Apache CloudStack
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers
Cloud management platforms
Private cloud software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
Take the quiz to check if Apache CloudStack and its alternatives fit your requirements.
Completely free
Free Trial unavailable
Free version
Small
Medium
Large
- Public sector and nonprofit organizations
- Construction
- Information technology and software
What is Apache CloudStack
Apache CloudStack is an open-source cloud management platform used to build and operate private and public IaaS clouds. It provides orchestration for compute, storage, and networking across hypervisor-based virtualization environments and exposes self-service and API-driven provisioning. Typical users include service providers and enterprises that want to run multi-tenant virtual machine infrastructure with centralized management. It emphasizes a relatively integrated “batteries-included” IaaS control plane rather than focusing primarily on container orchestration.
Mature IaaS control plane
CloudStack provides core IaaS functions such as VM lifecycle management, IP address management, security groups, and multi-tenant isolation. It includes built-in constructs for zones, pods, clusters, and hosts that map to common data center designs. This maturity can reduce the amount of custom orchestration required compared with assembling multiple separate components.
Broad hypervisor support
CloudStack supports multiple hypervisors, including KVM and VMware vSphere, enabling mixed virtualization estates. This can help organizations standardize on a single management layer while maintaining different underlying virtualization platforms. It also supports integration with common storage and networking approaches used in virtualized data centers.
Open-source governance and extensibility
As an Apache Software Foundation project, CloudStack is developed in an open-source model with publicly available code and community processes. It offers APIs and a plugin architecture that allow integration with external systems such as identity providers, network services, and billing/portal layers. This can be useful for teams that need to adapt the platform to internal operational requirements.
Operational complexity at scale
Running CloudStack typically requires strong infrastructure operations skills across networking, storage, and virtualization. Designing zones and network offerings, maintaining management components, and troubleshooting distributed issues can be non-trivial. Organizations without dedicated cloud operations teams may find implementation and ongoing maintenance demanding.
Less Kubernetes-native focus
CloudStack is primarily oriented around virtual machines and traditional IaaS constructs rather than Kubernetes-first workflows. While it can host Kubernetes clusters on VMs, it is not designed as a managed Kubernetes control plane. Teams prioritizing container-native day-2 operations may need additional tooling beyond CloudStack.
Ecosystem depends on integrators
Many production deployments rely on third-party distributions, systems integrators, or internal engineering to package, harden, and support the platform. Commercial support options exist via vendors that build on CloudStack, but the core project itself does not provide enterprise support SLAs. This can affect procurement and support expectations for some buyers.
Plan & Pricing
Pricing model: Open-source (no paid plans listed on official site)
Details / Notes:
- Apache CloudStack is distributed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 and is available as downloadable source and community packages on the official site.
- The official website provides downloads, documentation, and release notes but does not list any subscription tiers, commercial pricing, or vendor-hosted paid offerings.
Official pages checked: Homepage (project description and license), Downloads and Documentation pages.
(No tiered plans or usage-based pricing found on the official CloudStack website.)
Seller details
Apache Software Foundation
Wakefield, Massachusetts, USA
1999
Non-profit
https://www.apache.org/
https://x.com/TheASF
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-apache-software-foundation/
