head to head · open source
rancher vs kubero
rancher has 25,922 GitHub stars, 3,222 forks, 3,371 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kubero has 4,419 stars, 213 forks, 128 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. rancher leads on adoption by 487% (25,922 vs 4,419 stars). rancher is written in Go under Apache-2.0; kubero is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. rancher has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, kubero 5%. rancher was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (kubernetes), 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
| rancher | kubero | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 4.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 213 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rancher if
- You weight community size — 26K 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 kubero if
- You want the kubero feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and kubero fits your workflow better
About rancher
Rancher is an Apache 2.0 licensed, Go based open source container management platform for organizations that deploy containers in production and need to run Kubernetes everywhere while meeting IT requirements and empowering DevOps teams.
read the full rancher overview →
About kubero
Kubero is a self hosted Platform as a Service for the Kubernetes ecosystem. It is written in TypeScript and released under the GPL 3.0 license. It gives developers a web based control layer for deploying applications on Kubernetes without specialized platform knowledge. It follows twelve factor principles and can run services from existing container images or source code.
read the full kubero overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rancher or kubero more popular?
rancher has 25,922 GitHub stars and kubero has 4,419. rancher has the larger community by that measure.
Are rancher and kubero free?
Both are open source. rancher is licensed under Apache-2.0 and kubero under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rancher and kubero?
rancher is written in Go and kubero in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, rancher or kubero?
Choose rancher if you want the larger community (25,922 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose kubero if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.