What is
Crossplane
?
Most platform initiatives fail the same way: they start too big, get funded like projects instead of products, build for too long without testing with users, and confuse renaming an infrastructure team with building a platform team. Instead, start small, learn fast and scale deliberately.
At a glance
Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
Primary use case | Build custom control planes and self-service APIs to orchestrate applications and infrastructure |
Deployment type | Self-hosted Kubernetes control plane framework |
Pricing model | Free/open source under Apache 2.0; commercial distribution and support available through Upbound |
API compatibility | Kubernetes APIs, custom declarative APIs, Kubernetes RBAC |
Supported integrations | Kubernetes, AWS, Azure, GCP, Yandex Cloud, Argo CD, Kratix |
Source type | Open |
Cloud provider | Multi-Cloud |
Required skills | Kubernetes resource management, declarative manifests, custom API design, cloud infrastructure, RBAC |
AEP branch | Tooling |
AEP category | Integration & Delivery |
AEP subcategory | IaC & Platform Orchestration |
Profile
IaC & Platform Orchestration is the AEP level for Crossplane, an open-source framework built on Kubernetes for creating custom control planes. It extends Kubernetes to orchestrate applications and infrastructure, and lets teams expose declarative APIs with policies, permissions, and guardrails.
Focus
Crossplane is for platform engineering teams building custom platforms and self-service APIs. It addresses the problem of enabling people and automated workflows to request applications and infrastructure through APIs tailored to an organization, without requiring each consumer to become an infrastructure expert.
Background
Upbound built Crossplane to help organizations build platforms using control planes. The supplied research does not provide Upbound’s founding or funding details. Crossplane is an open-source, community-driven CNCF project released under the Apache 2.0 license; its project describes itself as vendor neutral.
Features
Custom declarative APIs
Teams can expose self-service APIs suited to their platform and make user intent explicit and machine-readable. Crossplane builds these APIs as a custom control plane on Kubernetes, with policies, permissions, and guardrails behind the API layer.
Extensible providers and configurations
Teams can expand the kinds of applications and infrastructure their platform orchestrates and expose additional APIs. Providers extend Crossplane to orchestrate new resource types, while configurations extend it with new APIs.
Kubernetes-based control layer
Teams can use Kubernetes’ established control model and RBAC to manage more than containers. Crossplane is built on Kubernetes and uses its control plane foundation to orchestrate infrastructure through declarative APIs.
Community and ecosystem
Users can draw on community extensions and connect Crossplane with higher-level automation and tooling. The project reports more than 13,400 Slack members and adoption by hundreds of companies.
Pros and cons
Pros
Supports custom control planes and self-service APIs for orchestrating both applications and infrastructure.
Provides extensibility through Providers and Configurations, and builds on Kubernetes APIs and RBAC.
Available as open-source software under the Apache 2.0 license, with commercial distribution and support available through Upbound.
Cons
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
How does Crossplane work?
Crossplane extends Kubernetes with custom declarative APIs, using Providers to orchestrate additional resource types and Configurations to expose additional APIs; teams can apply policies, permissions, and guardrails behind those APIs.
What does Crossplane integrate with?
Crossplane's supported integrations are Kubernetes, AWS, Azure, GCP, Yandex Cloud, Argo CD, Kratix.
What does Crossplane cost?
Crossplane's pricing model is Free/open source under Apache 2.0; commercial distribution and support available through Upbound.
What skills are required to use Crossplane?
Crossplane's required skills are Kubernetes resource management, declarative manifests, custom API design, cloud infrastructure, RBAC.
