head to head · open source
kubernetes vs cds
kubernetes has 127,843 GitHub stars, 44,692 forks, 3,072 open issues and last shipped today. cds has 4,843 stars, 453 forks, 160 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. kubernetes leads on adoption by 2,540% (127,843 vs 4,843 stars). kubernetes is written in Go under Apache-2.0; cds is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause. kubernetes has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, cds 9%. kubernetes was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| kubernetes | cds | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 128K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 45K | ⑂ 453 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kubernetes if
- You weight community size — 128K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cds if
- You want the cds feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and cds fits your workflow better
About kubernetes
Kubernetes (K8s) is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed system for managing containerized applications across multiple hosts, hosted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation and aimed at teams who deploy, maintain and scale container packaged and microservices oriented workloads in production.
read the full kubernetes overview →
About cds
CDS is an open source, enterprise grade continuous delivery and DevOps automation platform written in Go, for teams that build, run and own their own CI/CD workflows and want to script and scale them without depending on a hosted vendor.
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Frequently asked questions
Is kubernetes or cds more popular?
kubernetes has 127,843 GitHub stars and cds has 4,843. kubernetes has the larger community by that measure.
Are kubernetes and cds free?
Both are open source. kubernetes is licensed under Apache-2.0 and cds under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kubernetes and cds?
kubernetes is written in Go and cds in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, kubernetes or cds?
Choose kubernetes if you want the larger community (127,843 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose cds if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.