No. 6 of 29 ·eBPF Observability Tools

Inspektor Gadget

Windows · Mac · Linux · Self-hosted · API

Freedom report

Three barsScore 6.5

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely3 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Inspektor Gadget is ranked #6 of 29 in eBPF observability tools on Freedom251. It runs on API, Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Windows. There is a free plan.

Inspektor Gadget plans and pricing

All plans

Inspektor Gadget Free Open-source tools and framework · Linux 5.10+ with BTF required for project gadgets inspektor-gadget.io · 2 Oct 2026

Compared on eBPF observability tools

Deployment model: self-hosted
Kubernetes support: Yes
Network visibility: Yes
Application tracing: Yes
Kernel profiling: Yes
Supported operating systems: Linux; macOS and Windows clients via gadgetctl

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The record

Purpose: Inspektor Gadget is a set of tools and a framework for eBPF-based data collection and system inspection on Kubernetes clusters and Linux hosts.
Gadgets: Gadgets package eBPF programs as OCI images that can be deployed and run to inspect systems.
Kubernetes awareness: It automatically enriches low-level kernel data with higher-level information such as Kubernetes pods and container names.
Data export: The project supports collecting and exporting data to observability tools.
Extensibility: WebAssembly modules can post-process data and customize operators, and the framework can be used through a Go library.
Deployment: On Kubernetes, Inspektor Gadget is deployed as a DaemonSet, with one pod per cluster node.
Linux requirement: Gadgets developed by the project require Linux kernel 5.10 or later with BTF enabled.
Unsupported environments: The requirements page marks AWS Fargate, Azure Container Instances, and GKE Autopilot as unsupported.
Security: Official image-based gadgets are signed with cosign, and the documentation describes verifying gadget signatures.
Access controls: Operators can restrict which gadgets may run by digest, tag, or image prefix using the --allowed-gadgets flag.
Security updates: The project says it has no long-term support releases and that only the latest release receives security updates and maintenance.
Project status: Inspektor Gadget identifies itself as a Cloud Native Computing Foundation Sandbox Project.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best eBPF Observability Tools in 2026#6 of 29

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Sources

inspektor-gadget.io/docs/main/· checked 2 Oct 2026
inspektor-gadget.io/docs/main/reference/architecture/· checked 2 Oct 2026
inspektor-gadget.io/docs/main/reference/requirements/· checked 2 Oct 2026
inspektor-gadget.io/docs/main/reference/verify-gadgets/· checked 2 Oct 2026
inspektor-gadget.io/docs/main/reference/restricting-gadgets· checked 2 Oct 2026
inspektor-gadget.io/docs/latest/security/· checked 2 Oct 2026
inspektor-gadget.io· checked 2 Oct 2026