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Kruise Rollouts

Free plan APISelf-hosted

What Kruise Rollouts is

Kruise Rollouts is a free, open-source tool for progressive delivery on Kubernetes. It supports canary, blue-green, multi-batch, and A/B testing approaches, with weighted traffic shifting and end-to-end canary deployment. Multi-batch updates cover Deployment, CloneSet, StatefulSet, Advanced StatefulSet, Advanced DaemonSet, and DaemonSet workloads. Canary updates apply to Deployment; blue-green is available for Deployment and CloneSet. The tool can be added to new or existing workload objects as a bypass component without replacing their controllers or requiring workload or pod migration. Traffic management includes HTTP-header and cookie-based A/B testing. Documented ingress integrations include NGINX, ALB, and Higress; service-mesh integration uses Gateway API. Pluggable Lua scripts can extend traffic handling to other Kubernetes protocols, including custom resources. It is compatible with Horizontal Pod Autoscaler. Installation requires Kubernetes 1.19 or newer, and Helm installation requires Helm 3.1 or newer. Blue-green releases are limited to Deployment and CloneSet, use the v1beta1 API, and require a Rollout version newer than 0.5.0. The project is self-hosted and licensed under Apache License 2.0.

Who it suits

Kruise Rollouts suits Kubernetes operators who need staged delivery and traffic controls across supported workload types. It may also fit teams that want to add rollout behavior to existing workloads without replacing their controllers.

What it does well

Supports canary, blue-green, multi-batch, and A/B testing.
Works with several Kubernetes workload types.
Can enhance workloads without replacing their controllers.
Supports weighted traffic shifting and header-based tests.
Compatible with Horizontal Pod Autoscaler.

What to know first

Requires Kubernetes 1.19 or newer.
Helm installation requires Helm 3.1 or newer.
Blue-green uses only the v1beta1 API.
Direct rollback is not provided.

Limits

Blue-green applies only to Deployment and CloneSet, uses the v1beta1 API, and requires a Rollout version newer than 0.5.0. It does not provide direct rollback; rolling back the workload specification is recommended, and blue-green keeps old and new instances together.

Getting started

Open the Kruise Rollouts documentation
Prepare a Kubernetes cluster running version 1.19 or later
Install Helm 3.1 or later if using Helm
Install the openkruise/kruise-rollout chart
Apply rollout strategies to new or existing workload objects

Verdict

Kruise Rollouts offers several progressive delivery strategies while leaving existing workload controllers in place. Before adopting it, account for the Kubernetes and Helm requirements, blue-green constraints, and workload-spec rollback process.

Questions

Is Kruise Rollouts free?

Yes. It is free, open-source software licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

What Kubernetes versions are required?

Installation requires a Kubernetes cluster running version 1.19 or later. Helm installation requires Helm 3.1 or later.

Which rollout strategies are supported?

It supports canary, blue-green, multi-batch, and A/B testing modes, including weighted traffic shifting.

Which workloads support each strategy?

Multi-batch supports Deployment, CloneSet, StatefulSet, Advanced StatefulSet, Advanced DaemonSet, and DaemonSet. Canary supports Deployment; blue-green supports Deployment and CloneSet.

Does it provide automatic rollback?

No. Kruise Rollouts expects users to roll back the workload specification using native rolling upgrade behavior.

What traffic integrations are documented?

Ingress integrations include NGINX, ALB, and Higress. Service-mesh integration uses Gateway API, and Lua scripts can extend traffic handling to other protocols.

Facts from Kruise Rollouts's own pages

Blue-green limit: Blue-green strategy applies only to Deployment and CloneSet, supports only the v1beta1 API, and requires a Rollout version newer than 0.5.0. · openkruise.io, 1 Oct 2026
cluster requirement: Installation requires a Kubernetes cluster running Kubernetes version 1.19 or later. · openkruise.io, 30 Sept 2026
Existing workloads: Kruise Rollouts is a bypass component that can be applied to newly created or existing workload objects without replacing workload controllers. · github.com, 1 Oct 2026
Extensibility: Pluggable Lua scripts can extend traffic routing to other Kubernetes traffic protocols and custom resources. · openkruise.io, 1 Oct 2026
Gateway integration: Service-mesh integration is provided through Gateway API. · openkruise.io, 1 Oct 2026
governance: OpenKruise is a Cloud Native Computing Foundation incubating project accepted on November 10, 2020 and moved to incubating maturity on March 2, 2023. · cncf.io, 30 Sept 2026
HPA compatibility: The project documents compatibility with Horizontal Pod Autoscaler and other workload-referencing controllers. · openkruise.io, 1 Oct 2026
HPA support: The documentation states that Kruise Rollouts is compatible with Horizontal Pod Autoscaler. · openkruise.io, 30 Sept 2026
Ingress integrations: Documented ingress integrations include NGINX, ALB and Higress. · openkruise.io, 1 Oct 2026
Installation: The documented Helm installation command installs chart version 0.6.2 from the OpenKruise chart repository. · openkruise.io, 1 Oct 2026
integrations: Its documented ingress integrations are NGINX, ALB and Higress, and it supports service-mesh integration through Gateway API. · openkruise.io, 30 Sept 2026
License: Kruise Rollout is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. · github.com, 1 Oct 2026
maintainers: The repository states that the project is maintained by contributors from both OpenKruise and KubeVela communities. · github.com, 30 Sept 2026
Purpose: Kruise Rollouts provides progressive delivery for Kubernetes, including canary, blue-green, multi-batch and A/B testing modes. · openkruise.io, 1 Oct 2026
release strategies: It supports multi-batch updates for Deployment, CloneSet, StatefulSet, Advanced StatefulSet, Advanced DaemonSet and DaemonSet, plus canary updates for Deployment and blue-green updates for Deployment and CloneSet. · openkruise.io, 30 Sept 2026
Requirements: Installation requires a Kubernetes cluster running version 1.19 or newer and Helm 3.1 or newer for Helm installation. · openkruise.io, 1 Oct 2026
Resource tradeoff: Blue-green releases consume double the resources because old and new version instances coexist. · openkruise.io, 1 Oct 2026
Rollback behavior: Kruise Rollout does not provide direct rollback and instead recommends rolling back the workload specification. · openkruise.io, 1 Oct 2026
rollback limit: Kruise Rollout does not provide direct rollback and instead expects users to roll back the workload specification, using native rolling upgrade behavior. · openkruise.io, 30 Sept 2026
rollout controls: Users can pause an in-progress rollout with spec.strategy.paused and disable a completed rollout with spec.disabled. · openkruise.io, 30 Sept 2026
Support: The project lists Kubernetes Slack, DingTalk, WeChat and an APAC bi-weekly community meeting as communication channels. · github.com, 1 Oct 2026
Traffic management: It supports weighted traffic shifting, HTTP-header and cookie based A/B testing, and end-to-end canary deployment. · openkruise.io, 1 Oct 2026
traffic shifting: It supports fine-grained weighted traffic shifting, HTTP header and cookie based A/B testing, and end-to-end canary deployment. · openkruise.io, 30 Sept 2026
workload model: Kruise Rollouts enhances existing workloads as a bypass component and does not require migrating workloads or pods. · openkruise.io, 30 Sept 2026

Where Kruise Rollouts stands on Freedom251

Kubernetes Deployment Tools#19 of 28
Progressive Delivery Software#22 of 29