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Cloud · head to head

Longhorn vs Tencent Cloud

Longhorn logo

Longhorn

Cloud

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Tencent Cloud logo

Tencent Cloud

Cloud

Cloud solutions for global enterprises

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • 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.; Tencent Cloud no pricing details accessible on main site; customers must navigate to dedicated pricing portal
  • They diverge on capability: Longhorn covers Per-volume controllers, Tencent Cloud covers CVM - Cloud Virtual Machines.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Longhorn and Tencent Cloud actually diverge.

Attributes where Longhorn and Tencent Cloud differ
AttributeLonghornTencent Cloud
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feeusage-based
PlatformsLinux, KubernetesLinux, Windows, Api, Cli
FoundedUnknown2010

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 Tencent Cloud

  • CVM - Cloud Virtual Machines
  • COS - Cloud Object Storage
  • TencentDB
  • SCF - Serverless Computing
  • CDN
  • Load Balancer
  • VPC
  • API Gateway

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 Tencent Cloud
  • Edge sites where shipping a storage array is impractical and three nodes is the whole clusternot Tencent Cloud
  • A K3s deployment where the storage layer must be light enough to run alongside the workloadsnot Tencent Cloud
  • A team that wants snapshots and S3 backups of persistent volumes without paying per-node storage licencesnot Tencent Cloud

Tencent Cloud

  • Gaming platformsnot Longhorn
  • Social medianot Longhorn
  • Video streamingnot Longhorn
  • Asia-Pacific deploymentnot Longhorn
  • Mobile applicationsnot 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.

Tencent Cloud

  • No pricing details accessible on main site; customers must navigate to dedicated pricing portal

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

Tencent Cloud

Free
  • Free TrialFree
    • Free trial credits
    • CVM instances
    • Cloud storage
  • Pay-as-You-GoFree
    • Flexible pricing
    • No long-term contracts
    • Global infrastructure

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 Tencent Cloud if

  • You need cvm - cloud virtual machines.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, Api, Cli.
  • You also want cos - cloud object storage.
Tencent Cloud review

Questions people ask

Is Longhorn or Tencent Cloud better?
Neither clearly leads. Longhorn starts at Free and Tencent Cloud at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Longhorn or Tencent Cloud?
Longhorn starts at Free and Tencent Cloud at Free.
Does Longhorn or Tencent Cloud run on more platforms?
Longhorn runs on Linux, Kubernetes. Tencent Cloud runs on Linux, Windows, Api, Cli.
Can I use Longhorn for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
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 Tencent Cloud is typically brought in for.
What can Longhorn do that Tencent Cloud cannot?
Longhorn covers Per-volume controllers, Synchronous replication, Snapshots and backups, Volume expansion. Tencent Cloud covers CVM - Cloud Virtual Machines, COS - Cloud Object Storage, TencentDB, SCF - Serverless Computing.

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.

Tencent Cloud: How do I access Tencent Cloud pricing?

Tencent Cloud pricing is available at buy.cloud.tencent.com/pricing. The main site provides navigation to pricing for various cloud products and services.

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.

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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