Kaniko

Linux · Self-hosted

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Freedom report

Two barsScore 6.4

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely1 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Kaniko is ranked #9 of 32 in container build tools on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, Self-hosted. There is a free plan.

Kaniko plans and pricing

All plans

Open-source kaniko Free Builds container images from Dockerfiles · distributed as container images github.com · 3 Oct 2026

Compared on container build tools

Free plan: Yes
Build method: daemonless
Multi-architecture builds: Yes
Build cache backends: multiple
Build secret handling: Yes

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The record

Purpose: Kaniko builds container images from Dockerfiles inside a container or Kubernetes cluster.
Daemonless builds: Kaniko does not depend on a Docker daemon and executes Dockerfile commands in userspace.
Build process: The executor extracts the base image filesystem, runs Dockerfile commands, snapshots filesystem changes, and pushes the resulting image to a registry.
Build contexts: Supported build context sources include local directories or tar files, standard input, GCS, S3, Azure Blob Storage, and Git repositories.
Run environments: The documentation describes running Kaniko in Kubernetes, gVisor, Google Cloud Build, and Docker.
Image distribution: The project publishes release images on GitHub Container Registry and Docker Hub.
Architecture support: The documentation lists official container support for linux/amd64, linux/arm64, linux/s390x, and linux/ppc64le, with the latter two caveated for debug images.
Security: Kaniko relies on container runtime security features and says it does not by itself make untrusted builds safe to run.
Image signing: Kaniko images for versions 1.24.1 and later are signed with cosign, and the documentation gives instructions for keyless verification.
Telemetry: Build tracing is off by default and can export Dockerfile instructions, build plan, cache keys, and CI attributes to an OpenTelemetry collector.
Notable limits: Kaniko does not support building Windows containers or creating multi-architecture manifests itself.
Dockerfile support limit: Kaniko supports COPY --chown and ADD --chown but does not support RUN --chown.
Support: The project directs community questions to GitHub issues and offers Matrix support and announcements rooms.
Maintainers: The project website describes OSS Container Tools as five maintainers who rely on Kaniko in their own CI and continue the project as a community effort.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Container Build Tools in 2026#9 of 32

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Sources

github.com/osscontainertools/kaniko· checked 3 Oct 2026
osscontainertools.org· checked 3 Oct 2026