Is Syself Autopilot a Cloudfleet alternative on Hetzner?

Yes. Cloudfleet hosts the control plane and creates Hetzner Cloud servers on demand. Syself Autopilot runs the control plane and every node on your own Hetzner Cloud and bare-metal servers, node OS and in-cluster components included.

Does Cloudfleet support Hetzner bare metal?

Yes, as self-managed nodes: you install Ubuntu, Debian or RHEL, and Cloudfleet adds Kubernetes. It does not replace failed ones, and patching stays with you: tracking CVEs, testing fixes and rolling them out to every node, at least monthly. On Syself Autopilot, Syself does this for your servers.

Who runs the control plane?

Cloudfleet runs it on Google Cloud in Frankfurt or Iowa, chosen when you create the cluster. On Syself Autopilot it runs on your own Hetzner servers and Syself operates it. If Syself is unreachable, the cluster keeps running; adding or replacing nodes, scaling and upgrades wait.

How do upgrades compare?

Cloudfleet upgrades the control plane on the release channel you pick; Stable needs Pro and Extended needs Enterprise. Running nodes are not upgraded: you drain them or re-add self-managed ones. Syself ships tested updates every week; you trigger one and Syself replaces every node one at a time. There is no rollback, so a stalled upgrade is fixed forward.

Cloudfleet starts at €12 a month. What does the Syself Autopilot fee pay for?

Cloudfleet charges per cluster, plus a fee per vCPU above the included amount. Syself charges a platform fee plus a usage-based fee tied to your infrastructure spend, not to nodes or clusters. The fee pays for work that stays with you on Cloudfleet: bare-metal servers, OS CVE fixes, node upgrades and release testing on real clusters. The Hetzner bill comes on top of either.

Can we run our databases inside the cluster?

Yes, on both; operators run the same way. On Syself Autopilot, databases run on Hetzner Cloud volumes or on bare metal with local NVMe, and Syself documents CloudNativePG and Velero. On Cloudfleet, bare-metal servers are self-managed. Syself bare-metal nodes also run KubeVirt VMs and Kata Containers.

Who does the migration and runs our services day to day?

Cloudfleet offers a Migration Acceleration Program with credits and help from its architects. Syself’s team or agencies and integrators migrate you. Day to day, your workloads and data stay with you on both: you run the databases, or an agency runs them for you in your cluster.

Can we move from Cloudfleet to Syself Autopilot?

Your workloads move as to any conformant cluster: manifests, Helm charts and data are upstream Kubernetes. Cloudfleet-specific settings, such as the `networking.cfke.io` load balancer annotations, need replacing. Leaving Syself works the same way; Syself Linux, KubeGate and the node agent stay behind.

Syself Autopilot vs Cloudfleet: Which Is Right for Your Kubernetes on Hetzner?

Cloudfleet hosts the control plane and adds Hetzner Cloud servers as pods need them; bare-metal servers, the storage driver and node versions stay with you. Syself Autopilot, run by Syself, does that work on your own Hetzner servers in tested releases.

What it is: Cloudfleet Kubernetes Engine (CFKE) is managed Kubernetes with a control plane Cloudfleet hosts, and worker nodes on AWS, GCP, Hetzner Cloud or any Linux machine you connect.¹⁹²⁷
Who does the work: Cloudfleet runs and upgrades the control plane.²⁰²² The storage driver, node upgrades and, on servers you bring, the OS, firewall and hardware failures are yours.²²²⁶³⁸
Where it runs: It creates Hetzner Cloud servers for pending pods; Hetzner dedicated servers join as self-managed nodes that you install and keep running.¹⁸²¹

What it is: A separate managed Kubernetes service for Hetzner. Syself builds and tests the platform under your apps as one release: Syself Linux, the node agent, KubeGate, the provisioner and the controllers that heal and upgrade nodes.¹⁴⁹⁵ Your apps run on upstream Kubernetes.
Who does the work: Syself sets up your servers, ships OS fixes as new Syself Linux images and upgrades Kubernetes and the in-cluster components in one tested Cluster Stack release.⁶³² It replaces failed cloud nodes and reboots failing bare-metal ones.⁴ Syself Autopilot includes support from the Syself team.¹¹
Where it runs: The control plane and the nodes run on Hetzner Cloud and bare-metal servers in your own Hetzner account, so the servers and the data stay yours.¹

Which One Fits You?

