Rancher Labs vs Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform comparison

Rancher Labs and Red Hat are both solutions in the Container Management category. Rancher Labs is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.8, while Red Hat is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. Rancher Labs holds a 7.2% mindshare in CM, compared to Red Hat’s 20.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Rancher Labs users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Red Hat users who would recommend it.

Rancher Labs

Read 14 Rancher Labs reviews

3,179 Views
3,020 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Red Hat OpenShift Container...

Read 50 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform reviews

6,602 Views
6,536 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Rancher Labs

Red Hat OpenShift Container...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 13, 2024

Rancher Labs and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform compete in the container management category. Rancher Labs offers simplicity and ease of use, making it suitable for those seeking efficient deployment without extensive Kubernetes expertise, whereas OpenShift provides a feature-rich ecosystem for enterprises needing advanced capabilities.

Features: Rancher Labs offers ease of deployment, rolling upgrades, and seamless management due to its open-source nature. OpenShift provides built-in security, extensive integrations, and enterprise-grade features like service mesh and cluster management.

Room for Improvement: Rancher Labs could enhance upgrade stability, tool integration, and automatic security features. OpenShift may benefit from better documentation, pricing adjustments, and improved deployment speed during execution.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Rancher Labs facilitates straightforward deployments in various environments, backed by community support. OpenShift's extensive options may add complexity but are offset by structured support channels for intricate setups.

Pricing and ROI: Rancher Labs provides a cost-effective alternative with minimal fees, promising ROI through time and cost savings. Although priced higher, OpenShift justifies its cost with robust security and features, offering value for enterprises investing in performance enhancement.

To learn more, read our detailed Rancher Labs vs. Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Rancher Labs vs. Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

July 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Rancher Labs

Ranking in Container Management

9th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Storage for Kubernetes (2nd)

Red Hat OpenShift Container...

Ranking in Container Management

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Container Management category, the mindshare of Rancher Labs is 7.2%, down from 9.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform is 20.0%, down from 21.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Container Management

Featured Reviews

RyanVassallo

Head of Systems and Infrastructure at Booming Games

Offers an open-source version along with a good UI

The product has multiple good features. One of the solution's good features is that it is the GitOps functionality known as Rancher fleet, which is used for continuous delivery. The tool's UI is very convenient enough to help you manage multiple clusters in the cloud or on-premises, making it a product with which you can manage different clusters and locations. The tool also has a feature that is still kind of maturing, but I think it has very good potential. This new feature is named Harvester, which is allows users to have virtual machines managed by Kubernetes engine. This is very new technology in the market. I think that Harvester needs to mature as a product, and I think that in the future, it will be very powerful. You have one tool that does many things for you.

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Prasad Gupta

Software Engineer at IBM Software Labs

Efficient deployment with resource optimization and multi-region stability

There are several areas where OpenShift could improve. The interface has numerous UI bugs that need addressing. Furthermore, the latest version has deprecated the deployment config, which has its own advantages compared to the deployment container. Lastly, there is no built-in auto-scaling plugin at the OpenShift level; this needs to be addressed as it's available at the cloud provider level, like IBM Cloud.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Rancher Labs is a very user-friendly tool."

"The most valuable feature of Rancher Labs is its user interface, which makes it easier to work with containers and deployment."

"The customized deployment process is the most valuable feature in Rancher Labs."

"The solution is stable."

"The tool's UI is very convenient enough to help you manage multiple clusters in the cloud or the company, making it a product with which you can manage different clusters and locations."

"The solution has a lot of good features, such as you can access the console and edit through the GUI. The dashboard and the UI are designed well, user-friendly, and easy to manage, and access."

"A great UI with very good integrations."

"The scalability potential is very good."

More Rancher Labs pros

"I think it's a pretty scalable tool...The solution's technical support has been pretty good."

"It has been a good solution to deploy all containerized applications."

"The platform has significantly improved our organization by enhancing productivity and reducing the time required to deploy applications."

"Openshift is a very developer-friendly product."

"Red Hat's security throughout the stack and software supply chain is good. It is a lightweight operating system. You don't have to worry about the security patches on the system. You can update the entire environment with security patches, which is a nice feature."

"On OpenShift, it's easy to scale applications. We can easily scale up or scale down."

"More tools are available in OpenShift Container Platform to maintain and manage the clusters."

"OpenShift is a user-friendly container platform with a solid GUI that helps you follow what is going on and gives you an overview of all your clusters. It's more user-friendly than the Kubernetes itself. The interface helps you learn the platform and provides access to some features or specific comments."

More Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform pros

Cons

"They should improve application visibility along with code visibility."

"Could be more intuitive."

"I can't migrate to the newer version."

"If you have poor infrastructure, you will have issues with the tool."

"We have found that the auto-secure feature of this solution doesn't always work, and could be improved to be more reliable, particularly when working with business critical applications."

"We're looking for something that is even easier to use. It's a bit complicated."

