Knative
The enterprise-grade serverless standard on Kubernetes.
Overview
Knative is not a FaaS platform itself, but an open-source community project which adds components for deploying, running, and managing serverless, cloud-native applications on Kubernetes. It provides a set of middleware components that are essential to build modern, source-centric, and container-based applications that can run on-premises, in the cloud, or in a third-party data center.
✨ Key Features
- Open-source
- Runs on any Kubernetes cluster
- Scale-to-zero capability
- Event-driven architecture (Eventing)
- Request-driven compute (Serving)
- Pluggable components
🎯 Key Differentiators
- Strong backing from major tech companies (Google, Red Hat, IBM)
- Focus on being a foundational building block for serverless on Kubernetes
- Separation of Serving and Eventing concerns
Unique Value: Build a portable, scalable, and enterprise-grade serverless platform on any Kubernetes cluster, avoiding cloud vendor lock-in.
🎯 Use Cases (4)
✅ Best For
- Underlying technology for managed serverless offerings (e.g., Google Cloud Run)
- Internal serverless platforms for enterprises
💡 Check With Vendor
Verify these considerations match your specific requirements:
- Teams looking for a fully managed, out-of-the-box FaaS solution
- Projects without a need for Kubernetes
🏆 Alternatives
Provides a more comprehensive and standardized set of building blocks for serverless compared to other open-source alternatives.
💻 Platforms
✅ Offline Mode Available
🔌 Integrations
🛟 Support Options
- ✓ Live Chat
- ✓ Dedicated Support (Community support (Slack, mailing lists), commercial support from vendors like Google, Red Hat. tier)
💰 Pricing
Free tier: Open source and free to use. Pricing depends on the underlying infrastructure (Kubernetes cluster).
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