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Developer Tools · head to head

Garden vs OVHcloud

Garden logo

Garden

Developer Tools

Kubernetes development and testing automation with shared caching, now owned by Incredibuild

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
OVHcloud logo

OVHcloud

Cloud

Advanced cloud services for businesses

From
€3.5/month
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Garden has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Garden incredibuild acquired Garden in November 2024 and the pricing page now redirects to documentation, so there is no public commercial offer and no published roadmap for a team betting a platform on it.; OVHcloud public Cloud pricing table lists a scheduled price change with a column labeled Price on April 1, 2026, showing current rates are promotional and set to change on that date
  • They diverge on capability: Garden covers Action graph, OVHcloud covers Public Cloud.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Garden and OVHcloud actually diverge.

Attributes where Garden and OVHcloud differ
AttributeGardenOVHcloud
Starting priceFree€3.5/month
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feesubscription
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsLinux, macOS, Windows, KubernetesLinux, Windows, Api, Cli
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCloud
FoundedUnknown1999

Identical on both: 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 Garden

  • Action graph
  • Shared result caching
  • Remote Kubernetes environments
  • In-cluster builds
  • Same config everywhere
  • Hot reload sync
  • Helm and Kustomize support
  • Templating

Only in OVHcloud

  • Public Cloud
  • Private Cloud
  • Bare Metal Servers
  • Managed Kubernetes
  • Object Storage
  • Block Storage
  • Load Balancers
  • Databases

What people use each for

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

Garden

  • A platform team whose integration test suite takes longer than the coffee break and needs caching to cut the loopnot OVHcloud
  • An organisation with thirty or more services on Kubernetes where docker-compose no longer approximates productionnot OVHcloud
  • Giving every developer an ephemeral namespace instead of queuing for one shared staging environmentnot OVHcloud
  • Running the identical build and test definition locally and in CI so failures reproduce on a laptopnot OVHcloud

OVHcloud

  • Managed Kubernetes container orchestration for cloud-native applicationsnot Garden
  • Virtual machine instances with customizable CPU, RAM, and IOPSnot Garden
  • Object storage with S3-compatible API for scalable data archivalnot Garden
  • Managed databases including PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, and ClickHousenot Garden
  • Private network connectivity with vRack for multi-AZ isolationnot Garden

Where each one falls short

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

Garden

  • Incredibuild acquired Garden in November 2024 and the pricing page now redirects to documentation, so there is no public commercial offer and no published roadmap for a team betting a platform on it.
  • It is tightly bound to Kubernetes, so teams running on ECS, Nomad, plain VMs or serverless get little from it and would need a different tool entirely.
  • The YAML action graph is a real configuration surface: a large monorepo needs someone to own and maintain Garden config as a first-class artefact, which is a standing platform-engineering cost.
  • Shared remote environments mean every developer needs cluster access and a cost allocation model, so cloud spend rises and namespace sprawl becomes a thing you have to police.
  • Caching correctness depends on declaring dependencies accurately; an under-declared action will serve a stale cached pass and hide a genuine test failure, which is a hard class of bug to notice.

OVHcloud

  • Public Cloud pricing table lists a scheduled price change with a column labeled Price on April 1, 2026, showing current rates are promotional and set to change on that date
  • Free network traffic and free Object Storage API calls exclude the Asia-Pacific region

Pricing, plan by plan

Garden

Free
  • Garden open sourceFree
    • Apache 2.0 licensed CLI
    • Full action graph and caching
    • Self-managed clusters
  • Commercial tier$undefined/year
    • Hosted caching and team features
    • Support and onboarding
    • Pricing no longer published since the Incredibuild acquisition

OVHcloud

€3.5/month
  • Public Cloud Starter$3.5/month
    • 1 vCPU
    • 1 GB RAM
    • 10 GB storage
  • Bare Metal$49/month
    • Dedicated hardware
    • High performance
    • Full control

Which should you pick?

Choose Garden if

  • You need action graph.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows, Kubernetes.
  • You also want shared result caching.
Garden review

Choose OVHcloud if

  • You need public cloud.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, Api, Cli.
  • You also want private cloud.
OVHcloud review

Questions people ask

Is Garden or OVHcloud better?
Neither clearly leads. Garden starts at Free and OVHcloud at €3.5/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Garden or OVHcloud?
Garden has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Garden and €3.5/month for OVHcloud.
Does Garden or OVHcloud run on more platforms?
Garden runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Kubernetes. OVHcloud runs on Linux, Windows, Api, Cli.
Can I use Garden for free?
Yes. Garden has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. OVHcloud starts at €3.5/month.
What is Garden best used for?
Garden is most often used for a platform team whose integration test suite takes longer than the coffee break and needs caching to cut the loop, an organisation with thirty or more services on kubernetes where docker-compose no longer approximates production, giving every developer an ephemeral namespace instead of queuing for one shared staging environment, running the identical build and test definition locally and in ci so failures reproduce on a laptop. Of those, a platform team whose integration test suite takes longer than the coffee break and needs caching to cut the loop and an organisation with thirty or more services on kubernetes where docker-compose no longer approximates production are not what OVHcloud is typically brought in for.
What can Garden do that OVHcloud cannot?
Garden covers Action graph, Shared result caching, Remote Kubernetes environments, In-cluster builds. OVHcloud covers Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Bare Metal Servers, Managed Kubernetes.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Garden: Is Garden still maintained?

The open source project remains on GitHub under Incredibuild ownership, but the commercial pricing page redirects to the docs and there is no public paid offer.

OVHcloud: How does OVHcloud charge for cloud services?

OVHcloud offers pay-as-you-go pricing for compute, storage, and bandwidth. Specific per-unit costs are accessed through the pricing calculator on the vendor site.

Source
Garden: Do I need Kubernetes?

Effectively yes. Garden is built around Kubernetes environments and offers little to teams on other runtimes.

OVHcloud: Are there savings plans for OVHcloud services?

OVHcloud mentions savings plan options on its services pages, but pricing discounts and commitment terms are not detailed on the homepage.

Source
Garden: Does it replace my CI system?

No. It runs inside GitHub Actions, GitLab CI or similar and speeds up what those pipelines execute.

OVHcloud: What is the cost of OVHcloud zero inter-AZ fees?

OVHcloud advertises zero inter-AZ (availability zone) fees for data transfers within its network. Monthly subscription rates for individual services are not published on the vendor homepage.

Source
Garden: What is the actual saving?

It comes from skipping builds and tests whose inputs have not changed, so the benefit scales with how many services you have and how often only a few change.

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Related pages

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