Canonical Juju
Configuration management tools
Cloud infrastructure automation software
Container orchestration tools
DevOps software
CI/CD tools
Containerization software
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$500 per computer per year
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What is Canonical Juju
Canonical Juju is an open-source application modeling and infrastructure automation tool used to deploy, configure, integrate, and operate software across clouds and on-premises environments. It uses “charms” to define application lifecycle operations and relationships, enabling repeatable deployments for common stacks (including Kubernetes and traditional services). Juju is typically used by platform engineering and DevOps teams that need consistent multi-environment operations with day-2 management (upgrades, scaling, and configuration changes). It differentiates through its model-driven approach and a large ecosystem of reusable charms maintained by Canonical and the community.
Model-driven application operations
Juju manages applications as models with explicit relations between services, rather than only running imperative scripts. This approach supports ongoing operations such as scaling, reconfiguration, and upgrades using the same definitions used for initial deployment. It can reduce drift by keeping desired state and relationships visible and manageable over time.
Multi-cloud and hybrid support
Juju supports deploying to multiple substrates, including major public clouds and on-premises environments, and it can also work with Kubernetes via the Juju Kubernetes provider. This helps teams standardize deployment and operational workflows across environments. It is useful when organizations need portability without rewriting automation for each target platform.
Reusable charm ecosystem
Juju’s charm framework and Charmhub provide a catalog of packaged operational knowledge for applications and integrations. Teams can adopt existing charms for common components and extend them for internal standards. This can accelerate building repeatable deployments compared with creating automation from scratch for each service.
Learning curve and concepts
Juju introduces specific concepts such as models, controllers, charms, relations, and bundles that require training and practice. Teams already standardized on other configuration management or deployment paradigms may face adoption friction. Operational success often depends on understanding how charm lifecycle hooks and relations behave.
Charm quality varies
While the ecosystem is broad, charms differ in maturity, maintenance cadence, and feature completeness. Some workloads may require writing or heavily customizing charms to meet enterprise requirements. This can increase implementation time compared with tools that rely primarily on generic modules or scripts.
Not a full CI/CD suite
Juju focuses on deployment and lifecycle management rather than providing an end-to-end CI/CD pipeline system. Organizations typically integrate it with separate source control, build, test, and release orchestration tools. This adds integration work for teams expecting a single platform to cover the entire delivery toolchain.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| Juju (open-source) | Free | Juju is an open-source orchestration engine; deploy, integrate and manage applications across clouds, Kubernetes, VMs and bare metal. (See official Juju pages.) |
| Ubuntu Pro — Personal | Free for up to 5 machines | Ubuntu Pro is free for personal users on up to 5 machines (includes extended security maintenance and some support features). Useful for small/test Juju deployments. |
| Ubuntu Pro — Server (Self-support) | $500 per machine/year | Enables enterprise-grade coverage (ESM, Livepatch, Landscape) and is the subscription through which JAAS (Juju as a Service) can be provided. |
| Ubuntu Pro — Server (With Infra support, 24/7) | $1,775 per machine/year | Adds 24/7 infrastructure support and additional operational capabilities. |
| Ubuntu Pro — Server (With full support, 24/7) | $3,400 per machine/year | Full-stack (OS + apps) 24/7 enterprise support; recommended for production-critical environments using Juju/JAAS. |
Notes: JAAS (Juju as a Service) and enterprise management features are provided via Ubuntu Pro subscriptions (deployable on your infrastructure). Canonical’s Juju software itself is open-source/free; commercial support and managed capabilities are available via Ubuntu Pro and Canonical services.
Seller details
Canonical Ltd.
London, United Kingdom
2004
Private
https://canonical.com/
https://x.com/Canonical
https://www.linkedin.com/company/canonical-ltd-/
