MetalK8s
An opinionated Kubernetes distribution with a focus on long-term on-prem deployments
MetalK8s is an open-source containers project on GitHub under the Apache-2.0 license (permissive), with 396 stars. It is built with TypeScript. Its last push was today.
- Stars
- 396
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Activity
- Active
- Latest release
- 134.0.4
Judgement
- What it is
- Complete system
- What it does
- An opinionated Kubernetes distribution from Scality for long-lived on-premise clusters, with offline installation and bundled monitoring.
- Adopt it when
- You need Kubernetes on air-gapped on-premise hardware, particularly alongside Scality storage products.
- Watch out
- It exists mainly to carry Scality's own products, so outside users are few and its direction follows Scality's needs.
- Ready for
- Usable
- Runs as
- Self-hosted server
- Built with
- SaltStack, Python, TypeScript and Kubernetes
- How established
- Established: started 8 years ago, latest release 134.0.4.
- What the license allows
- You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice.
Judged on 2026-11-06 from the project's README and GitHub data. The license and age lines are worked out directly.
Built from
Follow it down: MetalK8s → TypeScript → Go → runs on a microchip
Open-source alternatives to MetalK8s
-
1
Kubernetes kubernetes
Production-Grade Container Scheduling and Management
Framework or platform Production-ready You run many services across many machines and have, or will hire, the platform engineers to operate a cluster or a managed one.
★ 129k Apache-2.0 Go Active, pushed today
-
2
Moby moby
The Moby Project - a collaborative project for the container ecosystem to assemble container-based systems
Building block Production-ready You are building or modifying a container platform and need the upstream engine source rather than the packaged Docker product.
★ 72k Apache-2.0 Go Active, pushed today
-
3
K3s k3s-io
Lightweight Kubernetes
Building block Production-ready You need real Kubernetes on edge devices, small VMs, homelabs or CI, where a full distribution is too heavy.
★ 34k Apache-2.0 Go Active, pushed today
-
4
Talos Linux siderolabs
Talos Linux is a modern Linux distribution built for Kubernetes.
Complete system Production-ready You run your own Kubernetes clusters on bare metal or VMs and want an OS with little to patch and no manual drift.
★ 11k MPL-2.0 Go Active, pushed today -
5
Podman Desktop podman-desktop
Podman Desktop is the best free and open source tool to work with Containers and Kubernetes for developers. Get an intuitive and user-friendly interface to effortlessly build, manage, and deploy containers and Kubernetes — all from your desktop.
Developer tool Production-ready Developers need a free graphical alternative to Docker Desktop, for instance because Docker's licence fees apply to your company size.
★ 8.1k Apache-2.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today -
6
k0s k0sproject
k0s - The Zero Friction Kubernetes
Building block Production-ready You want a certified, plain-upstream Kubernetes that installs the same way on bare metal, VMs, edge or air-gapped sites.
★ 6.6k See repository Go Active, pushed today -
7
OKD okd-project
The self-managing, auto-upgrading, Kubernetes distribution for everyone
Complete system Usable You want OpenShift's developer and operations features without a Red Hat subscription and can support it yourself.
★ 2.1k Apache-2.0 HCL Active, pushed today -
8
Gately wangwanjie
Open-source, auditable network gateway for homelabs, NAS and servers: DDNS, STUN traversal, port forwarding with SNI routing, reverse proxy and web server, ACME certificates, WAF, Tailscale, frp, Cloudflare Tunnel, Docker and web terminal in one binary. Runs on Docker, fnOS, OpenWrt, Linux, macOS and Windows.
Complete system Experimental You run a homelab or NAS behind a home router and want DDNS, certificates and a reverse proxy in one console instead of several separate tools.
★ 477 Apache-2.0 Go Active, pushed yesterday
Stars, license and activity come from GitHub and refresh on a rolling hourly schedule. The project's own description is quoted as written.