Available worldwide

What is kind?

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.

Independently observed

kind pricing

We don't have kind'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 kind does

The capabilities that matter for container orchestration tools, normalised so it lines up with every alternative. “-” means we haven't confirmed it, not that it's missing.

Core
Orchestration scope
Kubernetes
Deployment
Hosting
Self-hosted only
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
Independently observed

Platform & deployment

Independently observed
Platforms
  • CLI
  • macOS
  • Linux
  • Windows
Deployment
  • Self-hosted

Security & compliance

Known vulnerabilities: 0 (0 in the last 12 months) sourcea count reflects scale & disclosure, not quality

kind alternatives

Other container orchestration tools we track, ranked by the same independent score.

All kind alternatives, ranked →

Independent · unbought · dated

The Vioscale 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 kind, not the verdict.

Balanced composite 54 / 100
low · 42%updating
Signal contributions to the composite score
SignalScoreWeightContributionEvidence
Price level1000.044.2
Capabilities580.063.6
Development activity390.093.6
Dependent projects560.063.5
Security score660.042.8
Release cadence530.052.7
Stars790.032.1
Pricing transparency250.061.6
Reliability00.160.0-
Integrations00.080.0-
Security posture50.120.0-
Package downloads00.140.0-
Developer Q&A activity00.060.0-

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

AttributeValueEvidence
Commits last 30d16mediumsource · 2026-08-26 · 65%

Adoption

AttributeValueEvidence
Github stars15,448highsource · 2026-08-26 · 90%
Dependent repos2,126highsource · 2026-08-26 · 85%

Features

AttributeValueEvidence
CapabilitiesHosting: self · Rootless: Yes · Arm support: Yes · Gui dashboard: No · Orchestration: kubernetes · K8s conformant: Yesmediumsource · 2026-08-21 · 60%

Language

AttributeValueEvidence
PrimaryGohighsource · 2026-08-26 · 90%

License

AttributeValueEvidence
SpdxApache-2.0highsource · 2026-08-26 · 95%

Market

AttributeValueEvidence
AvailabilityPrimaryMarkets: … · AvailabilityScope: global · AvailableCountries: … · NotAvailableCountries: …highsource · 2026-08-21 · 75%

Pricing

AttributeValueEvidence
Free tierYesmediumsource · 2026-08-21 · 60%
Modelcommerciallowsource · 2026-08-26 · 40%
Price levelfreemediumsource · 2026-08-21 · 60%

Release

AttributeValueEvidence
Cadence days85mediumsource · 2026-08-26 · 70%
History20 itemsmediumsource · 2026-08-26 · 70%

Security

AttributeValueEvidence
Disclosure policyYesmediumsource · 2026-08-21 · 60%
VulnerabilitiesCount: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=sigs.k8s.io%2Fkind&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0highsource · 2026-08-26 · 90%
Scorecard6.6highsource · 2026-08-26 · 90%