Two directions from the cluster
Palette and Ankra both put an agent in your clusters and a reusable blueprint at the centre. They point in different directions.
Palette manages Kubernetes downward. A Cluster Profile layers the operating system, distribution, networking, storage and add-ons, and Palette holds each cluster to it. That reaches bare metal through MAAS, an immutable edge OS and data-centre platforms such as vSphere, Nutanix and CloudStack.
Ankra builds the cluster on the provider you choose and then works upward. It turns repositories into running services, keeps add-ons current, ranks vulnerabilities, estimates cost, backs up data and operates it all with AI.
If the operating system and the hardware are part of what you deliver, Palette fits. If your team delivers software and wants the platform work done, Ankra covers more of it.
Where the clusters come from
Palette’s reach below Kubernetes is its strength. It provisions public clouds, data-centre platforms and edge sites with air-gapped bundles, over-the-air updates and testing to 30,000 nodes.
Ankra builds kubeadm or k3s clusters on Hetzner, OVHcloud, UpCloud, DigitalOcean, AWS EC2 and Proxmox VE, with a private network and bastion. It creates EKS, GKE, AKS, DOKS, OVHcloud MKS and UpCloud UKS, and imports any conformant cluster, including ones Palette made. On clusters it builds, Ankra handles upgrades, node groups, power schedules and node autoscaling. Ankra does not manage the operating system image or bare metal, and it does not support air-gapped clusters.
Profiles and stacks
A Palette profile is a versioned object in Palette. Teams manage it as code through the Terraform and Crossplane providers, and Palette can deploy Argo CD as a pack for application GitOps.
An Ankra stack is a set of Helm charts and manifests with dependency edges, so the database comes up before the service that needs it. With a Git repository connected, stacks live in your repository, and commits you push are applied by Ankra’s own deployment engine. Stack profiles version a working setup and carry it to each new environment with its own inputs.
Shipping your own code
Palette’s App Mode models applications with services such as databases on virtual clusters. It has no CI pipeline with tests and scanners.
Ankra treats delivery as part of the platform. Applications analyse a repository, open a setup pull request with build files, and deploy every successful build. Ankra Pipelines run tests, rootless builds and Semgrep, Checkov and Trivy scans in your own cluster, and publish only the image that passed the gate. Pull-request previews give each change its own environment. Applications and previews work with GitHub repositories, and some documented pipeline stage kinds do not run yet.
Security, cost and recovery
Palette is built for regulated buyers. It runs CIS, penetration, conformance and SBOM scans, and its VerteX edition carries FIPS 140-3 validation for government work. It also estimates cluster cost and runs Velero backups.
Ankra’s Security Center ranks vulnerabilities in running workloads by CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue and FIRST’s EPSS scores, so the exploited ones come first, and produces compliance evidence for CIS, NSA/CISA and Pod Security Standards. Cloud Cost estimates spend per namespace and stack and reprices a whole cluster on other providers. Backups write volumes and database dumps to a bucket you own. Ankra itself is not yet audited for SOC 2 or ISO 27001.
Two meanings of AI
PaletteAI is about running AI workloads, with GPU provisioning and model stacks. To operate Palette with AI, Spectro offers an MCP server whose write tools you switch on, and a Claude Code toolkit with diagnostic skills. Both connect your own AI client.
Ankra’s AI is built into the platform. It drafts stacks from a description, analyses firing alerts with AI Insights, and reviews pull requests and opens fix pull requests through the AI Gateway. Every write waits for a person by default, under autonomy controls you set. It also has an MCP server.
When to choose Ankra, and when to choose Spectro Cloud
Choose Ankra when your team ships software on Kubernetes and wants clusters, delivery, security ranking, cost and backups handled in one product, on European providers or the big clouds.
Choose Spectro Cloud when
- you manage bare metal, operating system images and the distribution as one declarative object
- you run large edge estates where the device is part of the deliverable
- you need FIPS, FedRAMP-aligned or air-gapped self-hosted management
- you are moving virtual machines off VMware onto Kubernetes
Compare the work that remains
- Create the foundation. Record the work outside the product, including the operating system.
- Ship a release. Include build, tests, scans, a preview and a rollback.
- Upgrade an add-on. Note who checks dependencies and how a failed upgrade is undone.
- Investigate a vulnerability. Find every affected workload and release the fix.
- Compare total cost. Include subscriptions, infrastructure and operating effort.
Palette’s free allotment and Ankra’s free 30 worker vCPU are similar in size. Ankra’s pricing is public beyond that, and Palette’s is quoted.
Reviewed 9 October 2026 against Palette 4.10, PaletteAI and the linked documentation. Product scope and plans can change.