# Knative vs OpenFaaS

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Knative

| Attribute | Knative | OpenFaaS |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 53.8 (52% (medium)) | 41.7 (42% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 11 | 0 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 446 | 55 |
| adoption.github_stars | 6,110 | 26,249 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"Open-source platform for deploying and auto-scaling containerized serverless applications on Kubernetes with integrated event routing and HTTP/gRPC serving. It is indexed under Serverless & Edge Platforms.","source":"https://knative.dev","question":"What is Knative?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Knative 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://knative.dev","question":"Is Knative free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Knative supports a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://knative.dev","question":"What platforms does Knative support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Knative can be deployed on-premise and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://knative.dev","question":"Can Knative be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 5 integrations for Knative, including AWS S3, AWS SQS, AWS DynamoDB Streams, Apache Camel and Istio. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://knative.dev","question":"What does Knative integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Knative 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/knative/serving","question":"Is Knative open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"Open-source serverless framework that abstracts cloud provider differences, allowing you to deploy and run functions across multiple clouds, on-premises, and Kubernetes with extended execution timeouts and support for many programming languages. It is indexed under Serverless & Edge Platforms.","source":"https://www.openfaas.com/","question":"What is OpenFaaS?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"OpenFaaS offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans start at $1250 per month. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.openfaas.com/pricing/","question":"Is OpenFaaS free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"OpenFaaS supports Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.openfaas.com/pricing/","question":"What platforms does OpenFaaS support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. OpenFaaS can be deployed cloud / SaaS, on-premise and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.openfaas.com/","question":"Can OpenFaaS be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 20 integrations for OpenFaaS, including Apache Kafka, AWS SQS, AWS SNS, GCP Pub/Sub, RabbitMQ, PostgreSQL, MQTT and Cron, plus 12 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.openfaas.com/pricing/","question":"What does OpenFaaS integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"OpenFaaS is available worldwide. The vendor is headquartered in the United Kingdom.","source":"https://www.openfaas.com/","question":"Where is OpenFaaS available?","confidence":0.75}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true,"air_gapped":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A platform for building event-driven applications on Kubernetes, providing brokers and event sources to integrate cloud services like AWS with local event processing workflows. | A framework for deploying functions to Kubernetes with automatic scaling, event-driven triggers, multi-tenancy support, and enterprise features including SSO, RBAC, and direct engineering support. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"self","triggers":"HTTP, CloudEvents, Kubernetes event sources","languages":"Any language via containerized HTTP/gRPC services","cold_start":"high","cli_and_iac":true,"http_trigger":true,"durable_state":true,"scale_to_zero":true,"custom_runtime":true,"runtime_substrate":"container","observability_builtin":true}` | `{"hosting":"both","triggers":"HTTP, Cron, Kafka, RabbitMQ, GCP Pub/Sub, PostgreSQL, AWS SNS/SQS","languages":"extensive language support","cli_and_iac":true,"http_trigger":true,"max_duration":"extended execution timeouts","scale_to_zero":true,"custom_runtime":true,"scheduled_cron":true,"runtime_substrate":"container","observability_builtin":true}` |
| integrations.count | 3 | 12 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"AWS S3"},{"name":"AWS SQS"},{"name":"AWS DynamoDB Streams"},{"name":"Apache Camel"},{"name":"Istio"},{"name":"Apache Camel K","native":false,"direction":"inbound"}]` | `[{"name":"Apache Kafka"},{"name":"AWS SQS"},{"name":"AWS SNS"},{"name":"GCP Pub/Sub"},{"name":"RabbitMQ"},{"name":"PostgreSQL"},{"name":"MQTT"},{"name":"Cron"},{"name":"Grafana"},{"name":"Istio"},{"name":"Linkerd"},{"name":"NATS JetStream"},{"name":"GitHub"},{"name":"Slack"},{"name":"Salesforce"},{"name":"Zoom"},{"name":"Google Docs"},{"name":"Gmail"},{"name":"DigitalOcean"},{"name":"Crunchbase"},{"name":"Kafka","native":true,"category":"event","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"AWS SNS/SQS","native":true,"category":"event","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Discord","native":false,"category":"chat","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Gumroad","native":false,"category":"commerce","direction":"outbound"}]` |
