Side by side
Flagger vs Kruise Rollouts
Both stand on progressive delivery software. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.
Free plan Self-hosted
Choose Flagger if your team deploys on Kubernetes and wants progressive delivery with metric checks, manual gates, and automated rollback. Look elsewhere if you need a delivery tool for applications outside Kubernetes.
Visit Flagger Free plan APISelf-hosted
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.
Visit Kruise RolloutsThe facts
| Flagger | Kruise Rollouts | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Not published |
| Runs on | Self-hosted | API, Self-hosted |
| Lowest paid plan | Free or on request | Not published |
| Plans published | 1 | None |
| Maker | Not published | Not published |
| Website | flagger.app | openkruise.io |
| On progressive delivery software | #14 of 29 | #22 of 29 |
Flagger: what it does well
- Supports canary, A/B testing, and blue/green deployment strategies.
- Built-in checks measure HTTP success rate and request duration.
- Custom metrics and webhooks can extend validation.
- Automatically rolls back releases after detected performance drops.
- Manual controls allow approval, pausing, and resuming.
What to know first
- Designed for applications running on Kubernetes.
- Deployment requires self-hosting.
- Traffic routing relies on an ingress controller or compatible service mesh.
Kruise Rollouts: 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.
Alternatives to Flagger Alternatives to Kruise Rollouts The whole list