Best Container Orchestration Software for Linux of 2025

Kasm Workspaces streams your workplace environment directly to your web browser…on any device and from any location. Kasm is revolutionizing the way businesses deliver digital workspaces. We use our open-source web native container streaming technology to create a modern devops delivery of Desktop as a Service, application streaming, and browser isolation. Kasm is more than a service. It is a platform that is highly configurable and has a robust API that can be customized to your needs at any scale. Workspaces can be deployed wherever the work is. It can be deployed on-premise (including Air-Gapped Networks), in the cloud (Public and Private), or in a hybrid.

Kubernetes (K8s), an open-source software that automates deployment, scaling and management of containerized apps, is available as an open-source project. It organizes containers that make up an app into logical units, which makes it easy to manage and discover. Kubernetes is based on 15 years of Google's experience in running production workloads. It also incorporates best-of-breed practices and ideas from the community. Kubernetes is built on the same principles that allow Google to run billions upon billions of containers per week. It can scale without increasing your operations team. Kubernetes flexibility allows you to deliver applications consistently and efficiently, no matter how complex they are, whether you're testing locally or working in a global enterprise. Kubernetes is an open-source project that allows you to use hybrid, on-premises, and public cloud infrastructures. This allows you to move workloads where they are most important.

Advanced apps can be run on a managed Kubernetes service that is secured and managed. GKE is an enterprise-grade platform that allows containerized applications to run, including stateful and non-stateful, Linux and Windows, AI and ML and complex web apps. It also supports APIs and backend services. You can leverage industry-first features such as four-way auto scaling and no stress management. Optimize GPU/TPU provisioning, make use of integrated developer tools, and get multicluster support from SREs. Single-click clusters allow you to quickly get started. You can leverage a high-availability control plan that includes multi-zonal clusters and regional clusters. Reduce operational overhead by using auto-repair, automatic-upgrade, or release channels. Secure by default, with vulnerability scanning of container images as well as data encryption. Integrated Cloud Monitoring with infrastructure, application and Kubernetes specific views. You can speed up app development without compromising security.

Appvia Wayfinder provides a dynamic solution to manage your cloud infrastructure. It gives your developers self-service capabilities that let them manage and provision cloud resources without any hitch. Wayfinder's core is its security-first strategy, which is built on principles of least privilege and isolation. You can rest assured that your resources are safe. Platform teams rejoice! Centralised control allows you to guide your team and maintain organisational standards. But it's not just business. Wayfinder provides a single pane for visibility. It gives you a bird's-eye view of your clusters, applications, and resources across all three clouds. Join the leading engineering groups worldwide who rely on Appvia Wayfinder for cloud deployments. Do not let your competitors leave behind you. Watch your team's efficiency and productivity soar when you embrace Wayfinder!

Portainer Business makes managing containers easy. It is designed to be deployed from the data centre to the edge and works with Docker, Swarm and Kubernetes. It is trusted by more than 500K users. With its super-simple GUI and its comprehensive Kube-compatible API, Portainer Business makes it easy for anyone to deploy and manage container-based applications, triage container-related issues, set up automate Git-based workflows and build CaaS environments that end users love to use. Portainer Business works with all K8s distros and can be deployed on prem and/or in the cloud. It is designed to be used in team environments where there are multiple users and multiple clusters. The product incorporates a range of security features - including RBAC, OAuth integration and logging, which makes it suitable for use in large, complex production environments. For platform managers responsible for delivering a self-service CaaS environment, Portainer includes a suite of features that help control what users can / can't do and significantly reduces the risks associated with running containers in prod. Portainer Business is fully supported and includes a comprehensive onboarding experience that ensures you get up and running.

SaltStack is an intelligent IT automation platform that can manage, secure, and optimize any infrastructure--on-prem, in the cloud, or at the edge. It is built on an event-driven automation engine that detects and responds intelligently to any system. This makes it a powerful solution for managing complex environments. SaltStack's new SecOps offering can detect security flaws and mis-configured systems. This powerful automation can detect and fix any issue quickly, allowing you and your team to keep your infrastructure secure, compliant, and up to date. Comply and Protect are both part of the SecOps suite. Comply scans for compliance with CIS, DISA, STIG, NIST and PCI standards. Also, scan your operating system for vulnerabilities and update it with patches and patches.

