Knative vs Kubeless: What are the differences?

Introduction

Knative and Kubeless are both serverless frameworks for running scalable workloads on Kubernetes clusters. While both provide solutions for deploying and managing functions as services, there are several key differences between the two.

1. Containerization vs. Function Invocation: Knative focuses on the containerization of workloads, enabling developers to package their functions as Docker containers and deploy them on a Kubernetes cluster. On the other hand, Kubeless abstracts away the containerization aspect and allows developers to directly invoke functions without the need for explicit containerization.

2. Event-driven vs. Request-driven: Knative is primarily designed for event-driven workloads, supporting automatic scaling based on incoming events and enabling seamless integration with event sources. Kubeless, on the other hand, is more request-driven, where functions are invoked through HTTP requests or other transport mechanisms.

3. Language Support: Knative provides a more extensive language support, allowing developers to write functions in multiple languages such as Java, Node.js, Go, and more. Kubeless also supports multiple languages but has a more limited language support compared to Knative.

4. Serverless Workflow: Knative provides a serverless workflow layer on top of Kubernetes, allowing developers to define sophisticated workflows and orchestrate the execution of functions. Kubeless focuses more on the function operation itself rather than workflow orchestration.

5. Community and Maturity: Knative is an open-source project with a vibrant community and is backed by major organizations like Google, Pivotal, and Red Hat. It has gained more traction and maturity compared to Kubeless, which has a smaller community and ecosystem.

6. Integration with Kubernetes Native Ecosystem: Knative is tightly integrated with the Kubernetes ecosystem and leverages Kubernetes primitives for managing workloads, scaling, and routing. Kubeless also runs on Kubernetes but provides additional abstractions to simplify function deployment and management.

In summary, Knative focuses on containerization, event-driven workloads, supports multiple languages, provides a serverless workflow layer, has a larger community and is tightly integrated with Kubernetes. Kubeless, on the other hand, is more request-driven, has a more limited language support, focuses on function operation rather than workflow orchestration, has a smaller community, and provides additional abstractions for function deployment and management.