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Developer Tools · head to head

Fig vs Longhorn

F

Fig

Developer Tools

IDE-style autocomplete for your existing terminal

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Longhorn logo

Longhorn

Cloud

Open source distributed block storage for Kubernetes, incubating at the CNCF

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Fig shut down on 1 September 2024. Amazon acquired Fig in August 2023 and folded it into Amazon Q Developer, which now carries the terminal autocomplete; Longhorn there is no vendor and no SLA, so a production incident at three in the morning is your own problem unless you buy SUSE Rancher Prime support separately.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Fig and Longhorn actually diverge.

Attributes where Fig and Longhorn differ
AttributeFigLonghorn
Pricing modelfreemiumOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsWebLinux, Kubernetes
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCloud
Founded2020Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Fig

Nothing recorded that Longhorn does not also cover.

Only in Longhorn

  • Per-volume controllers
  • Synchronous replication
  • Snapshots and backups
  • Volume expansion
  • Disaster recovery volumes
  • Web interface

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Fig

No use cases recorded yet. See the Fig review.

Longhorn

  • An on-premises Kubernetes cluster with local disks and no SAN that needs replicated persistent volumesnot Fig
  • Edge sites where shipping a storage array is impractical and three nodes is the whole clusternot Fig
  • A K3s deployment where the storage layer must be light enough to run alongside the workloadsnot Fig
  • A team that wants snapshots and S3 backups of persistent volumes without paying per-node storage licencesnot Fig

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Fig

  • Shut down on 1 September 2024. Amazon acquired Fig in August 2023 and folded it into Amazon Q Developer, which now carries the terminal autocomplete
  • The standalone desktop app is no longer available or supported
  • The completion specs remain open source on GitHub, but the product that consumed them is gone

Longhorn

  • There is no vendor and no SLA, so a production incident at three in the morning is your own problem unless you buy SUSE Rancher Prime support separately.
  • Synchronous replication across nodes means write latency depends on the slowest replica and the network between nodes, which makes it a poor fit for latency-sensitive databases.
  • Every replica is a full copy, so three-way replication consumes three times the raw capacity, unlike erasure-coded systems that are far more space efficient.
  • It is designed for block storage on modest clusters and does not scale to the node counts or throughput that Ceph or a commercial array handles, so growth eventually forces a migration.
  • Recovery from certain degraded states, such as a volume stuck detaching or replicas failing to rebuild, requires manual intervention and knowledge of Longhorn internals that is not widely held.

Pricing, plan by plan

Fig

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Fig review.

Longhorn

Free
  • LonghornFree
    • Apache 2.0 licensed, no licence fee
    • Community support via GitHub and Slack only
    • No vendor SLA or escalation path

Which should you pick?

Choose Fig if

  • You want to start without paying.
Fig review

Choose Longhorn if

  • You need per-volume controllers.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Kubernetes.
  • You also want synchronous replication.
Longhorn review

Questions people ask

Is Fig or Longhorn better?
Neither clearly leads. Fig starts at Free and Longhorn at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Fig or Longhorn?
Fig starts at Free and Longhorn at Free.
Does Fig or Longhorn run on more platforms?
Fig runs on Web. Longhorn runs on Linux, Kubernetes.
Can I use Fig for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What can Fig do that Longhorn cannot?
Longhorn covers Per-volume controllers, Synchronous replication, Snapshots and backups, Volume expansion.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Longhorn: Who do we call when it breaks?

Nobody, unless you buy SUSE Rancher Prime, which includes commercial support for Longhorn. This is the decisive question for production use.

Longhorn: How much capacity does replication cost?

Full copies, so three replicas means three times the raw capacity. Budget accordingly rather than assuming erasure coding efficiency.

Longhorn: Is it suitable for production databases?

For modest workloads yes, but synchronous replication adds write latency and high-transaction databases usually want something faster.

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