head to head · open source
kubernetes vs Plakar
kubernetes has 127,843 GitHub stars, 44,692 forks, 3,072 open issues and last shipped today. Plakar has 2,064 stars, 92 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. kubernetes leads on adoption by 6,094% (127,843 vs 2,064 stars). kubernetes is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Plakar is written in Go under ISC. kubernetes has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, Plakar 4%. 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 | Plakar | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 128K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | ISC |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 45K | ⑂ 92 |
| 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 Plakar if
- You want the Plakar feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the ISC license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Plakar 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 Plakar
Plakar is an open source backup engine written in Go for the infrastructure and operations ecosystem. It is powered by Kloset, an immutable data store, and it uses the ptar format for self contained archives. Plakar creates snapshots of data, stores them in encrypted and deduplicated repositories, and lets users inspect, verify, and restore the snapshots later.
read the full Plakar overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kubernetes or Plakar more popular?
kubernetes has 127,843 GitHub stars and Plakar has 2,064. kubernetes has the larger community by that measure.
Are kubernetes and Plakar free?
Both are open source. kubernetes is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Plakar under ISC. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kubernetes and Plakar?
kubernetes is written in Go and Plakar 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 Plakar?
Choose kubernetes if you want the larger community (127,843 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Plakar if its feature set, stack or ISC licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.