| language.primary | Go | Go |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| market.availability | - | `{"hqCountry":"GB","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://knative.dev","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T09:25:30.744Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Community Edition","summary":"Free for personal use; 60-day limit for commercial use","features":["Legacy UI portal","REST API","Basic metrics & observability","Cron trigger"],"description":"Personal use with 60-day commercial restriction","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Standard","summary":"14-day trial available; custom pricing","features":["Scale to zero","Kafka/RabbitMQ/GCP Pub/Sub/PostgreSQL/AWS SNS/SQS triggers","UI dashboard","Grafana dashboards","Kubernetes Custom Resources (CRD)","Air-gapped/offline deployment","Self-service email support","Multi-tenant hosting","Namespace sandboxing"],"contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom pricing; requires separate support agreement","features":["Enterprise support with SLA","Direct engineering support via Slack","Annual architecture review","Function Builder REST API","Identity and Access Management","Single Sign-On (OpenID Connect)","Role-Based Access Control","API audit logging via webhooks"],"contactSales":true}],"summary":"Free community edition; subscription-based standard and enterprise tiers","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.openfaas.com/pricing/","retrievedAt":"2026-10-15T20:23:16.138Z","freeTrialDays":14}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | yes | no |
| release.cadence_days | 6 | 136 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.23.0","date":"2026-07-29T09:58:30Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.23.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.22.1","date":"2026-06-02T12:06:30Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.22.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.21.3","date":"2026-06-02T12:06:29Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.21.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.22.0","date":"2026-04-28T22:48:57Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.22.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.21.2","date":"2026-03-24T11:28:14Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.21.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.21.1","date":"2026-02-24T11:30:05Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.21.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.20.3","date":"2026-02-24T11:36:40Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.20.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.19.9","date":"2026-01-28T16:43:51Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.19.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.21.0","date":"2026-01-27T11:40:37Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.21.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.20.2","date":"2026-01-27T11:38:03Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.20.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.20.1","date":"2025-12-25T05:43:18Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.20.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.19.8","date":"2025-12-23T11:37:11Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.19.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.20.0","date":"2025-10-29T10:19:44Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.20.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.19.7","date":"2025-10-24T01:13:10Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.19.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.18.2","date":"2025-10-24T01:15:27Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.18.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.19.6","date":"2025-09-16T11:37:26Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.19.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.19.5","date":"2025-09-09T11:32:10Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.19.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.19.4","date":"2025-09-02T11:38:06Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.19.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.19.3","date":"2025-09-02T03:29:43Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.19.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/tag/knative-v1.19.2","date":"2025-08-26T11:37:33Z","type":"stable","version":"knative-v1.19.2"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/openfaas/faas/releases/tag/0.27.14","date":"2026-07-02T09:09:13Z","type":"prerelease","version":"0.27.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/openfaas/faas/releases/tag/0.27.13","date":"2025-08-29T14:24:04Z","type":"stable","version":"0.27.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/openfaas/faas/releases/tag/0.27.12","date":"2024-12-09T09:51:08Z","type":"stable","version":"0.27.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/openfaas/faas/releases/tag/0.27.11","date":"2024-11-29T14:52:05Z","type":"stable","version":"0.27.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/openfaas/faas/releases/tag/0.27.10","date":"2024-11-18T21:47:16Z","type":"stable","version":"0.27.10"}]` |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | 8.1 | 4.2 |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":1,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=knative.dev%2Fserving&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":"MODERATE"}` | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fopenfaas%2Ffaas&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Serverless & Edge Platforms)

| Capability | Knative | OpenFaaS |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Execution substrate | Container | Container |
| Language / runtime breadth | Any language via containerized HTTP/gRPC services | extensive language support |
| **Reach** |  |  |
| Runs at global edge PoPs | - | - |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Scale to zero | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Performance** |  |  |
| Cold-start profile | High (VM / container) | - |
| **Limits** |  |  |
| Max execution duration | - | extended execution timeouts |
| **Integration** |  |  |
| Event source breadth | HTTP, CloudEvents, Kubernetes event sources | HTTP, Cron, Kafka, RabbitMQ, GCP Pub/Sub, PostgreSQL, AWS SNS/SQS |
| HTTP endpoint trigger | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cron / scheduled invocations | - | ✓ |
| **State** |  |  |
| Durable state / workflow primitive | ✓ | - |
| **Flexibility** |  |  |
| Bring-your-own runtime / container | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Self-hosted only | Cloud + self-hosted |
| **Ops** |  |  |
| Built-in logs / metrics / tracing | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Extensibility** |  |  |
| CLI + IaC / framework support | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:04:00.973Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*