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Cloud · head to head

Longhorn vs OVHcloud

Longhorn logo

Longhorn

Cloud

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
OVHcloud logo

OVHcloud

Cloud

Advanced cloud services for businesses

From
€3.5/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Longhorn has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: 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.; 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: Longhorn covers Per-volume controllers, OVHcloud covers Public Cloud.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Longhorn and OVHcloud actually diverge.

Attributes where Longhorn and OVHcloud differ
AttributeLonghornOVHcloud
Starting priceFree€3.5/month
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feesubscription
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsLinux, KubernetesLinux, Windows, Api, Cli
FoundedUnknown1999

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cloud).

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 Longhorn

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

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.

Longhorn

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

OVHcloud

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

Where each one falls short

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

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.

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

Longhorn

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

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 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

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 Longhorn or OVHcloud better?
Neither clearly leads. Longhorn 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, Longhorn or OVHcloud?
Longhorn has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Longhorn and €3.5/month for OVHcloud.
Does Longhorn or OVHcloud run on more platforms?
Longhorn runs on Linux, Kubernetes. OVHcloud runs on Linux, Windows, Api, Cli.
Can I use Longhorn for free?
Yes. Longhorn has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. OVHcloud starts at €3.5/month.
What is Longhorn best used for?
Longhorn is most often used for an on-premises kubernetes cluster with local disks and no san that needs replicated persistent volumes, edge sites where shipping a storage array is impractical and three nodes is the whole cluster, a k3s deployment where the storage layer must be light enough to run alongside the workloads, a team that wants snapshots and s3 backups of persistent volumes without paying per-node storage licences. Of those, an on-premises kubernetes cluster with local disks and no san that needs replicated persistent volumes and edge sites where shipping a storage array is impractical and three nodes is the whole cluster are not what OVHcloud is typically brought in for.
What can Longhorn do that OVHcloud cannot?
Longhorn covers Per-volume controllers, Synchronous replication, Snapshots and backups, Volume expansion. OVHcloud covers Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Bare Metal Servers, Managed Kubernetes.

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.

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
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.

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
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.

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
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