head to head · open source
kyverno vs bernstein
kyverno has 8,197 GitHub stars, 1,623 forks, 703 open issues and last shipped yesterday. bernstein has 1,312 stars, 176 forks, 368 open issues and last shipped today. kyverno leads on adoption by 525% (8,197 vs 1,312 stars). kyverno is written in Go under Apache-2.0; bernstein is written in Python under Apache-2.0. kyverno has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, bernstein 13%. bernstein was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (compliance), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| kyverno | bernstein | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.2K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-28 | 2026-09-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 176 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kyverno if
- You weight community size — 8.2K 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 bernstein if
- You want the bernstein feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and bernstein fits your workflow better
About kyverno
Kyverno is a Kubernetes native policy engine that lets platform engineering teams define security, compliance, automation, and governance rules as policy as code, using the Kubernetes tools they already run rather than a separate policy language.
read the full kyverno overview →
About bernstein
Bernstein is an open source, Apache 2.0 governance and orchestration framework for fleets of AI agents, built for teams that want to write their operating rules declaratively, have those rules enforced at runtime, and keep a verifiable, replayable record of what every agent did.
read the full bernstein overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kyverno or bernstein more popular?
kyverno has 8,197 GitHub stars and bernstein has 1,312. kyverno has the larger community by that measure.
Are kyverno and bernstein free?
Both are open source. kyverno is licensed under Apache-2.0 and bernstein under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kyverno and bernstein?
kyverno is written in Go and bernstein in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, kyverno or bernstein?
Choose kyverno if you want the larger community (8,197 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose bernstein if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.