Tick what applies. The answer includes the needs where Cloudfleet is the better choice.

Cloudfleet · 0Syself Autopilot · 0

Tick what applies to you

The answer updates as you go. Every need on the list counts, including the ones that point away from us.

Syself Autopilot vs Cloudfleet at a Glance

One short fact per side for each theme, each linked to its source.

Theme	hosted control plane	fully managed, on your servers
Control plane	Cloudfleet Hosted by Cloudfleet on Google Cloud, in Frankfurt or Iowa; shared on Basic, dedicated and multi-zone on Pro and Enterprise⁴¹¹⁷	Syself Autopilot Syself runs it on your servers, with its own API server, etcd and certificate authorities per cluster¹⁴³
Hetzner Cloud servers	Cloudfleet Created and removed automatically for pending pods, with a Hetzner API token you provide²⁰²⁸	Syself Autopilot Created, set up and replaced by Syself Autopilot for you⁶
Setting up a server	Cloudfleet Bare metal joins as a self-managed node: you install Ubuntu, Debian or RHEL, and Cloudfleet adds Kubernetes over SSH or cloud-init¹⁸²¹	Syself Autopilot Syself checks the disks and installs Syself Linux from the Hetzner rescue system before first boot, so the node boots with nothing to download or configure¹⁰⁶
Node OS	Cloudfleet Auto-provisioned nodes run an Ubuntu-based OS with automatic package upgrades off and no in-place upgrades; self-managed nodes run the Linux you install and update³⁸⁴⁰²¹	Syself Autopilot Syself Linux, from release 1.36: read-only, identical on every node and replaced rather than patched; nodes report tampering. A security team tracks each CVE, checks whether your clusters are exposed and ships the fix in a tested release; support is included³³⁶
Kubernetes upgrades	Cloudfleet Control plane upgraded automatically on a release channel; nodes are not upgraded in place, you drain or re-add them²²	Syself Autopilot Tested updates every week, listed in the Version Hub; you trigger one and Syself drains, removes and replaces each node, with no rollback²¹⁵
Kubernetes versions	Cloudfleet The latest release notes, from 18 September 2026, list 1.32, 1.33 and 1.34 as supported⁴⁰	Syself Autopilot 1.36 in the current release; a new minor lands about three months after upstream, and each is supported until upstream support ends, plus three months⁴⁴⁴⁵
Release testing	Cloudfleet No published test method	Syself Autopilot More than 400 tests on real clusters, including every supported upgrade path; a cluster can only use a release that passed⁵
Node repair	Cloudfleet Auto-provisioned nodes replaced automatically; failed self-managed nodes are not²⁰	Syself Autopilot Cloud nodes rebooted, then replaced if they don’t recover; bare-metal nodes rebooted, and Syself tells you what broke when the hardware is at fault⁴
Network and load balancers	Cloudfleet Cilium over a WireGuard mesh between all nodes; Hetzner load balancers for TCP Services²⁴²⁵	Syself Autopilot Cilium and the Hetzner cloud controller manager, pinned in each release¹²
Kubernetes API access	Cloudfleet Can be restricted to private networks on Enterprise²⁷	Syself Autopilot An allow-list of the IP ranges you trust; other connections are dropped before they reach the API server²⁹
Security posture and evidence	Cloudfleet Cloudfleet scans and patches its own platform; its security pages publish no SBOM or CVE verdicts²⁷⁴¹	Syself Autopilot Hardened to the CIS Kubernetes Benchmark; each release ships an SBOM and a VEX verdict per CVE, shown in the Version Hub, and a release with an overdue CVE does not ship⁴³⁴⁶³⁹
Sign-in	Cloudfleet SSO with SAML 2.0 or OIDC on all plans, for the console and kubectl³²	Syself Autopilot OIDC sign-in to the cluster through your own identity provider, such as Entra ID, Google Workspace, Keycloak or Okta³⁰
Storage	Cloudfleet You install the Hetzner CSI driver with Helm²⁶	Syself Autopilot Hetzner CSI driver included and upgraded with each release¹²
Recovering a lost cluster	Cloudfleet Cloudfleet backs up the control-plane data store, encrypted, with 30-day retention, in the region you choose; your application data is yours to back up³⁸⁴¹	Syself Autopilot Recreated from its Cluster object and your manifests in Git; no etcd backup needed. Data comes back from your own backups⁹
SLA and support	Cloudfleet Best effort and billing-only support on Basic; 99.95% and 8-hour technical response on Pro; 99.99% and 1-hour response on Enterprise¹⁷	Syself Autopilot Support from the Syself team on business days included with Syself Autopilot; Premium Support with a custom SLA and 24/7 cover; migration by Syself or agencies¹¹³⁹
Price	Cloudfleet €12, €69 or from €499 a month per cluster, plus €2.45 to €7.25 per vCPU above the included amount¹⁷	Syself Autopilot A platform fee plus a usage-based fee tied to your infrastructure spend, not to nodes or clusters; request a 14-day trial without limits or a free plan for one cluster of up to 5 nodes of any size¹¹

