A distribution you adopt, or standard Kubernetes you keep
OpenShift is the most complete enterprise Kubernetes product there is. It includes its own installer and operating system, a security model, registry, router, developer console and a large operator ecosystem, all backed by Red Hat support. You can run it yourself, or buy it as a managed service on AWS and Azure that Red Hat’s engineers operate.
Ankra keeps Kubernetes standard. It 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, or imports a cluster you already run. Then it runs delivery, security, cost and AI operations on top.
The decision is whether you want one vendor’s distribution end to end, or an operating platform over standard Kubernetes on the infrastructure you choose.
Who does the platform work
OpenShift reduces work compared with assembling everything yourself, but on a self-managed install your team still owns upgrades, operator lifecycles, capacity and security settings. That work needs people who know OpenShift. ROSA, ARO and OpenShift Dedicated move cluster operations to Red Hat, while your team runs everything on the cluster.
Ankra’s control plane is a hosted service in the EU. On clusters it builds, it handles upgrades, node groups and power schedules, with node autoscaling on the five public clouds. Platform add-ons live in stacks that set install order, and stack profiles carry a proven setup to each new environment.
From a repository to a release
OpenShift ships the parts. OpenShift GitOps and Pipelines bring Argo CD and Tekton as operators, and your team designs the flow that connects them.
Ankra ships the flow. Applications analyse your repository, open a setup pull request with build files, and deploy every successful build. Ankra Pipelines run tests, rootless image builds and Semgrep, Checkov and Trivy scans in your own cluster, and only the image that passed the gate is published. Pull-request previews give each change its own environment, and Ankra’s own deployment engine applies changes without an Argo CD to operate.
Applications and previews work with GitHub repositories, and several documented pipeline stage kinds do not run yet. Check both against your process.
Security and compliance
OpenShift is hardened by default, and Advanced Cluster Security adds runtime detection, admission control and vulnerability management. Red Hat’s managed services carry SOC 2, ISO 27001 and PCI attestations, and ROSA on GovCloud is FedRAMP High.
Ankra’s Security Center focuses on what to fix first. It ranks vulnerabilities in running workloads by CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue and FIRST’s EPSS scores, offers SBOMs, and produces compliance evidence for CIS, NSA/CISA and Pod Security Standards with mappings to frameworks such as ISO 27001. Ankra itself is not yet audited for SOC 2 or ISO 27001. If you need a certified vendor today, that matters.
Cloud Cost estimates spend per namespace and stack and reprices a cluster on other providers. Backups write volumes and databases to a bucket you own and restore them in place.
How the AI helps
OpenShift Lightspeed is included in every self-managed edition. Since version 1.1 it can make changes to the cluster, and each one needs your approval in the console. You supply the model, which can be self-hosted.
Ankra’s AI also works without being asked. 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 it 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 OpenShift
Choose Ankra when you want production Kubernetes on infrastructure you pick, including European providers, with delivery, security ranking, cost and backups in one product and no distribution-specific skills to hire for.
Choose OpenShift when
- you are standardising on Red Hat and want one vendor accountable from the operating system to the console
- you need mainframe, Power, air-gapped or FedRAMP High environments
- you are moving off VMware with OpenShift Virtualization
- you want a certified managed service inside your AWS or Azure bill
Compare the work that remains
- Create the foundation. Record the work outside the product, and the people needed to run it.
- Ship a release. Include tests, scans, a preview and a rollback.
- Handle an incident. Note who finds the cause and how the fix reaches the cluster.
- Investigate a vulnerability. Find every affected workload and release the fix.
- Compare total cost. Include subscriptions, infrastructure and the specialist team.
OpenShift self-managed is quoted per subscription. Ankra’s pricing follows managed worker vCPU, with the first 30 vCPU free.
Reviewed 9 October 2026 against OpenShift 4.22, OpenShift Lightspeed 1.1 and the linked documentation. Product scope and plans can change.