Side by side

Flux CD vs PipeCD

Both stand on gitops tools. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.

Flux CD

Free plan APILinuxMac+2

Flux offers GitOps delivery and progressive rollout tools for Kubernetes, with support for multiple repositories and clusters. Account for its cluster-admin installation requirement and lack of a built-in UI.

Visit Flux CD

PipeCD

Free plan Open source APILinuxMac+2

PipeCD brings Git-based deployments, analysis, visibility, and rollback into a self-hosted platform. Teams should account for operating its Control Plane and piped agents, and SSH setup for private repositories.

Visit PipeCD

The facts

	Flux CD	PipeCD
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Open source	Not published	Yes
Runs on	API, Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Windows	API, Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Web
Lowest paid plan	Free or on request	Free or on request
Plans published	1	1
Maker	Not published	Not published
Website	fluxcd.io	pipecd.dev
On gitops tools	#6 of 35	#2 of 35

Flux CD: what it does well

Reconciles Kubernetes clusters with configuration sources.
Flagger supports canary, feature-flag, and A/B rollouts.
Supports multi-repository and multi-cluster management.
CLI and controller images are signed.

What to know first

The project does not provide its own UI.
Installation requires cluster-admin rights.
Older end-of-life Kubernetes versions are unsupported.
Vulnerability handling is described as best effort.

PipeCD: what it does well

One interface supports several deployment targets.
Can roll back after analysis or pipeline-stage failures.
Detects configuration drift and defined deployment events.
Supports single sign-on and role-based access control.
Open source under the Apache 2.0 license.

What to know first

Requires self-hosting on your infrastructure.
Private Git repositories require SSH key setup.
Help is directed to documentation, GitHub, and CNCF Slack.

Alternatives to Flux CD Alternatives to PipeCD The whole list