Cloudfleet prices exclude VAT and are per cluster; check cloudfleet.ai/pricing for the current plans. Price your Syself Autopilot setup in the pricing calculator.

Who Does the Work of Running Kubernetes

Every Kubernetes setup needs work on the servers, the operating system, Kubernetes and the in-cluster components. See who does each job.

hosted control plane

4 of 13 jobs left to you, 5 shared

fully managed, on your servers

0 of 13 jobs left to you, 5 shared

Each segment is one job. Point at it to see which job it is, or click it to read why.

Left to you Shared Handled by the vendor, or not needed

Servers Create, provision and replace the machines
Add and remove cloud servers as load changes Cloudfleet does this on its own for pending pods; on Syself Autopilot you install the Cluster Autoscaler and Syself creates the servers it asks for.²⁰¹⁶

Cloudfleet Cloudfleet
Syself Autopilot Shared
Bring a bare-metal server into the cluster Hetzner has no server types or instant delivery for bare metal, so renting is the only manual step. Once you have the server, Syself checks its disks, installs Syself Linux and joins it to the cluster, the same as a cloud server.¹⁰⁶ On Cloudfleet you install Linux and it adds Kubernetes; OS updates and the firewall stay yours.²¹³⁸

Cloudfleet You
Syself Autopilot Syself
Replace a cloud server that fails Both replace failed cloud nodes automatically.²⁰⁴

Cloudfleet Cloudfleet
Syself Autopilot Syself
Handle a failing bare-metal server Syself reboots the node and, when the hardware is at fault, tells you what broke so you can open the Hetzner ticket. Hetzner has no API for tickets, so that step stays with you. Cloudfleet leaves hardware failures on self-managed nodes to you.⁴²⁰

Cloudfleet You
Syself Autopilot Shared
Operating system Install it, patch it and keep every node the same
Keep every node identical Syself boots every node from the same sealed Syself Linux image.³ On Cloudfleet, each dedicated server runs the Linux you install and patch, so keeping them identical is your job.²¹²⁰

Cloudfleet Shared
Syself Autopilot Syself
Know about and patch OS CVEs Syself checks each CVE against the release’s SBOM and ships fixes in a new tested release; you adopt it.⁷³⁹ Cloudfleet nodes are not upgraded in place; self-managed nodes are yours.⁴⁰²⁰

Cloudfleet Shared
Syself Autopilot Syself
Kubernetes Install, configure and upgrade the components
Keep the Kubernetes API up and recover a lost cluster Cloudfleet hosts the control plane and keeps its backups in region.²⁷ Syself runs the control plane on your servers and replaces failed nodes. If a cluster is lost, you recreate it from its Cluster object and your manifests in Git, so there is no etcd snapshot to restore.¹⁹