Ambassador Edge Stack, a Kubernetes-native API Gateway, provides simplicity, security, and scalability for some of the largest Kubernetes infrastructures in the world. Ambassador Edge Stack makes it easy to secure microservices with a complete set of security functionality including automatic TLS, authentication and rate limiting. WAF integration is also available. Fine-grained access control is also possible. The API Gateway is a Kubernetes-based ingress controller that supports a wide range of protocols, including gRPC, gRPC Web, TLS termination, and traffic management controls to ensure resource availability.

Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), is a fully managed container orchestration and management service. ECS is used by customers such as Duolingo and Samsung, GE and Cook Pad to run their most sensitive and critical mission-critical applications. It offers security, reliability and scalability. ECS is a great way to run containers for a variety of reasons. AWS Fargate is serverless compute for containers. You can also run ECS clusters with Fargate. Fargate eliminates the need for provisioning and managing servers. It allows you to specify and pay per application for resources and improves security by application isolation by design. ECS is also used extensively in Amazon to power services like Amazon SageMaker and AWS Batch. It is also used by Amazon.com's recommendation engines. ECS is extensively tested for reliability, security, and availability.

Kubernetes is the platform for big ideas. The leading enterprise container platform, hybrid cloud, empowers developers to innovate faster and ship more products. Red Hat OpenShift automates installation, upgrades, lifecycle management, and lifecycle management for the entire container stack, including Kubernetes, cluster services, and applications. It can be used on any cloud. Red Hat OpenShift allows teams to build with speed, agility and confidence. You can code in production mode wherever you choose to build. Do the important work. Red Hat OpenShift focuses on security at all levels of the container stack as well as throughout the application lifecycle. It includes enterprise support from one the most prominent Kubernetes contributors as well as open source software companies.

You can use your favorite debugging software to locally troubleshoot your Kubernetes services. Telepresence, an open-source tool, allows you to run one service locally and connect it to a remote Kubernetes cluster. Telepresence was initially developed by Ambassador Labs, which creates open-source development tools for Kubernetes such as Ambassador and Forge. We welcome all contributions from the community. You can help us by submitting an issue, pull request or reporting a bug. Join our active Slack group to ask questions or inquire about paid support plans. Telepresence is currently under active development. Register to receive updates and announcements. You can quickly debug locally without waiting for a container to be built/push/deployed. Ability to use their favorite local tools such as debugger, IDE, etc. Ability to run large-scale programs that aren't possible locally.

Bacula Enterprise offers a single platform that provides cloud backup and recovery software for the Modern Data Center. Bacula Enterprise backup & recovery software is ideal for medium and large businesses. It offers unique innovation, modern architecture and business value benefits, as well as low cost of ownership. Bacula Enterprise corporate backup software solution uses unique technologies that increase the interoperability of Bacula Enterprise into many IT environments, such as managed service providers, software vendors, cloud providers, enterprise data centers, and cloud providers. Bacula Enterprise is used by thousands of organizations around the world in mission-critical environments such as NASA, Texas A&M University and Unicredit. Bacula offers more security features than other vendors and advanced hybrid Cloud connectivity to Amazon S3, Google, Oracle, and many others.

D2iQ Enterprise Kubernetes Platform (DKP) Enterprise Kubernetes Platform: Run Kubernetes Workloads at Scale D2iQ Kubernetes Platform (DKP): Adopt, expand, and enable advanced workloads across any infrastructure, whether on-prem, on the cloud, in air-gapped environments, or at the edge. Solve the Toughest Enterprise Kubernetes Challenges Accelerate the journey to production at scale, DKP provides a single, centralized point of control to build, run, and manage applications across any infrastructure. * Enable Day 2 Readiness Out-of-the-Box Without Lock-In * Simplify and Accelerate Kubernetes Adoption * Ensure Consistency, Security, and Performance * Expand Kubernetes Across Distributed Environments * Ensure Fast, Simple Deployment of ML and Fast Data Pipeline * Leverage Cloud Native Expertise

JFrog Pipelines allows software teams to ship updates quicker by automating DevOps processes in an efficient and secure manner across all their tools and teams. It automates every step of production, including continuous integration (CI), continuous deliveries (CD), infrastructure, and more. Pipelines is natively integrated with the JFrog Platform and is available with both cloud (software-as-a-service) and on-prem subscriptions.

