A platform you host, or a platform that is hosted
Devtron is one of the most complete open source Kubernetes platforms. Its Apache-2.0 core gives you a dashboard for clusters and apps, Kubernetes-native CI, and GitOps through Argo CD. Its paid plans add approvals, cost views, cluster creation and an AI assistant. You install it on a cluster and operate it yourself.
Ankra covers much of the same delivery ground and adds the layer underneath. It builds the cluster on the provider you choose, and its control plane is a hosted service in the EU, so there is no platform installation for your team to upgrade.
Devtron suits a team that wants an open source platform it runs itself. Ankra suits a team that wants the cluster, the delivery path and the operating work handled as a service.
Where the clusters come from
Devtron connects existing clusters with a server URL and token or a kubeconfig. Creating clusters is an Enterprise feature that is documented for EKS, and job plugins can create EKS or GKE clusters from a pipeline.
Ankra builds kubeadm or k3s clusters on Hetzner, OVHcloud, UpCloud, DigitalOcean, AWS EC2 and Proxmox VE, creates EKS, GKE, AKS, DOKS, OVHcloud MKS and UpCloud UKS, and imports any conformant cluster. On clusters it builds, it handles upgrades, node groups, power schedules and node autoscaling.
Building and releasing
This is where the products are closest. Devtron runs CI inside Kubernetes, scans with Trivy or Clair across images, manifests and source code, and can block a deploy by vulnerability severity. Its Enterprise approval policies cover deploys and changes to templates, ConfigMaps and Secrets. In-pipeline approvals are more mature in Devtron than in Ankra today.
Ankra Pipelines run tests and rootless builds in your own cluster, add Semgrep source checks and Checkov configuration checks to Trivy, and a policy gate decides which image may be published. Applications generate the build files, deploy every successful build, and open pull-request previews. Applications and previews work with GitHub repositories, and some documented pipeline stage kinds, including in-pipeline approval, do not run yet.
For platform add-ons, Devtron relies on Argo CD. Ankra uses its own deployment engine, so there is no Argo CD to operate. Stacks order add-ons by dependency, and stack profiles carry them to new environments.
Security, cost and backups
Devtron’s scanning works at build and deploy time. Ankra’s Security Center also watches what is already running, listing vulnerabilities across every cluster and ranking them by CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue and FIRST’s EPSS scores.
Devtron’s paid plans estimate cost from in-cluster Prometheus data for Devtron and Helm apps, and include backups. Ankra’s Cloud Cost estimates spend per namespace and stack and reprices the whole cluster on other providers. Its backups write volumes and database dumps to a bucket you own.
How the AI works
Devtron’s AI assistant explains failures using a model you supply. Its AI runbooks run only after an approval, and that approval can be scoped to a cluster, a period or granted indefinitely.
Ankra’s AI Insights analyses firing alerts and scheduled health scans. The AI Gateway reviews pull requests in GitHub, Slack and Teams and opens fix pull requests, and the assistant drafts stacks from a description. Every write waits for a person by default, and autonomy controls set how far it may go. You can bring your own model here too.
When to choose Ankra, and when to choose Devtron
Choose Ankra when you want the cluster built on the provider you choose, delivery and day-two operations in one hosted product, and no platform installation of your own to run.
Choose Devtron when
- an open source core you host yourself is a requirement
- you already run Argo CD and want a dashboard and CI around it
- multi-stage approvals inside the pipeline are needed today
- you want a free tier for one larger cluster, up to 50 vCPU
Compare the work that remains
- Create the foundation. Note who builds the cluster and who upgrades the platform itself.
- Ship a release. Include tests, scans, an approval, a preview and a rollback.
- Upgrade an add-on. Note how dependencies are checked and how a failed upgrade is undone.
- Investigate a vulnerability. Find every affected running workload.
- Compare total cost. Include subscriptions, the cluster that hosts the platform and the time to operate it.
See Devtron’s pricing and Ankra’s pricing.
Reviewed 9 October 2026 against Devtron 2.2 and its documentation. Product scope and plans can change.