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Open Policy Agent
CNCF policy engine — enforce consistent policies across Kubernetes, APIs, and infrastructure.
VS
At a Glance
| Attribute | Open Policy Agent | Kyverno |
|---|---|---|
| License / Pricing | Open Source | Free |
| Type | plateng | plateng |
| GitHub Stars | — | — |
| Rating | 4.5/5 | 4.5/5 |
| Key Features | 6 listed | 6 listed |
| Integrations | 5 listed | 5 listed |
| Categories | Policy & Governance | Policy & Governance |
Key Features
Open Policy Agent
- Rego — a declarative, logic-based policy language with rich query capabilities
- Kubernetes admission control via Gatekeeper for real-time policy enforcement
- API authorization for any HTTP API — used at Atlassian, Netflix, Goldman Sachs
- Terraform plan evaluation to catch policy violations before apply
- OPA playground for interactive Rego policy development and testing
- CNCF Graduated with strong SBOM, supply chain, and audit support
Kyverno
- YAML-based policies — no Rego or custom language, just Kubernetes-style manifests
- Validate policies to reject non-compliant resources at admission time
- Mutate policies to auto-inject labels, sidecars, or defaults
- Generate policies to automatically create ConfigMaps or NetworkPolicies on namespace creation
- Policy reports for auditing existing cluster resources against policies
- CNCF Graduated with Kyverno Chainsaw for policy testing
Real-World Use Cases
Open Policy Agent
Kubernetes admission control policies
Install OPA Gatekeeper on the cluster
API authorization without code changes
Deploy OPA as a sidecar or external service
Kyverno
Enforce image registry policies
Write a Kyverno ClusterPolicy to require images from approved registries only
Auto-generate network policies per namespace
Create a Kyverno Generate policy triggered on new namespace creation
Integrations
Open Policy Agent
kubernetesterraformenvoybackstagevault
Kyverno
kubernetesargocdfluxbackstageopa
🏆 Which should you choose?
Choose Open Policy Agent if…
- → you need a fully open-source, self-hosted solution with no vendor lock-in
Choose Kyverno if…
- → you want a managed or commercial offering with enterprise support and SLAs