head to head · open source
kubernetes vs cds
kubernetes has 128,645 GitHub stars, 45,747 forks, 3,072 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cds has 4,846 stars, 457 forks, 160 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. kubernetes leads on adoption by 2,555% (128,645 vs 4,846 stars). kubernetes is written in Go under Apache-2.0; cds is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause. kubernetes has attracted 36% 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 | ★ 129K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 46K | ⑂ 457 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kubernetes if
- You weight community size — 129K 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) Kubernetes, also known as K8s, is an open source system for managing [containerized applications] across multiple hosts. It provides basic mechanisms for the deployment, maintenance, and scaling of applications. Kubernetes builds upon a decade and a half of experience at Google running production workloads at scale using a system called [Borg], combined with best of breed ideas and practices from the community. Kubernetes is hosted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation ([CNCF]). If your company wants to help shape the evolution of technologies that are container packaged, dynamically…
read the full kubernetes overview →
About cds
CDS: Continuous Delivery Service CDS is an Enterprise Grade Continuous Delivery & DevOps Automation Platform written in Go(lang). This project is under active development Documentation Intuitive UI CDS provides an intuitive UI that allows you to build complex workflows, run them and dig into the logs when needed. Create and run workflow with CDS ui. The most powerful Command Line for a CI/CD Platform cdsctl is the CDS Command Line you can script everything with it, cdsctl also provides some cool commands such as cdsctl shell to browse your projects and workflows without the need to open a browser. See all cdsctl…
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Frequently asked questions
Is kubernetes or cds more popular?
kubernetes has 128,645 GitHub stars and cds has 4,846. 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 (128,645 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.