Fission vs Knative vs Kubeless: What are the differences?

Introduction

Fission, Knative, and Kubeless are serverless frameworks that allow developers to build and deploy applications without having to manage infrastructure. While they share the same goal of simplifying the development process, there are key differences between them. In this article, we will discuss the differences between Fission, Knative, and Kubeless in detail.

1. Programming Language Support: Fission supports a wide range of programming languages including Python, Node.js, Go, and Ruby. Knative, on the other hand, supports multiple languages including Java, Node.js, Python, Ruby, and .NET. Kubeless also supports various languages like Python, Node.js, Ruby, and PHP.

2. Integration with Kubernetes: Fission is specifically designed to work with Kubernetes and utilizes Kubernetes primitives extensively. Knative is built on top of Kubernetes and provides higher-level abstractions for serverless deployments. Kubeless is also built on top of Kubernetes, integrating seamlessly with Kubernetes resources like Services and Ingress.

3. Event Triggering: Fission uses Kubernetes events to trigger function execution, making it easy to integrate with other Kubernetes components. Knative provides a more flexible eventing model, supporting different event sources and allowing for complex event-driven workflows. Kubeless supports event triggers through PubSub mechanisms, enabling easy integration with messaging systems like Kafka and NATS.

4. Scaling: Fission and Kubeless both support automatic scaling of function instances based on workload. Knative, in addition to automatic scaling, also provides scale-to-zero capabilities, meaning functions are scaled down to zero instances when not in use, resulting in cost savings.

5. Community Support: Fission is an open-source project with a smaller community compared to Knative and Kubeless, which have larger user bases and active developer communities. Knative, being a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) project, benefits from the resources and support of the CNCF community.

6. Vendor Lock-in: Fission and Kubeless are cloud platform-agnostic, allowing deployment on any Kubernetes cluster. Knative, being part of the larger Kubernetes ecosystem, offers more flexibility in terms of deployment options and reduces vendor lock-in.

In summary, Fission, Knative, and Kubeless are serverless frameworks with varying capabilities. Fission is tightly integrated with Kubernetes, Knative offers advanced eventing and scaling capabilities, and Kubeless provides flexible language support and easy integration with messaging systems. The choice between them depends on specific requirements and preferences of developers and organizations.