OpenStack
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers
Cloud management platforms
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
Take the quiz to check if OpenStack and its alternatives fit your requirements.
Completely free
Free Trial unavailable
Free version
Small
Medium
Large
- Public sector and nonprofit organizations
- Energy and utilities
- Education and training
What is OpenStack
OpenStack is an open source cloud infrastructure platform used to build and operate private and public clouds. It provides services for compute, networking, and storage, exposed through APIs and dashboards, and is typically deployed by enterprises, service providers, and research organizations running their own infrastructure. OpenStack is modular (multiple integrated services) and supports a range of hypervisors and hardware, with deployment commonly handled via distributions or integrators rather than a single vendor-run SaaS offering.
Modular IaaS service architecture
OpenStack separates core IaaS capabilities into services such as Nova (compute), Neutron (networking), Cinder (block storage), Swift (object storage), and Keystone (identity). This modularity lets operators deploy only the components they need and integrate with existing infrastructure tools. It also enables different operational models, from small private clouds to multi-region environments, depending on the chosen deployment approach.
Vendor-neutral and portable
OpenStack is governed as an open source project and is not tied to a single cloud provider’s proprietary control plane. Organizations can run it on their own hardware or with multiple commercial distributions and support partners. This can reduce dependency on a single vendor for core IaaS APIs and allows migration between OpenStack-based environments with fewer architectural changes than moving between proprietary platforms.
Broad ecosystem and integrations
OpenStack has a large ecosystem of drivers and integrations for storage arrays, SDN solutions, hypervisors, and monitoring/automation tooling. It supports common enterprise requirements such as multi-tenancy, role-based access control, quotas, and API-driven provisioning. This ecosystem can be advantageous for organizations that need to integrate IaaS with existing data center investments and operational processes.
High operational complexity
Deploying and operating OpenStack typically requires specialized skills in Linux, networking, storage, and distributed systems. Upgrades, capacity planning, and troubleshooting can be complex due to the number of services and dependencies involved. Many organizations rely on a commercial distribution, managed service, or experienced systems integrator to reach production-grade operations.
Implementation varies by distribution
Real-world OpenStack environments often differ based on the installer, packaging, and opinionated defaults used by a chosen distribution or integrator. Feature availability and stability can vary depending on versions and enabled components. This variability can complicate standardization across teams and make it harder to compare capabilities directly with fully managed cloud platforms.
Not a turnkey public cloud
OpenStack is software for building clouds, not a single hosted IaaS provider with unified billing, global regions, and managed services by default. Organizations must supply hardware, networking, and operational processes, and may need additional tooling for governance, cost management, and service catalogs. For teams seeking rapid provisioning without infrastructure ownership, a managed cloud service may be a better fit.
Plan & Pricing
Pricing model: Open-source / free (Apache 2.0). Core OpenStack software is provided under the Apache 2.0 license and is available to download and run at no charge.
Free tier/trial: Core software is permanently free to use (not a time-limited trial).
Official paid offering (on openstack.org): Certified OpenStack Administrator (COA) exam — $400 (exam fee listed on OpenStack site).
Marketplace/vendor example (listed on OpenStack Marketplace): Canonical Managed OpenStack — $5,475 per host per year (listed in the OpenStack Marketplace entry for Canonical).
Notes: Many third-party vendors in the OpenStack Marketplace publish paid services (managed OpenStack, hosted/private clouds, support subscriptions) on their Marketplace pages; pricing varies by vendor and offering (contact the vendor for details).
Seller details
OpenInfra Foundation (OpenStack project)
Denver, CO, USA
2012
Non-profit
https://www.openstack.org/
https://x.com/OpenStack
https://www.linkedin.com/company/open-infrastructure-foundation/
