If you're looking for an alternative to Kubernetes Dashboard, Aptakube is a great choice. While Kubernetes Dashboard must be deployed on a cluster, Aptakube is a desktop client that connects to your cluster using your local kubeconfig files, so you don't need to deploy anything on your cluster to use it, making it much easier to get started.
From a feature point of view, Aptakube and the Kubernetes Dashboard are somewhat similar. Aptakube has an advantage on being multi-cluster, richer resource views and aggregated log viewer.
Fast, slick UI that outperforms Lens and k9s. Each view is well designed and shows you everything at a glance. Works seamlessly with Teleport (and Okta) as well. Aptakube is a breath of fresh air in a landscape of increasingly bloated apps — I can't recommend it highly enough!
Here's a quick comparison between Aptakube and Kubernetes Dashboard.
| Aptakube vs Dashboard | Aptakube | Dashboard |
| Tech Stack | Tauri, Rust and Solid | Go and Angular |
| User Interface | GUI (Graphical) | GUI (Graphical) |
| Platforms | macOS, Windows and Linux | Web |
| Time to Interactive1Time taken to get something on the screen | ⚡️ Instantly | 🛜 Depends on network |
| AuthenticationOAuth, RBAC and other secure authentication methods | 🔌 It just works! Uses local kubeconfig files | Requires setup 2 |
| Multi-clusterAbility to connect to multiple clusters simultaneously | No | |
| Aggregated Log ViewerView logs from multiple pods at once | No | |
| Resource ViewHuman-friendly view for resources | Partially | |
| Manage Custom Resources | No | |
| Port Forwarding | No | |
| Manage Helm Releases | No |
- Tested on a MacBook Pro 16" 2021 M1 Pro 16GB, running macOS Ventura 13.0.
- Aptakube 0.8.0
- Kubernetes Dashboard requires extra setup to work with RBAC, OAuth and other secure authentication methods.
If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at hello@aptakube.com.