Mirantis Kubernetes Engine (formerly Docker Enterprise) gives you the power to build, run, and scale cloud native applications—the way that works for you. Increase developer efficiency and release frequency while reducing cost. Deploy Kubernetes and Swarm clusters out of the box and manage them via API, CLI, or web interface. Kubernetes, Swarm, or both Different apps—and different teams—have different container orchestration needs. Use Kubernetes, Swarm, or both depending on your specific requirements. Simplified cluster management Get up and running right out of the box—then manage clusters easily and apply updates with zero downtime using a simple web UI, CLI, or API. Integrated role-based access control (RBAC) Fine-grained security access control across your platform ensures effective separation of duties, and helps drive a security strategy built on the principle of least privilege. Identity management Easily integrate with your existing identity management solution and enable two-factor authentication to provide peace of mind that only authorized users are accessing your platform. Mirantis Kubernetes Engine works with Mirantis Container Runtime and Mirantis Secure Registry to provide security compliance.

Data-driven computational pipelines. Nextflow allows for reproducible and scalable scientific workflows by using software containers. It allows adaptation of scripts written in most common scripting languages. Fluent DSL makes it easy to implement and deploy complex reactive and parallel workflows on clusters and clouds. Nextflow was built on the belief that Linux is the lingua Franca of data science. Nextflow makes it easier to create a computational pipeline that can be used to combine many tasks. You can reuse existing scripts and tools. Additionally, you don't have to learn a new language to use Nextflow. Nextflow supports Docker, Singularity and other containers technology. This, together with integration of the GitHub Code-sharing Platform, allows you write self-contained pipes, manage versions, reproduce any configuration quickly, and allow you to integrate the GitHub code-sharing portal. Nextflow acts as an abstraction layer between the logic of your pipeline and its execution layer.

It is the only Kubernetes distribution which is simple, solid, and certified. It works on any infrastructure, including bare metal, on-premises or private clouds, edge, IoT or public clouds. It's free and open source. Zero Friction – k0s dramatically reduces the complexity involved in installing and running Kubernetes. Bootstrapping new kube clusters takes only minutes. Developer friction is zero, making it easy for anyone to get started, even if they don't have any special skills. Zero Deps: k0s comes as a single binary that has no host OS dependencies other than the kernel of the host OS. It works with any OS without additional software packages. Any security vulnerabilities or performance problems can be fixed directly within the k0s Distribution. Zero Cost - K0s is free for commercial or personal use and will always be. The source code can be found on GitHub, under Apache 2 license.

Mesos is built on the same principles as Linux, but at a higher level of abstraction. The Mesos kernel runs at every machine. It provides applications (e.g. Hadoop, Spark Kafka, Elasticsearch, Kafka) with API's that allow for resource management and scheduling across all datacenters and cloud environments. Native support for Docker and AppC images launching containers. Support for legacy and cloud native applications running in the same cluster using pluggable scheduling policies.

It is a simple and flexible task orchestrator that deploys and manages containers and non-containerized apps across on-prem as well as cloud environments. One 35MB binary that can be integrated into existing infrastructure. It is easy to use on-prem and in the cloud with minimal overhead. You can orchestrate any type of application, not just containers. First-class support for Docker and Windows, Java, VMs, VMs, and other technologies. Orchestration benefits can be added to existing services. Zero downtime deployments, increased resilience, higher resource utilization, as well as greater resilience can all be achieved without containerization. Multi-region, multicloud federation - single command Nomad is a single control plane that allows you to deploy applications worldwide to any region. One workflow to deploy to cloud or bare metal environments. Multi-cloud applications can be enabled with ease. Nomad seamlessly integrates with Terraform Consul and Vault for provisioning and service networking. Secrets management is also possible.

