# Knative vs OpenFaaS

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Knative

| Attribute | Knative | OpenFaaS |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 54.7 (54% (medium)) | 41.1 (42% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 11 | 0 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 446 | 55 |
| adoption.github_stars | 6,086 | 26,231 |
| deployment.options | `{"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Open-source platform for deploying and auto-scaling containerized serverless applications on Kubernetes with integrated event routing and HTTP/gRPC serving. | 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. |
| 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,"scale_to_zero":true,"custom_runtime":true,"runtime_substrate":"container","observability_builtin":true}` | `{"hosting":"both","languages":"extensive language support","max_duration":"extended execution timeouts","custom_runtime":true}` |
| integrations.count | 5 | 20 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"AWS S3"},{"name":"AWS SQS"},{"name":"AWS DynamoDB Streams"},{"name":"Apache Camel"},{"name":"Istio"}]` | `[{"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"}]` |
| language.primary | Go | Go |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| market.availability | - | `{"hqCountry":"GB","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true}` | `{"cli":true,"linux":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","features":["15 functions","1 namespace","Public repositories only","Basic autoscaling up to 5/5 replicas","Basic metrics & observability","Cron trigger (limited functionality)","Legacy UI portal","REST API"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Limited version for personal-use, hobbyists and experimentation. 60-day limit on commercial use.","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"functions":"15","namespaces":"1","repositories":"public only"}},{"free":false,"name":"OpenFaaS Standard","summary":"$1,250/month","features":["500 functions","1 namespace","Private registries for functions","Fine-tuned autoscaling for RPS, Capacity & CPU","Scale to Zero","Event triggers: Kafka, RabbitMQ, GCP Pub/Sub, PostgreSQL, AWS SNS/SQS","Queue-worker (JetStream-based)","Retry failed messages","New UI dashboard","Grafana dashboards for monitoring","Manage functions with Custom Resource (CRD)","Air-gapped / offline usage","Istio/Linkerd compatibility","Self-service email support"],"commitment":"annual","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":1250,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Production-ready functions for a single team or tenant. Scalable and event-driven automation for a business.","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"functions":"500","namespaces":"1"}},{"free":false,"name":"OpenFaaS for Enterprises","summary":"Custom pricing","features":["5000 functions per namespace","Unlimited namespaces","Multi-tenancy with secure isolation (gVisor)","Function Builder API (REST)","Dedicated async queues (JetStream)","Single Sign-On (SSO) with OpenID Connect","Role Based Access Control (RBAC)","Web Identity Federation for CI/CD","Auditing via webhook","Business day support with SLA","Direct to Engineering Support (Slack)","Annual architecture review","Security advisories to nominated email","Developer licenses included"],"description":"Highest level of service for enterprises and multi-tenant hosting. Upgraded support, compliance & multi-tenancy features.","contactSales":true,"includedLimits":{"functions":"5000 per namespace","namespaces":"unlimited"}}],"addOns":[{"name":"Enterprise Support"}],"summary":"Community Edition free; Standard from $1,250/month with 14-day trial; Enterprise custom pricing","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.openfaas.com/pricing/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T09:44:11.430Z","freeTrialDays":14,"startingPrice":{"amount":1250,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| 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 | 4.3 |
| 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 | - |
| 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 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: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T16:47:50.355Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*