in organizations' own data centers. ZLR enterprise disaster recovery is marked as coming soon.