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Instead of Fairwinds Polaris
Fairwinds Polaris alternatives
Fairwinds Polaris is a free, open-source policy engine for Kubernetes teams that want to check resource configuration before and after deployment. Its more than 30 built-in policies cover privilege and host settings, CPU and memory requests and limits, health probes, and image tags. Teams can write custom policies with JSON Schema, run checks in a dashboard, admission controller, or command-line workflow, and automatically remediate supported issues. The dashboard can also audit local files, and command-line checks can fit into CI/CD.
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Kubescape
Free plan Open source APILinuxMac+2Kubernetes teams seeking runtime and vulnerability scanning — Kubescape adds deployed-image vulnerability scans, runtime threat monitoring, and security-framework coverage beyond Polaris configuration checks.
Free plan Visit site - 2
CloudSploit
Free plan LinuxSelf-hostedWebTeams scanning cloud infrastructure accounts — CloudSploit scans cloud account metadata across five named providers and GitHub rather than Kubernetes resource configurations.
Free plan Visit site - 3
Kyverno
Free plan Open source APILinuxMac+3Teams enforcing Kubernetes policies as code — Kyverno can generate and delete resources and verify image signatures and attestations, beyond Polaris’s configuration checks and supported remediation.
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Monokle
Free plan ExtensionLinuxMac+1People authoring and comparing Kubernetes YAML — Monokle provides an IDE for creating, editing, comparing, and previewing Kubernetes configurations instead of Polaris’s policy-engine workflow.
Free plan Visit site - 5
Falco
Free plan LinuxSelf-hostedRuntime threat detection across hosts and clusters — Falco detects abnormal runtime behavior from kernel, Kubernetes audit, cloud, and other event sources rather than validating resource configuration.
Free plan Visit site - 6
KSPM Pro
Free plan WebKubernetes security insights with optional enforcement — KSPM Pro adds AI remediation prioritization and policy suggestions, benchmark scanning, and optional admission enforcement.
Free plan · paid from $100/mo Visit site - 7
KubeArmor
Free plan APILinuxSelf-hostedRuntime workload policy enforcement — KubeArmor enforces process, file, network, and resource controls at runtime across Kubernetes and non-Kubernetes workloads.
Open source Visit site - 8
Open Policy Agent Gatekeeper
Free plan Open source APILinuxSelf-hosted - 9
AWS CloudFormation
Free plan APIiPhoneLinux+3 - 10
Cloud Custodian
Free plan LinuxMacSelf-hosted+1 - 11
Conftest
Free plan LinuxMacWindows - 12
Google Cloud Organization Policy
Free plan APILinuxMac+2 - 13
Checkov
Free plan LinuxMac - 14
KICS
Free plan LinuxMacSelf-hosted+1 - 15
Google Cloud Terraform Policy Validation
Free plan LinuxMacWindows - 16
KubeLinter
Free plan LinuxMacSelf-hosted - 17
Open Policy Agent
Free plan APILinuxMac+3 - 18
Terraform
Free plan APILinuxMac+3 - 19
Kubewarden
Free plan LinuxMacSelf-hosted+1 - 20
PolicyForge
Free plan LinuxSelf-hostedWeb - 21
terraform-compliance
Free plan LinuxSelf-hosted - 22
Tirith
Free plan Linux - 23
Firefly
Free trial APISelf-hostedWeb - 24
Azure Policy
Free plan Web - 25
Google Cloud Policy Controller
Free plan Web - 26
Nirmata Enterprise for Kyverno
Paid LinuxSelf-hosted5.2 Visit site - 27
Chef InSpec
Paid LinuxMacWindows - 28
AWS CloudFormation Guard
Paid LinuxMacWindows - 29
Terraform Test Framework
Paid LinuxSelf-hosted - 30
HashiCorp Sentinel
Paid LinuxMacWindows
Polaris is centered on configuration validation and remediation, so another product may be a better fit for runtime threats, image vulnerabilities, cloud account risks, or editing Kubernetes YAML. When comparing options, consider whether you need ongoing monitoring, policy actions beyond validation and mutation, integrations with your delivery workflow, or coverage beyond Kubernetes resources. Deployment is another distinction: some alternatives require a cluster operator or admission controller, while others focus on host and cloud event monitoring or configuration authoring. Polaris is free; KSPM Pro also offers paid plans.
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