Cloud · alternatives
Alternatives to Portworx
21 cloud tools sit alongside Portworx in this directory. Below is what separates each from Portworx on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 21
- With a free tier
- 20
- Cheaper to start
- 1
- Portworx starts at
- $0.33/node hour
Why people look past Portworx
Only what the record supports. Each point below is a figure on the Portworx entry measured against the tools listed beside it.
There is no free tier
The record for Portworx carries no free tier, so evaluating it means paying first. 20 of the 21 alternatives below can be used without paying.
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.
Open source distributed storage providing object, block and file from one cluster
- Can be used without paying; Portworx cannot.
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than Per node hour.
- 1 tier to Portworx's 2.
Kubernetes management platform for multiple clusters
- Can be used without paying; Portworx cannot.
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than Per node hour.
- 1 tier to Portworx's 2.
Kubernetes application backup with a free tier up to one terabyte
- Can be used without paying; Portworx cannot.
- Starts $0.13 a node hour cheaper, at $0.2/node hour.
Open source distributed block storage for Kubernetes, incubating at the CNCF
- Can be used without paying; Portworx cannot.
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than Per node hour.
- 1 tier to Portworx's 2.
Kubernetes operator that deploys and manages Ceph storage clusters
- Can be used without paying; Portworx cannot.
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than Per node hour.
- 1 tier to Portworx's 2.
Open source container-attached storage for Kubernetes
- Can be used without paying; Portworx cannot.
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than Per node hour.
- 1 tier to Portworx's 2.
Every Portworx 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portworx (this page) | $0.33/node hour | Per node hour | 2 | |
| CephCeph with Rook for open source Kubernetes storage without a per node hour charge | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Portworx |
| RancherRancher where the requirement is cluster management rather than storage, with Longhorn as its storage option | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Portworx |
| Portworx BackupPortworx Backup for protecting Kubernetes applications rather than providing their persistent storage | Free, then $0.2/node hour | Per node hour | 2 | vs Portworx |
| Longhorn | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Portworx |
| Rook | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Portworx |
| OpenEBS | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Portworx |
| CapRover | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Portworx |
| Infracost | Free, then $250/month | Free open source tool, then per month by run volume | 4 | vs Portworx |
| Dokku | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs Portworx |
| Coolify | Free, then $5/month | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs Portworx |
| Zipkin | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Portworx |
| HAProxy | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Portworx |
| Thanos | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Portworx |
| Flux | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Portworx |
| Kustomize | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Portworx |
| VictoriaMetrics | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Portworx |
| Caddy | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Portworx |
| Cilium | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Portworx |
| Jaeger | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Portworx |
| Linkerd | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Portworx |
| Qovery | On request | Quote | 3 | vs Portworx |
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 Portworx badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
Cheaper than Portworx (1)
Entry price under Portworx's $0.33/node hour. The record does not say what unit that price is charged in, so confirm per-seat versus flat rate before comparing budgets.
- Portworx Backup , Free, then $0.2/node hour
What you would be giving up
Portworx is most often brought in for running a production postgresql or cassandra cluster on kubernetes and needing the data to survive node loss, a platform team offering self-service databases to developers on an internal kubernetes platform, failing over stateful applications between clusters in different regions as a disaster recovery position, an openshift estate where the built-in storage option does not meet the availability requirement for stateful sets. 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 Portworx is broadly right and the question is cost, the Portworx 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.
Portworx 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 Portworx alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to Portworx?
- 21 other cloud tools are listed in this directory, led by Ceph, Rancher, Portworx Backup, Longhorn. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to Portworx?
- 20 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: Ceph, Rancher, Portworx Backup, Longhorn, Rook.
- Is there a cheaper alternative to Portworx?
- Yes. 1 of the alternatives below start under Portworx's $0.33/node hour: Portworx Backup at Free, then $0.2/node hour.
- Why do people look for an alternative to Portworx?
- On the figures on record, one thing stands out: there is no free tier. Each is set out with the numbers behind it above.
- What would I give up by switching from Portworx?
- Portworx is most often brought in for running a production postgresql or cassandra cluster on kubernetes and needing the data to survive node loss, a platform team offering self-service databases to developers on an internal kubernetes platform, failing over stateful applications between clusters in different regions as a disaster recovery position, an openshift estate where the built-in storage option does not meet the availability requirement for stateful sets. 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 Portworx?
- 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 Portworx 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 Portworx against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against Portworx 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, 21 tools beside Portworx. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.