Helios is a Docker orchestration platform that allows you to deploy and manage containers across a large number of servers. Helios offers a command-line client and an HTTP API to allow you to interact with the containers running on your servers. It keeps track of all events in your cluster, including version changes, deploys, restarts, and restarts. Although the binary release of Helios was designed for Ubuntu 14.04.1LTS, Helios should work on any platform that has Java 8 and Maven 3. To launch a local environment, use helios–solo with a Helios master or agent. Helios is pragmatic. We don't have all the answers, but we do our best to make sure that what we do have is rock-solid. We don't yet have dynamic scheduling or resource limits. It is more important for us to have the CI/CD use case and surrounding tooling firmly established today than ever before. However, dynamic scheduling and composite jobs are all possible in the future.

OneCloud's roots were in Rotterdam, a city known for its innovation and where developers faced many challenges when building web apps in traditional hosting or cloud setups. Our journey began with a strong wish to improve cloud development. Our mission at OneCloud is to empower developers by providing them with a Kubernetes-based cloud platform that is state-of-the art, giving them the ability to regain control of their web application development. Our goal is eliminate obstacles and simplify the process so that developers can focus on innovation and creativity. OneCloud is more than just a cloud platform. It's a trusted tech partner, and an extended team that you can rely on. We invite you to join us in reshaping the cloud development scene. We will harness the potential of the Cloud, and revolutionize the process of developing and deploying web apps.

Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS), a fully managed service that manages containerized applications, makes it easy to deploy and manage them. It provides serverless Kubernetes and integrated continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD), as well as enterprise-grade security, governance, and governance. You can quickly build, deliver, scale and scale applications using confidence by bringing together your operations and development teams. You can easily provision additional capacity by using elastic provisioning without having to manage the infrastructure. KEDA allows for event-driven autoscaling. Azure Dev Spaces allows for faster end-to-end development, including integration with Visual Studio Code Kubernetes tools and Azure DevOps. Azure Policy allows for advanced identity and access management, as well as dynamic rules enforcement across multiple clusters. More regions are available than any other cloud provider.

Alibaba Cloud offers Container Service for Kubernetes, which is a fully managed service. ACK integrates with services such as virtualization and storage to provide a highly scalable Kubernetes environment for containerized applications. Alibaba Cloud is a Kubernetes Certified Service Provider, (KCSP), and ACK has been certified by Certified Kubernetes Conformance Program. This ensures consistent Kubernetes experience and workload portability. Kubernetes Certified Services Provider (KCSP), and qualified by Certified Kubernetes conformance Program. Kubernetes consistency and workload portability. Deep and rich cloud native capabilities for enterprise-class enterprises. Provides fine-grained access control and application security. Allows you quickly to create Kubernetes Clusters. Container-based management of applications during the entire application lifecycle.

Docker 4.0 and higher include swarm mode, which allows you to manage a cluster of Docker Engines. The Docker CLI allows you to create a cluster, deploy applications to it, and manage its behavior. Cluster management integrated with Docker Engine. Use the Docker Engine CLI for cluster management. To create or manage a cluster, you don't need any additional orchestration software. Decentralized design: The Docker Engine does not handle differentiation between node roles at deployment. Instead, it handles any specialization at runtime. The Docker Engine can be used to deploy both managers and workers. This allows you to create a whole swarm using a single disk image. Declarative service model: Docker Engine uses this declarative approach to allow you to define the desired state for the various services within your application stack.

Your applications, any cloud, any container, anywhere. Apache Brooklyn is software to manage cloud applications. It can be used to: Blueprints of your application are stored in version control. Components are configured and integrated across multiple machines automatically. You can also use it to monitor key application metrics, scale to meet demand, restart and replace failing components. You can view and modify the web console, or automate using REST API.

Apache Helix is a generic cluster management framework that automates the management of distributed, replicated, and partitioned resources hosted on a cluster. Helix automates the reassignment and reconfiguration of resources in case of node failure, recovery, cluster expansion, or reconfiguration. Cluster management is the first step to understanding Helix. For the following reasons, a distributed system is typically run on multiple nodes: Scalability, fault tolerance, load balancencing, and scalability. Each node is responsible for one or more of the cluster's primary functions, such as serving and storing data, producing and consuming data streams, etc. Helix is the global brain of your system once it has been configured. It is designed to make decisions that are not possible in isolation. Although it is possible to integrate these functions into a distributed system, it can complicate the code.