Tinkerbell
An open-source infrastructure provisioning system for bare metal servers
- Vendor
- Equinix Metal
- Also known as
- tinkerbell
What is Tinkerbell?
Automates server provisioning and operating system deployment on bare metal through workflow-based orchestration, supporting network booting, hardware management, and Kubernetes integration.
Tinkerbell pricing
We don't have Tinkerbell'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 Tinkerbell does
The capabilities that matter for bare metal hosting, normalised so it lines up with every alternative. “-” means we haven't confirmed it, not that it's missing.
- Provisioning speed
- -
- Billing unit
- -
- GPU bare metal
- -
- Private networking vlan
- -
- Ddos protection included
- -
- Oob management
- -
- Custom os pxe
- -
- K8s cluster API provider
- ✓
- Terraform iac provider
- -
- Datacenter regions
- -
- Nvme storage
- -
- HIPAA eligible
- -
- Open source self hostable
- ✓
- Pricing model
- Open source self host
Platform & deployment
Independently observed- Self-hosted
Integrations (6)
Independently observed- Cloud-init
- DHCP
- Redfish
- IPMI
- Intel AMT
- Kubernetes
Security & compliance
Known vulnerabilities: 0 (0 in the last 12 months) sourcea count reflects scale & disclosure, not quality
Tinkerbell FAQ
Common questions about Tinkerbell, answered from independent, dated evidence.
What is Tinkerbell?
A platform that automates provisioning and lifecycle management of bare metal servers, using declarative configuration patterns similar to Kubernetes, with integrated support for hardware control, system booting, and automated workflows. It is indexed under Bare Metal Hosting.
Source: https://tinkerbell.org/
What does Tinkerbell integrate with?
We have confirmed 6 integrations for Tinkerbell, including Cloud-init, DHCP, Redfish, IPMI, Intel AMT and Kubernetes. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.
Source: https://tinkerbell.org/
Is Tinkerbell open source?
Yes. Tinkerbell 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.
Tinkerbell alternatives
Other bare metal hosting we track, ranked by the same independent score.
- Hetzner Dedicated Serverslow · 43%
- Leaseweb Dedicated Serverslow · 40%
- Latitude.shInfrastructure platform for deploying global bare metal servers and GPUs with cloud-like simplicitymedium · 50%
- phoenixNAP Bare Metal CloudOn-demand dedicated physical servers provisioned via API with cloud-like agility and managementlow · 41%
- Liquid Web Dedicated ServersDedicated servers with built-in management, security, and expert supportmedium · 53%
- OVHcloud Bare MetalDedicated servers providing full hardware resources, deployable worldwide within minuteslow · 33%
Compare Tinkerbell
Side by side against other bare metal hosting, 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 Tinkerbell, not the verdict.
| Signal | Score | Weight | Contribution | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Development activity | 63 | 0.09 | 5.9 | ✓ |
| Release cadence | 92 | 0.05 | 4.8 | ✓ |
| Capabilities | 46 | 0.06 | 2.9 | ✓ |
| Integrations | 24 | 0.07 | 1.8 | ✓ |
| Stars | 47 | 0.03 | 1.2 | ✓ |
| Dependent projects | 0 | 0.06 | 0.0 | ✓ |
| Security posture | 0 | 0.12 | 0.0 | - |
| Package downloads | 0 | 0.14 | 0.0 | - |
| Security score | 0 | 0.04 | 0.0 | - |
| Developer Q&A activity | 0 | 0.06 | 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 | 100 | mediumsource · 2026-10-14 · 65% |
Adoption
Content
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Faq | 3 items | mediumsource · 2026-09-10 · 72% |
Features
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Capabilities | Pricing model: open-source-self-host · K8s cluster api provider: Yes · Open source self hostable: Yes | mediumsource · 2026-10-14 · 60% |
Integrations
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Count | 6 | mediumsource · 2026-08-20 · 60% |
Language
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Go | highsource · 2026-10-14 · 90% |
License
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Spdx | Apache-2.0 | highsource · 2026-10-14 · 95% |
Pricing
Release
Security
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Vulnerabilities | Count: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Ftinkerbell%2Ftinkerbell%2Fapi&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0 | highsource · 2026-10-14 · 90% |
Is Tinkerbell the right choice for you?
Tell us the job, the constraints and what you weigh most, and we will rank Tinkerbell against the rest of the bare metal hosting we index, using the same dated evidence weighted your way.
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