OpenShift vs. Kuber­netes

When comparing OpenShift vs Kuber­netes, it’s clear that Kuber­netes serves as a flexible open-source platform for container or­ches­tra­tion, while OpenShift builds on it, adding extra security features, in­teg­rated developer tools, and a user-friendly interface. This makes Kuber­netes ideal for cus­tom­ised setups, while OpenShift offers a complete, en­ter­prise-ready package.

What is Kuber­netes?

Kuber­netes (also known as K8s) is probably the most well-known container man­age­ment system currently. This is partly due to the strong support the project has received from Google employees. Ad­di­tion­ally, Kuber­netes offers a wide range of features and can be adapted to almost any project. This is because the software is open source, which is why you can find many different dis­tri­bu­tions online. The large community sup­port­ing Kuber­netes is also very know­ledge­able: with issues and questions, you can usually find someone to help re­l­at­ively quickly.

The flex­ib­il­ity of Kuber­netes also means that there is no out-of-the-box solution. In many cases, you need to configure a lot yourself to ensure container man­age­ment works. However, this also allows Kuber­netes to be used on any operating system.

What is OpenShift?

Just as there is not a single Kuber­netes, there is also not just one OpenShift available. Red Hat, the company behind OpenShift, offers various products—and this is where the first major dif­fer­ence lies: OpenShift is a paid product. This also means you can expect pro­fes­sion­al support. While with Kuber­netes you rely on the voluntary help of experts from the community, Red Hat provides guar­an­teed support.

The delivery as a finished product brings not only con­veni­ence but also a high level of security. Since the system is self-contained and con­figured by the experts at Red Hat, you can expect high security standards. In contrast, if you configure Kuber­netes yourself, you are re­spons­ible for all security mech­an­isms.

With OKD, formerly OpenShift Origin, Red Hat also offers a free open-source solution. The remaining offerings are available as Platform-as-a-Service. While the packages offered by Red Hat differ in details, they are es­sen­tially hosted versions. The provider supplies the necessary hardware and software con­fig­ur­a­tion. You can then access the secure test en­vir­on­ment with container tech­no­logy over the internet. An own server is not required.

All products have in common that they are built on Kuber­netes. With OpenShift, you choose a Kuber­netes dis­tri­bu­tion with ad­di­tion­al service. Instead of con­fig­ur­ing K8s yourself, you rent a ready-to-use en­vir­on­ment with OpenShift, which can be im­me­di­ately used for de­vel­op­ment, testing, and de­ploy­ment.

OpenShift vs Kuber­netes com­par­is­on

Since OpenShift is based on Kuber­netes, there are some sim­il­ar­it­ies between the two tools. However, there are dif­fer­ences in certain aspects.

Which solution should you choose?

Tech­nic­ally, both options are on par. Some details are handled dif­fer­ently but can certainly be compared. The main question is whether you want to pay for the comfort of OpenShift or opt for maximum flex­ib­il­ity with Kuber­netes. However, this requires a sig­ni­fic­ant time in­vest­ment to set up the software.

Es­pe­cially if you rely heavily on as­sist­ance, you should opt for OpenShift. Everything is already properly con­figured, and you can also rely on the pro­fes­sion­al support from Red Hat. However, the Kuber­netes community should not be un­der­es­tim­ated: you can also find experts there who can help in any situation.