Your cookie choices

We use necessary cookies to make this site work. With your permission, analytics cookies help us understand usage and marketing cookies support advertising.

You can reject non-essential cookies and still use the site. Change your choices anytime in Cookie settings.

Cookie policy
Cookie settings

Red Hat OpenShift review

Updated September 28, 2026 · DeployCue Editorial Team · Facts checked September 26, 2026

We earn a commission when you sign up through links on this site. Partner status can affect where a brand appears in our rankings.

Our verdict

Red Hat OpenShift suits teams that want a production Kubernetes control plane without a control plane line on the invoice, and nodes start at $0.076 on the OpenShift Dedicated plan. Node price from ranks 4 of 49 brands here, so the entry number sits well below the field.

Key facts

Best for
A free control plane with node costs starting at $0.076
Free control plane
Yes (Source, checked September 26, 2026)
Node price from
$0.076 (Source, checked September 26, 2026)
Legal entity
Red Hat, LLC (Source, checked September 26, 2026)
Headquarters
United States (Source, checked September 26, 2026)
Founded
1993 (Source, checked September 26, 2026)
Support channels
Chat, Phone, Email, Help-centre, Community (Source, checked September 26, 2026)
Official website
redhat.com

Apps and profiles

Elsewhere
WikidataWikipediaXLinkedInyoutube.com

Pros and cons

Pros

  • The control plane is free, so the node line is the only fixed cost a reader has to size.
  • Node price from ranks 4 of 49 brands on the site, and the site median for that figure is €9.15.
  • Support covers chat, phone and email, so phone and email sit alongside chat for incidents.
  • Against Cloudsmith at $149, the node price from of $0.076 leaves a wide gap for buyers who want the control plane free.

Cons

  • The free control plane covers the control plane only, so a cluster still bills nodes from $0.076.
  • Node price from of $0.076 sits above Salad's $0.015, which matters most for large worker pools.
  • A free control plane is common on the site, at 66.7% of brands, so it is not by itself a reason to pick this one.
  • Contracting runs through a US entity, Red Hat, LLC in the United States, which readers outside the US should weigh before adopting.
Red Hat OpenShift

Ready to try Red Hat OpenShift?

Scored 9.8 / 10 by DeployCue.

See alternatives

Who it suits

  • Platform teams already running Red Hat OpenShift who want the control plane at no cost and can forecast from the node line starting at $0.076.
  • Organisations that need phone and email support on a named contract, since Red Hat, LLC has been running since 1993.
  • Teams with steady worker capacity, where a free control plane makes node count the only variable to forecast.

Who should look elsewhere

  • Salad, for readers chasing the lowest node rate: $0.015 against $0.076 here.
  • Cloudsmith, for readers who would rather pay a higher single node rate of $149 than hold the control plane and node costs apart.
  • SberCloud, for readers who want a control plane charged as its own line, since SberCloud has no free control plane.

Pricing

The OpenShift Dedicated plan charges for capacity rather than for the control plane. The control plane is free, so the node line is the only bill a cluster produces, and nodes start at $0.076 on that plan. That figure is the starting rate rather than a promotional one, so a reader planning a renewal should budget on the same number. For scale, the median node price from across the brands on the site is €9.15 and the Kubernetes group median is €12.46. Salad and Cloudsmith sit outside that band, at $0.015 and $149.

Who runs it

Red Hat OpenShift is sold by Red Hat, LLC, a company founded in 1993 and headquartered in the United States. That gives buyers a named legal entity to contract with rather than a marketplace intermediary, and it tells readers in other countries what kind of counterparty sits behind the plan before pricing is compared. Support is offered through chat, phone and email, covering chat, phone, email, a help centre and community forums. Phone and email suit incidents, and the help centre answers routine questions without a ticket, so a team can pick the route that matches the problem.

How Red Hat OpenShift compares

Frequently asked questions

What does a Red Hat OpenShift cluster cost to run?+

The control plane is free, so the node line is the only charge to watch on the OpenShift Dedicated plan, and nodes start at $0.076. For context, the median node price from across the brands compared here is €9.15, so the starting rate sits well below the middle of that field.

Is the quoted node price an introductory rate that changes at renewal?+

The figure published for the OpenShift Dedicated plan is the starting node price, $0.076, and it is not presented as a limited introductory offer. Budgeting for a renewal therefore means planning on the same node rate you start with, plus whatever node count and instance mix the cluster uses. The control plane stays free, so it adds no renewal uplift of its own.

Is the control plane genuinely free, or is it bundled into node pricing?+

The control plane is free in its own right, not folded into the node rate. Nodes are billed separately and start at $0.076, so the two costs stay visible apart. That split makes a cluster easier to size, since adding worker capacity changes only the node line while the control plane side of the bill stays put. SberCloud has no free control plane.

How do you get help when something breaks?+

Support runs on chat, phone and email, so chat, phone, email, a help centre and community are all listed as routes. Phone and email suit incidents, and the help centre answers routine questions without a ticket. That spread is wider than a single channel help desk, which is the most common setup among the brands compared here.

Who is the company behind the service?+

The vendor is Red Hat, LLC, founded in 1993 and headquartered in the United States. Buyers get a named legal entity to contract with rather than a marketplace intermediary, and readers outside the US can see that the company is US based before they weigh contracting and data residency questions. Support sits with the same company rather than a separate reseller.

How does this price compare with cheaper Kubernetes providers?+

Salad lists a node price from of $0.015, below the $0.076 here, and Cloudsmith lists $149, well above it. The gap to Salad is the one that shows up on a large cluster, while the gap to Cloudsmith is the one that decides whether a self managed control plane is worth having for free.

Is that node price low for this category?+

It ranks 4 of 49 brands on node price from, and the site median for that figure is €9.15 while the Kubernetes group median is €12.46. So the starting rate sits in the cheaper part of the range rather than at its premium end.

Sources

Compiled from 5 source pages, checked September 26, 2026. We did not open an account.

Not confirmed yet: Control plane price.

Red Hat OpenShift

Red Hat OpenShift

A free control plane with node costs starting at $0.076

9.8/10See alternatives