Cloud · alternatives
Alternatives to OpenEBS
20 cloud tools sit alongside OpenEBS in this directory. Below is what separates each from OpenEBS on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 20
- With a free tier
- 18
- Cheaper to start
- -
- OpenEBS starts at
- Free
Why people look past OpenEBS
Only what the record supports. Each point below is a figure on the OpenEBS entry measured against the tools listed beside it.
There is only one tier
OpenEBS publishes a single plan, OpenEBS at Free. There is no smaller tier to drop to if the fit is wrong or the budget moves.
What each alternative does differently
Ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry. Differences are drawn from price, pricing model, tier count and rating, the fields the category listing carries. For a feature-level difference, follow the head-to-head link on each card: those pages read both full records.
Kubernetes-native storage and data services, priced by the node hour
- No free tier, where OpenEBS has one.
- Publishes an entry price of $0.33/node hour, where OpenEBS does not.
- Sold on a Per node hour model rather than Open source, no licence fee.
- 2 tiers to OpenEBS's 1.
Open source distributed storage providing object, block and file from one cluster
Priced and rated the same as OpenEBS on the figures we hold. The difference, if there is one, is in the feature records.
Kubernetes management platform for multiple clusters
Priced and rated the same as OpenEBS on the figures we hold. The difference, if there is one, is in the feature records.
Open source distributed block storage for Kubernetes, incubating at the CNCF
Priced and rated the same as OpenEBS on the figures we hold. The difference, if there is one, is in the feature records.
Kubernetes operator that deploys and manages Ceph storage clusters
Priced and rated the same as OpenEBS on the figures we hold. The difference, if there is one, is in the feature records.
Free self-hosted platform built on Docker Swarm with a dashboard and automatic certificates
Priced and rated the same as OpenEBS on the figures we hold. The difference, if there is one, is in the feature records.
Every OpenEBS alternative at a glance
A dash means the catalogue entry carries no figure, not that the answer is nothing.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Tiers | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenEBS (this page) | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | |
| PortworxPortworx if you want a supported commercial product with disaster recovery and are willing to pay per node hour | $0.33/node hour | Per node hour | 2 | vs OpenEBS |
| CephCeph with Rook for a more established open source distributed storage system | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs OpenEBS |
| RancherRancher where you want a managed Kubernetes platform with Longhorn as the bundled storage option | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs OpenEBS |
| Longhorn | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs OpenEBS |
| Rook | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs OpenEBS |
| CapRover | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs OpenEBS |
| Infracost | Free, then $250/month | Free open source tool, then per month by run volume | 4 | vs OpenEBS |
| Dokku | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs OpenEBS |
| Coolify | Free, then $5/month | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs OpenEBS |
| Zipkin | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs OpenEBS |
| HAProxy | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs OpenEBS |
| Thanos | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs OpenEBS |
| Flux | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs OpenEBS |
| Kustomize | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs OpenEBS |
| VictoriaMetrics | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs OpenEBS |
| Caddy | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs OpenEBS |
| Cilium | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs OpenEBS |
| Jaeger | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs OpenEBS |
| Linkerd | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs OpenEBS |
| Qovery | On request | Quote | 3 | vs OpenEBS |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry; Softwr hosts no reviews of these products. How each figure is used is set out on the OpenEBS badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
What you would be giving up
OpenEBS is most often brought in for running cassandra or kafka on kubernetes where the application already replicates and node-local volumes are sufficient, a platform team that needs persistent volumes on bare metal kubernetes without a per node subscription, an edge or lab deployment where a commercial storage licence cannot be justified, replacing hostpath volumes with something that has snapshots and a container storage interface driver. Anything replacing it has to cover the ones you actually depend on, and a cheaper tool that misses one of them is not cheaper.
Two things this page cannot settle. It compares on price, model, tier count and rating, because those are the fields the category listing carries, feature-level differences need both full records, which is what the head-to-head pages load. And the ratings are third-party aggregates imported with each entry rather than reviews written here, so a 0.2 difference between two tools is noise rather than a finding.
If OpenEBS is broadly right and the question is cost, the OpenEBS pricing breakdown covers every tier and what each one adds. If you want the whole field rather than a shortlist, the Cloud category lists everything the directory holds, and best cloud tools ranks them.
OpenEBS runs on linux. Platform coverage is not carried on the category listing for the alternatives, so it is one more thing to check on each head-to-head page rather than here.
Questions about OpenEBS alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to OpenEBS?
- 20 other cloud tools are listed in this directory, led by Portworx, Ceph, Rancher, Longhorn. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to OpenEBS?
- 18 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: Ceph, Rancher, Longhorn, Rook, CapRover.
- Why do people look for an alternative to OpenEBS?
- On the figures on record, one thing stands out: there is only one tier. Each is set out with the numbers behind it above.
- What would I give up by switching from OpenEBS?
- OpenEBS is most often brought in for running cassandra or kafka on kubernetes where the application already replicates and node-local volumes are sufficient, a platform team that needs persistent volumes on bare metal kubernetes without a per node subscription, an edge or lab deployment where a commercial storage licence cannot be justified, replacing hostpath volumes with something that has snapshots and a container storage interface driver. Anything you replace it with has to cover the ones you actually rely on, the side-by-side comparisons linked from each alternative below put the two feature records against each other.
- Is there an open-source alternative to OpenEBS?
- None of the cloud tools listed here are recorded as open source. That is what the licence field on each entry says, and the field is not always filled in, so it is worth checking directly for any tool you are serious about.
- How were these OpenEBS alternatives chosen?
- They are the tools filed in the same category, Cloud, ordered by the aggregated rating on each entry. There is no editorial shortlist, and nothing on this page is paid: no sponsored placement runs on alternatives pages and the order cannot be bought. Softwr has not used these products.
- Where can I compare OpenEBS against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against OpenEBS covering price, platforms, features and what each one is used for. Those pages read the full record for both products rather than the summary shown here.
- Does this list cover every cloud tool?
- No. It covers what this directory holds in the Cloud category, 20 tools beside OpenEBS. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.