Pixie

Web · Linux · Self-hosted

Freedom report

Two barsScore 6.4

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely2 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Pixie is ranked #18 of 49 in Kubernetes monitoring on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, Self-hosted, Web. There is a free plan.

Pixie plans and pricing

All plans

Cosmic Cloud hosted Pixie Free 100% free hosted version of the open source project · community offering by Pixie maintainers px.dev · 4 Oct 2026

New Relic Cloud Free Free hosted version of the open source project px.dev · 4 Oct 2026

Compared on Kubernetes monitoring

Cloud providers: AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud
Kubernetes monitoring: Yes

Best Pixie alternatives

See all 12

Two bars Middleware Free tier No. 1$0.30/mo6.8 Two bars Netdata Free tier No. 2$4.50/mo6.8 Two bars Datadog Kubernetes Monitoring Free tier No. 3$1/mo6.7 One bar Dynatrace Kubernetes Monitoring Paid plans No. 4$1.40/mo6.7 Two bars Grafana Cloud Application Observability Free tier No. 5$0.03/mo6.7 Two bars Radar Free tier No. 6$149/mo6.7

The record

Purpose: Pixie is open-source Kubernetes observability and debugging software for developers.
Data collection: Pixie accesses metrics, events, traces, and logs without code changes using dynamic eBPF probes and ingestors.
Debugging: Users can run community, team, or custom scripts to debug as code and share sessions.
Interface: Pixie provides a CLI for health checks and charts, with a browser interface available when needed.
Deployment: Pixie supports hosted and self-hosted deployments, and its Vizier data collection component runs in the Kubernetes cluster.
Storage: The install guide says telemetry data used with a hosted backend is stored exclusively on the Kubernetes cluster, not in Pixie Cloud.
Cloud options: The maker lists Cosmic Cloud and New Relic Cloud as free hosted versions of the open-source project.
Integrations: The homepage lists Minikube, EKS, GKE, AKS, and self-managed Kubernetes environments.
Requirements: Pixie requires Kubernetes v1.21 or later and runs on Linux nodes.
Unsupported environments: The requirements page lists EKS Fargate, GKE Autopilot, Docker Desktop, k3d, kind, and Windows as unsupported.
Security: Pixie telemetry traffic is encrypted in transit, and the requirements page says telemetry passes through Pixie Cloud without persistence.
Permissions: Pixie pods that install BPF programs require privileged access to the Linux kernel.
Support: The project directs users to its Community Slack, troubleshooting guide, and GitHub issue tracker for help.
Founded: 2018
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Kubernetes Monitoring in 2026#18 of 49
Best Container Monitoring in 2026#26 of 46
Best Distributed Tracing Tools in 2026#13 of 29
Best eBPF Observability Tools in 2026#13 of 29
Best Continuous Profiling Tools in 2026#9 of 27
Best Cloud Monitoring in 2026#7 of 21

Is Pixie yours?

Claim it for free: prove the domain, then correct facts, plans and screenshots. An editor reviews every change.

Claim it free Promote Pixie

Sources

px.dev· checked 4 Oct 2026
docs.px.dev/installing-pixie/install-guides/· checked 4 Oct 2026
px.dev/enterprise/· checked 4 Oct 2026
docs.px.dev/installing-pixie/requirements/· checked 4 Oct 2026
docs.px.dev/installing-pixie/install-guides/self-ho· checked 4 Oct 2026