Alternatives to Harvester

Hyper-converged infrastructure that runs virtual machines on top of Kubernetes. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as Harvester.

  • Proxmox VE

    A bare-metal server platform that runs KVM virtual machines and LXC containers from one web interface.

    FreemiumOpen sourceLinuxSelf-hosted

    Proxmox VE runs KVM virtual machines and LXC containers from one web interface with backup and clustering included, but uses the AGPL-3.0 license and a freemium subscription model.

  • VMware ESXi Free

    Industry-standard bare-metal hypervisor with a free tier for small setups.

    FreemiumProprietarySelf-hosted

    VMware ESXi Free is a closed-source bare-metal hypervisor widely used in enterprise, and its free edition lacks the centralized management found in licensed vSphere.

  • XCP-ng

    Open-source bare-metal hypervisor built on Xen, managed through Xen Orchestra.

    FreeOpen sourceLinuxSelf-hosted

    XCP-ng is built on Xen instead of Kubernetes, managed through Xen Orchestra, and its hardware compatibility is narrower than KVM-based platforms.

  • oVirt

    Centralised management platform for KVM virtual machines across a cluster.

    FreeOpen sourceLinuxWebSelf-hosted

    oVirt manages KVM virtual machines across a cluster with live migration and high availability, but development has slowed and it expects enterprise-style shared storage.

  • Incus

    Manage Linux system containers and virtual machines through one interface.

    FreeOpen sourceLinuxSelf-hosted

    Incus manages Linux system containers and virtual machines through one interface without Kubernetes, and runs on any Linux host rather than requiring a bare-metal install.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.