What is Crossplane?
Crossplane is an extensible, open-source framework for building cloud-native control planes. It provides a declarative approach to orchestrating applications and infrastructure across multiple clouds through pluggable providers and configurable APIs.
Crossplane pricing
We don't have Crossplane's full plan breakdown yet (its pricing page resisted automated reading). Here's what we could confirm. Always check live pricing for exact numbers.
What Crossplane does
The capabilities that matter for infrastructure as code tools, normalised so it lines up with every alternative. “-” means we haven't confirmed it, not that it's missing.
- Paradigm
- Declarative DSL
- Language
- YAML
- Multicloud / cloud-agnostic
- ✓
- State management
- Vendor-managed
- Pluggable provider ecosystem
- ✓
- Policy as code
- ✓
- Drift detection
- ✓
- GitOps continuous reconciliation
- ✓
- Managed SaaS offering
- ✗
- Hosting
- Self-hosted only
- Import existing resources
- -
- Open-source engine
- ✓
- CNCF maturity
- -
Platform & deployment
Independently observed- CLI
- Cloud / SaaS
- Self-hosted
Security & compliance
Known vulnerabilities: 4 (0 in the last 12 months), max severity CRITICAL sourcea count reflects scale & disclosure, not quality
Crossplane FAQ
Common questions about Crossplane, answered from independent, dated evidence.
What is Crossplane?
A Kubernetes-based platform engineering framework that allows organizations to create declarative APIs exposing infrastructure capabilities. It enables safe self-service provisioning for users, automation systems, and AI agents while enforcing policies and governance through a centralized control plane. It is indexed under Infrastructure as Code Tools.
Source: https://www.crossplane.io
Is Crossplane free to use?
Crossplane 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://www.crossplane.io
Can Crossplane be self-hosted?
Yes. Crossplane can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.
Source: https://www.crossplane.io
Is Crossplane open source?
Yes. Crossplane 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.
Crossplane alternatives
Other infrastructure as code tools we track, ranked by the same independent score.
- AWS CDKFramework for defining cloud infrastructure using programming languages, synthesizing CloudFormation templateshigh · 75%
- PulumiA platform for automating cloud infrastructure using standard programming languages with built-in AI and security capabilitieshigh · 75%
- TerraformInfrastructure automation tool that codifies cloud and on-premise resources as declarative configurationmedium · 53%
- Google Deployment ManagerAn infrastructure deployment service that automates the creation and management of cloud resourceslow · 45%
- OpenTofulow · 33%
- TerragruntAn open-source orchestration layer that simplifies infrastructure-as-code management across multiple cloud providerslow · 41%
Compare Crossplane
Side by side against other infrastructure as code tools, attribute by attribute, with a source on every value.
The vioscaleAI score: one lens on the evidence
Not user reviews and not a paid placement: a confidence-weighted blend of the independent signals below (adoption, activity, security posture, and more), which you can sort and re-weight yourself. Vendors can correct their listing but can never move their rank, and stars are weighted low as a vanity metric. It is one way to read the evidence for Crossplane, not the verdict.
| Signal | Score | Weight | Contribution | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Development activity | 59 | 0.12 | 7.1 | ✓ |
| Capabilities | 81 | 0.08 | 6.7 | ✓ |
| Security score | 96 | 0.05 | 5.1 | ✓ |
| Stars | 77 | 0.03 | 2.5 | ✓ |
| Dependent projects | 23 | 0.08 | 1.9 | ✓ |
| Integrations | 0 | 0.05 | 0.0 | - |
| Release cadence | 0 | 0.07 | 0.0 | - |
| Security posture | 0 | 0.09 | 0.0 | - |
| Package downloads | 0 | 0.17 | 0.0 | - |
| Developer Q&A activity | 0 | 0.08 | 0.0 | - |
Computed . Re-weight it by intent, or see the full method.
All data & sourcesshow ↓
Every value we hold, with its source, retrieval date, and confidence. This is the evidence behind the score: don't trust it, verify it.
Activity
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Commits last 30d | 76 | mediumsource · 2026-10-13 · 65% |
Adoption
Content
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Faq | 4 items | mediumsource · 2026-09-10 · 69% |
Features
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Capabilities | Hosting: self · Language: YAML · Paradigm: declarative_dsl · Multicloud: Yes · Policy as code: Yes · Drift detection: Yes | mediumsource · 2026-10-13 · 60% |
Language
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Go | highsource · 2026-10-13 · 90% |
License
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Spdx | Apache-2.0 | highsource · 2026-10-13 · 95% |
Pricing
Release
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| History | 20 items | mediumsource · 2026-10-13 · 70% |
Security
Is Crossplane the right choice for you?
Tell us the job, the constraints and what you weigh most, and we will rank Crossplane against the rest of the infrastructure as code tools we index, using the same dated evidence weighted your way.
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