Velero

Judgement

What it is

Complete system

What it does

Backs up and restores Kubernetes cluster resources and persistent volumes, and migrates workloads between clusters, using object storage and volume snapshots.

Adopt it when

You run Kubernetes in production and need cluster-level disaster recovery or migration.

Watch out

Restores need rehearsal, and volume backup behaviour depends on your storage provider's snapshot support.

Ready for

Production-ready

Runs as

Self-hosted server and command line

Built with

Go and Kubernetes

How established

Established: started 9 years ago, latest release v1.18.4.

What the license allows

You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice.

Judged on 2026-11-03 from the project's README and GitHub data. The license and age lines are worked out directly.

Compare Velero

Built from

Follow it down: Velero → Go → runs on a microchip

How compilers were built, back to punched paper tape

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