Side by side
Garden vs Source-to-Image
Both stand on container build tools. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.
Pick Garden if your team runs Kubernetes workloads and needs reproducible development and testing workflows with dependency-aware caching. Its free tier provides a way to start, but teams needing higher cache limits, more build minutes, or more layer caching may need the Team plan. Look elsewhere if local service builds cannot use a local Kubernetes installation.
Visit GardenS2I provides a scriptable workflow for producing container images from application source, including optional incremental builds. Its documented Docker and Go dependencies are worth checking before adopting it.
Visit Source-to-ImageThe facts
| Garden | Source-to-Image | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Runs on | API, Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Web, Windows | Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Windows |
| Lowest paid plan | Team: $50 per user a month | Free or on request |
| Plans published | 4 | 1 |
| Maker | Not published | Not published |
| Website | garden.io | github.com |
| On container build tools | #1 of 34 | #2 of 34 |
Garden: what it does well
- Creates production-like development, testing, and CI environments on demand.
- Graph-aware caching skips unchanged images and tests.
- YAML workflows are designed to work across developer machines and CI.
- Plugins cover Kubernetes, Helm, Terraform, Pulumi, and local scripts.
- Supports Linux, macOS, Windows, and self-hosted use.
What to know first
- Free tier limits build minutes, cache hits, and cache retention.
- Local service builds require a local Kubernetes installation.
- The Pulumi plugin is experimental.
- Git 2.14 or newer is required.
Source-to-Image: what it does well
- Builds reproducible container images from source
- Documented Git workflow does not require a Dockerfile
- Supports incremental builds with compatible builder setup
- Filters output files with `.s2iignore`
- Free and licensed under Apache-2.0
What to know first
- Requires Docker 1.6 or later
- Requires Go 1.7.1 or later
- Incremental builds require compatible builder components
Alternatives to Garden Alternatives to Source-to-Image The whole list