# kind vs MicroK8s

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** kind

| Attribute | kind | MicroK8s |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 52.2 (54% (medium)) | 43 (40% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 24 | 3 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 2,126 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 15,550 | 9,382 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"kind enables developers to set up isolated Kubernetes clusters locally using Docker for testing, development, and CI/CD purposes. Originally built for testing Kubernetes itself, it provides CNCF-conformant Kubernetes clusters on a single machine. It is indexed under Container Orchestration Tools.","source":"https://kind.sigs.k8s.io","question":"What is kind?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"kind is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://kind.sigs.k8s.io","question":"Is kind free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"kind supports Windows, macOS, Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://kind.sigs.k8s.io","question":"What platforms does kind support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. kind can be deployed self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://kind.sigs.k8s.io","question":"Can kind be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. kind is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind","question":"Is kind open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"A self-contained Kubernetes distribution providing high availability and minimal operational overhead. Designed for rapid deployment across development machines, datacenters, and edge infrastructure with integrated monitoring, networking, and container services. It is indexed under Container Orchestration Tools.","source":"https://microk8s.io","question":"What is MicroK8s?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"MicroK8s is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://microk8s.io","question":"Is MicroK8s free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"MicroK8s supports Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://microk8s.io","question":"What platforms does MicroK8s support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. MicroK8s can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://microk8s.io","question":"Can MicroK8s be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 9 integrations for MicroK8s, including Knative, Fluentd, Prometheus, Grafana, Metrics, Ingress, DNS and Dashboard, plus 1 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://microk8s.io","question":"What does MicroK8s integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. MicroK8s is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/ubuntu/microk8s","question":"Is MicroK8s open source?","confidence":0.95}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | nerdctl is a command-line tool for managing containers on containerd. It enables Docker Compose workflows, rootless container execution, image encryption, lazy-pulling, and multi-platform builds. | A minimal, fully conformant Kubernetes runtime packaged as a single installable unit for single-node deployments on Linux systems, suitable for development, datacenters, and edge environments. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"self","rootless":true,"arm_support":true,"gui_dashboard":false,"orchestration":"kubernetes","gpu_scheduling":true,"k8s_conformant":true,"windows_containers":true,"built_in_networking_cni":true}` | `{"hosting":"both","gui_dashboard":true,"orchestration":"kubernetes","gpu_scheduling":true,"k8s_conformant":true,"managed_control_plane":false,"built_in_networking_cni":true}` |
| integrations.count | 4 | 7 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Docker Compose"},{"name":"Kubernetes"},{"name":"IPFS"},{"name":"CNI"}]` | `[{"name":"Knative"},{"name":"Fluentd"},{"name":"Prometheus"},{"name":"Grafana"},{"name":"Metrics"},{"name":"Ingress"},{"name":"DNS"},{"name":"Dashboard"},{"name":"Clustering"}]` |
| language.primary | Go | Python |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"cli":true,"linux":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://kind.sigs.k8s.io","retrievedAt":"2026-09-11T19:12:06.667Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","summary":"Open source with optional Ubuntu Pro support","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://microk8s.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-21T13:45:24.919Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | - | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 85 | 108 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.33.0","date":"2026-08-26T21:58:46Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.33.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.32.0","date":"2026-06-02T17:34:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.32.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.31.0","date":"2025-12-18T00:56:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.31.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.30.0","date":"2025-08-27T17:45:58Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.30.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.29.0","date":"2025-05-21T01:54:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.29.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.28.0","date":"2025-05-16T23:36:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.28.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.27.0","date":"2025-02-15T00:54:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.27.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.26.0","date":"2024-12-16T22:02:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.26.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.25.0","date":"2024-11-08T20:37:49Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.25.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.24.0","date":"2024-08-15T16:39:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.24.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.23.0","date":"2024-05-14T02:02:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.23.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.22.0","date":"2024-02-14T23:30:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.22.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.21.0","date":"2024-02-02T20:31:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.21.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.20.0","date":"2023-06-15T03:18:36Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.20.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.19.0","date":"2023-05-17T00:46:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.19.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.18.0","date":"2023-03-30T19:33:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.18.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.17.0","date":"2022-10-26T15:53:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.16.0","date":"2022-09-22T19:33:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.16.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.15.0","date":"2022-09-02T01:31:50Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.15.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.14.0","date":"2022-05-19T20:58:38Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.14.0"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/v1.36","date":"2026-05-25T06:56:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.36"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/v1.35","date":"2025-12-19T10:01:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.35"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/v1.34","date":"2025-09-01T15:15:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.34"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/v1.33","date":"2025-04-25T05:37:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.33"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/v1.32","date":"2024-12-12T18:22:36Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.32"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/v1.31","date":"2024-08-14T12:08:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.31"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/v1.30","date":"2024-04-19T07:55:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.30"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/v1.29","date":"2023-12-14T09:54:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.29"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/installer-v2.3.4","date":"2023-10-23T14:28:51Z","type":"prerelease","version":"installer-v2.3.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/v1.28","date":"2023-08-16T11:16:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.28"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/installer-v2.3.3","date":"2023-06-22T18:03:03Z","type":"prerelease","version":"installer-v2.3.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/v1.27","date":"2023-04-12T09:19:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.27"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/installer-v2.3.2","date":"2023-03-21T18:04:21Z","type":"prerelease","version":"installer-v2.3.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/installer-v2.3.1","date":"2023-01-20T08:29:33Z","type":"prerelease","version":"installer-v2.3.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/v1.26","date":"2022-12-12T10:43:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.26"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/v1.25","date":"2022-08-25T10:55:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.25"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/v1.24","date":"2022-05-04T13:50:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.24"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/v1.23","date":"2021-12-08T15:15:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.23"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/installer-v2.2.1","date":"2021-11-02T13:44:20Z","type":"prerelease","version":"installer-v2.2.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/canonical/microk8s/releases/tag/installer-v2.2.0","date":"2021-09-22T19:57:33Z","type":"prerelease","version":"installer-v2.2.0"}]` |
| reliability.sla_pct | - | 99.9 |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | 6.6 | 4.4 |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=sigs.k8s.io%2Fkind&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | - |

## Capabilities (Container Orchestration Tools)

| Capability | kind | MicroK8s |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Orchestration scope | Kubernetes | Kubernetes |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Self-hosted only | Cloud + self-hosted |
| **Standards** |  |  |
| OCI / CRI compliant | - | - |
| CNCF Certified Kubernetes conformant | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Security** |  |  |
| Rootless operation | ✓ | - |
| **Architecture** |  |  |
| Daemonless architecture | - | - |
| **Platform** |  |  |
| Windows containers | ✓ | - |
| ARM architecture support | ✓ | - |
| **Workloads** |  |  |
| GPU scheduling | ✓ | ✓ |
| Stateful workloads | - | - |
| **Networking** |  |  |
| Built-in networking / CNI | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Ops** |  |  |
| Vendor-managed control plane | - | ✗ |
| **Ecosystem** |  |  |
| CNCF maturity | - | - |
| **UX** |  |  |
| GUI dashboard | ✗ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-17T05:46:50.443Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*