"The biggest room for improvement in Rancher Labs would be to have a proper upgrading plan."

"While Rancher Labs provides some level of security, it's not considered very robust."

More Rancher Labs cons

"The product's setup process could be easier."

"There are some occasions when support from Red Hat is not what we expect; in instances of outages, it sometimes takes a substantial amount of time to resolve issues."

"Getting the solution quickly and troubleshooting quickly are both areas where I think it needs some work."

"Whenever we onboard or deploy services that talk to Oracle Database, they take a lot of time to become active and serve the incoming request, so it would be good to see some improvement here. This could be an OpenShift issue or an internal network problem within our organization."

"Quality of support may be improved."

"I want to see more incorporation of native automation features; then, we could write a code, deploy it directly to OpenShift, and allow it to take care of the automated process. Using this method, we could write one application and have elements copy/pasted to other applications in the development process."

"The price needs to be improved in OpenShift Container Platform. When I choose this, the product is the first factor that we have to make a long analysis to compare the real cost for the other services. However, price is high."

"It can take 10 to 15 minutes to deploy a microservice. The CI/CD process takes a long time, and if it's because of OCP, that is something that can be changed."

More Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Although Rancher Labs is an open-source solution, they also offer a paid version, where you buy the support when needed."

"The pricing of the solution sits in the mid range, not high and not low. It has a fixed price that you pay every month."

"The solution is free and open source but there is a fee for support."

"The cost is reasonable since it's open source. Rancher effectively addresses container orchestration trends, especially for those with some Kubernetes knowledge."

"There are no hidden charges attached to the product unless a user opts for the premium support offered by the solution."

"There is an annual subscription. The price of the solution should be cheaper and have better pricing flexibility."

"This is an open-source solution, so there are no licensing costs involved."

"Its licensing is completely incomprehensible. We have special people within our company. They discuss with Red Hat subscription managers. It is too complex, and I do not understand it. We are from the government, and we are trying to be as cheap as possible. Sometimes, I am just amazed at the amount of money that we have to pay. It is crazy."

"The pricing and licensing are handled on an upper management level, and I'm not involved in that, but I understand the solution to be somewhat pricey."

"We currently have an annual license renewal."

"The product is expensive."

"I'm not familiar with pricing or financial aspects. In terms of effort versus benefit, it's worth it."

"The pricing is expensive for licensing."

"It largely depends on how much money they earn from the application being deployed; you don't normally deploy an app just for the purpose of having it. You must constantly look into your revenue and how much you spend every container, minute, or hour of how much it is working."

"Its price is a bit high because it's a premium product, but as long as the business is ready to pay for that, it's okay."

More Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

40%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Rancher Labs?

The tool's UI is very convenient enough to help you manage multiple clusters in the cloud or the company, making it a product with which you can manage different clusters and locations.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rancher Labs?

The cost is reasonable since it's open-source. Rancher effectively addresses container orchestration trends, especially for those with some Kubernetes knowledge.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Rancher Labs?

While Rancher Labs provides some level of security, it's not considered very robust. We found it to offer basic security features, which met some of our requirements, but we also relied on other op...

See all answers

Which is better - OpenShift Container Platform or VMware Tanzu Mission Control?

Red Hat Openshift is ideal for organizations using microservices and cloud environments. I like that the platform is auto-scalable, which saves overhead time for developers. I think Openshift can b...

See all answers

What do you like most about OpenShift Container Platform?

The tool's most valuable features include high availability, scalability, and security. Other features like advanced cluster management, advanced cluster security, and Red Hat Quay make it powerful...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OpenShift Container Platform?

The current licensing cost for this solution is around $23,000 per year, per month. Regarding the current licensing cost, I would rate my satisfaction around seven or seven and a half; there's alwa...

See all answers

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Compared 2% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Rancher Labs

August 2025

Download Rancher Labs product report

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

August 2025

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform report

Download Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform product report

Overview

Rancher Labs build innovative, open source software that makes it easy to deploy and manage containers in production on any infrastructure. We enable organizations to accelerate all aspects of their software development pipeline, from writing and testing code to running complex microservices-based applications.

Rancher, our flagship container management platform, allows users to easily manage all aspects of running containers in development and production environments, on any infrastructure. With well over four million downloads, Rancher has quickly become the tools of choice for teams serious about running containers in production. This includes large enterprises such as Sony, IBM, Tyco, Align Technologies and more.

Rancher Labs

Red Hat® OpenShift® offers a consistent hybrid cloud foundation for building and scaling containerized applications. Benefit from streamlined platform installation and upgrades from one of the enterprise Kubernetes leaders.

Red Hat

Sample Customers

Albert Heijn, Bell, BMC, Samsung, WindStream, Johnson & Johnson

Edenor, BMW, Ford, Argentine Ministry of Health

Buyer's Guide

Rancher Labs vs. Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

July 2025

Free Report: Rancher Labs vs. Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

Find out what your peers are saying about Rancher Labs vs. Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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