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 8.2. Rancher Labs holds a 7.9% mindshare in CM, compared to Red Hat’s 20.8% 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

3,144 Views
1,162 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Red Hat OpenShift Container...

Read 50 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform reviews

6,685 Views
4,730 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: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Rancher Labs vs. Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

June 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 July 2025, in the Container Management category, the mindshare of Rancher Labs is 7.9%, down from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform is 20.8%, down from 21.0% 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

"This solution is not vendor-locked, which means that we we are able to use it across all of our resources; this feature is of great value to us."

"The product is simple to use for a beginner."

"The most valuable feature is its comprehensive support, easy resource scaling, compatibility with various OEMs, and seamless service integration."

"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."

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

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is an open-source solution that is easy to deploy."

"The solution is stable."

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

More Rancher Labs pros

"The software is user-friendly and straightforward to use, which is favorable to a developer."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it has a lot to offer to developers, so they don't need to care about the infrastructure or basic setup of the containers, so you can just jump in and develop."

"Centralized control of container resources is most valuable."

"Some of the primary features we leverage in the platform have to do with how we manage the cluster configurations, the properties, and the auto-scalability. These are the features that definitely provide value in terms of reducing overhead for the developers."

"Integrating the product into our existing infrastructure was easy."

"The stack in the software supply chain is one of the main reasons that we use OpenShift. When I came to this company, we bought hardware from IBM named Bluemix, and they used ICP, which stands for IBM Cloud Private."

"Openshift is a very developer-friendly product."

"OpenShift integrates seamlessly with our CI/CD pipelines, offering robust automation and deployment capabilities."

More Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform pros

Cons

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

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

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

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

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

"One area for improvement in Rancher Labs is the development aspect."

"The solution could improve by adding more features in the dashboard, such as monitoring, scanning, and security. This would be a great benefit."

"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."

More Rancher Labs cons

"Setting up OpenShift locally can be challenging, particularly because it requires RHL Linux and has specific restrictions."

"It is difficult to deploy the OpenShift cluster in a bare-metal environment."

"There is room for improvement with integration."

"From a networking perspective, the routing capability can be matured further. OpenShift doesn't handle restrictions on what kind of IPs are allowed, who can access them, and who cannot access them. So it is a simple matter of just using it with adequate network access, at the network level."

"The product's interface is a bit buggy."

"The UI could be more user-friendly to drive tasks more effectively through the interface."

"OpenShift has a pretty steep learning curve. It's not an easy tool to use. It's not only OpenShift but Kubernetes itself. The good thing is that Red Hat provides specific targeted training. There are five or six pieces of training where you can get certifications. The licenses for OpenShift are pretty expensive, so they could be cheaper because the competition isn't sleeping, and Red Hat must take that into account."

"The stability needs improvement."

More Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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."

"The pricing is expensive for licensing."

"If you buy the product for a year or three, you get a lot of discounts...I feel that the product is worth its cost, especially since setting it up can be done with just a few clicks."

"The pricing is a bit more expensive than expected."

"The solution is expensive, and I rate it an eight out of ten. There is a subscription called OpenShift Plus, which offers additional features and products the vendor provides to complement the OpenShift Container Platform. These include ACM, Red Hat Quay, and Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation."

"The product is expensive."

"It depends on who you're talking to. For a large corporation, it is acceptable, other than the significant infrastructure requirements. For a small organization, it is in no way suitable, and we'd go for Amazon's container solution."

More Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

37%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Financial Services Firm

22%

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

Comparisons

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 44% of the time

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Compared 16% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

Google Kubernetes Engine vs Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

Compared 3% of the time

More Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Rancher Labs

June 2025

Download Rancher Labs product report

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

June 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

June 2025

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

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