Crossplane
Crossplane is an open-source control plane framework for platform engineering, designed to help teams manage cloud-native software through control planes the…
What Crossplane is
Crossplane is an open-source control plane framework for platform engineering, designed to help teams manage cloud-native software through control planes they build. Its Composition feature lets users define custom APIs with pipelines of functions rather than maintaining controllers. Managed resources are Kubernetes custom resources that can represent external services such as AWS RDS instances. Community extensions include providers for AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, GitHub, GitLab, and Argo CD. A package manager installs managed resources and composition functions and can distribute control-plane configurations across multiple control planes. Crossplane installs into an existing Kubernetes cluster with a Helm chart; the guide requires an actively supported Kubernetes version and Helm v3.2.0 or later. Operations support one-time, scheduled, and resource-change-triggered pipelines, but are marked alpha in Crossplane v2. It uses Kubernetes RBAC; the default crossplane-admin ClusterRole has full access to all secrets and namespaces and can bind roles to other entities. The project is vendor-neutral, licensed under Apache 2.0, and free to use.
Good
- Open-source project under the Apache 2.0 license.
- Compositions define custom APIs with function pipelines.
- Providers cover major cloud platforms and other services.
- Package manager can distribute configurations across control planes.
Watch out
- Requires an existing Kubernetes cluster.
- Installation guide requires Helm v3.2.0 or later.
- Operations are marked alpha in Crossplane v2.
- Default admin role has broad secret and namespace access.
Who it suits
Crossplane suits platform engineering teams building control planes to manage cloud-native software and external services. It requires an existing Kubernetes cluster and Helm.
Verdict
Crossplane offers a Kubernetes-based framework for building and distributing control planes. Teams should account for its cluster and Helm requirements, alpha Operations feature, and broad default admin permissions.
Plans and prices
From Crossplane's own pricing page, checked 9 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Crossplane open-source project | Free | Apache 2.0 license · runs in an existing Kubernetes cluster |
The facts
Each one read from Crossplane's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- CLI
- The Crossplane CLI is a standalone binary; most CLI commands work without access to a Crossplane pod, though some require a Docker-compatible container runtime.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Custom APIs
- Composition lets users build custom APIs for cloud native software using pipelines of functions instead of writing and maintaining controllers.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Deployment
- Crossplane installs into an existing Kubernetes cluster using a Helm chart; the installation guide requires an actively supported Kubernetes version and Helm v3.2.0 or later.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- The community extension list includes providers for AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, GitHub, GitLab, Argo CD, and other services.checked 9 Oct 2026
- License and governance
- Crossplane is an open-source CNCF project released under the Apache 2.0 license, and its website says it will remain vendor neutral.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Managed resources
- Managed resources are Kubernetes custom resources that let Crossplane manage external services such as AWS RDS instances.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Operations
- Operations support one-time, scheduled, and resource-change-triggered function pipelines, and the documentation marks Operations as an alpha feature in Crossplane v2.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Packages
- The package manager installs managed resources and composition functions and can distribute control-plane configurations across multiple control planes.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- Crossplane is a control plane framework for platform engineering that lets teams build control planes to manage cloud native software.checked 9 Oct 2026
- RBAC permissions
- The default crossplane-admin ClusterRole has full access to all secrets and namespaces, including ones unrelated to Crossplane, and can bind RBAC roles to other entities.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Security
- Crossplane is built on Kubernetes and uses Kubernetes RBAC; its website describes RBAC as a security feature used to control access.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Support
- The commercial page lists Upbound as offering security, support, official providers, and a platform for managing infrastructure with Crossplane.checked 9 Oct 2026
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