Flagger vs Helm: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Flagger and Helm

Flagger and Helm are two popular tools used in the Kubernetes ecosystem, but they serve different purposes and have distinct features. Here are the key differences between Flagger and Helm:

1. Functionality: Flagger is mainly used for progressive delivery and automated canary deployments in Kubernetes. It automates the process of deploying, testing, and monitoring canary releases, allowing for seamless rollouts. On the other hand, Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes that simplifies the deployment of applications and services. It provides a templating system to manage Kubernetes manifests and makes it easier to deploy complex applications.

2. Deployment Management: Flagger focuses on fine-grained control and automation of the deployment process. It integrates with service mesh solutions like Istio and Linkerd to enable features such as traffic shifting, A/B testing, and blue-green deployments. Helm, on the other hand, allows users to package and deploy applications as reusable Helm charts. It provides versioning, dependency management, and easy installation and upgrade of applications.

3. Configuration Management: Flagger handles configuration management through various YAML files and custom resource definitions (CRDs). It defines canary configurations, metrics server configurations, and other related settings to enable automated canary analysis. Helm, on the other hand, manages configurations through values.yaml files and templates. With Helm, users can define parameter values in a values.yaml file, which can be easily customized during deployment.

4. Ease of Use and Flexibility: Flagger provides simplicity and automation for canary deployments. It integrates seamlessly with Kubernetes and service mesh solutions, allowing for automated canary analysis and rollout. Helm offers flexibility and ease of use for deploying applications and services in Kubernetes. It provides a declarative approach to application deployment using Helm charts, making it easier to manage complex deployments.

5. Scalability: Flagger is designed for managing large-scale deployments in Kubernetes and can handle a significant number of canary deployments simultaneously. It leverages Kubernetes controllers to ensure scalability and reliability. Helm is also scalable and can handle multiple deployments, but it primarily focuses on packaging and managing applications rather than the automated deployment process.

6. Community and Ecosystem: Flagger is an open-source project with an active community that contributes to its development and improvement. It has gained popularity in the Kubernetes community due to its focus on progressive delivery. Helm, on the other hand, is a widely adopted package manager for Kubernetes. It has a large community and a vast ecosystem of Helm charts available for various applications and services.

In Summary, Flagger is specialized in progressive delivery and canary deployments, integrating with service mesh solutions for fine-grained control, automation, and scalability. Helm is a package manager that simplifies the deployment of applications in Kubernetes, providing flexibility and ease of use through Helm charts.