Cloudfleet Cloudfleet
Syself Autopilot Shared
Keep Kubernetes and the platform up to date Syself ships tested updates every week and lists each one in the Version Hub: what changed, what got fixed and where security stands. You trigger an update, and Syself drains, removes and replaces each node on its own.² Cloudfleet upgrades the control plane; you drain or re-add nodes.²² Workload readiness stays yours.⁵

Cloudfleet Shared
Syself Autopilot Syself
Test each platform update before it ships Syself tests each release on real clusters.⁵ Cloudfleet publishes no test method; add-ons you install, such as the Hetzner CSI driver, are yours to test.²⁶ Your workloads are yours to test on both.

Cloudfleet Shared
Syself Autopilot Syself
Inside the cluster The network plugin, the Hetzner integration and storage
Upgrade the network plugin, Hetzner controller and storage driver together Syself pins Cilium, the Hetzner cloud controller manager and the CSI driver in each release.¹² Cloudfleet ships Cilium and handles load balancers; the CSI driver is a Helm chart you install and upgrade.²⁴²⁶

Cloudfleet Shared
Syself Autopilot Syself
Create Hetzner load balancers for your Services Both create Hetzner load balancers for LoadBalancer Services. Hetzner load balancers handle only TCP, HTTP and HTTPS, so neither offers a UDP load balancer on Hetzner.²⁵¹²⁴⁷

Cloudfleet Cloudfleet
Syself Autopilot Syself
Day to day Backups, access, logs and the workloads
Back up volumes and databases Syself ships the storage and documents Velero and CloudNativePG.³⁵⁹ You run the databases, or an agency runs them for you in your cluster.⁴² On Cloudfleet you install the storage driver yourself.²⁶

Cloudfleet You
Syself Autopilot Shared
Lock down access, networking and logs Syself hardens the API server to CIS, runs a host firewall, can limit the API to trusted IPs and reports node problems.⁴³²⁹⁴⁸ You set up etcd encryption, OIDC and SSH.⁸³⁰ Cloudfleet includes SSO.³² RBAC, NetworkPolicies and logs stay yours.

Cloudfleet You
Syself Autopilot Shared

On every option, Syself Autopilot included, you still back up workloads and data, run monitoring and alerting, and set access, encryption and network policies. See what you own and what Syself manages.

What Each One Costs

Both run on Hetzner servers you pay Hetzner for. Cloudfleet adds a fee per cluster and per vCPU. Syself adds a platform fee plus a usage-based fee tied to your infrastructure spend.

hosted control plane

Basic, per cluster, 8 vCPUs included, then €2.45 per vCPU: €12/month
Pro, per cluster, 24 vCPUs included, then €4.95 per vCPU: €69/month
Enterprise, per cluster, 96 vCPUs included, then €7.25 per vCPU: From €499/month

fully managed, on your servers

What Syself runs for you

Servers, OS, Kubernetes and cluster components
Releases tested on real clusters, with SBOM and VEX
Support from the Syself team

Platform fee Usage-based fee

Usage-based fee tied to your infrastructure spend, not to nodes or clusters.

Estimate your price or tell us about your setup for a tailored price

Request a 14-day trial without limits or a free plan for one cluster of up to 5 nodes of any size, no vCPU cap, bare metal included.

Your servers Billed separately by your cloud or bare-metal provider

Cloudfleet prices exclude VAT; it counts each CPU thread on a self-managed server as one vCPU.¹⁷¹⁸ Syself’s fee doesn’t depend on nodes, CPU or memory. Try your numbers in the pricing calculator.¹¹

Questions Teams Ask Before Choosing

Short answers, each linked to Syself’s and Cloudfleet’s documentation.

: Yes. Cloudfleet hosts the control plane and creates Hetzner Cloud servers on demand.²⁰²⁷ Syself Autopilot runs the control plane and every node on your own Hetzner Cloud and bare-metal servers, node OS and in-cluster components included.¹¹²
: Yes, as self-managed nodes: you install Ubuntu, Debian or RHEL, and Cloudfleet adds Kubernetes.¹⁸²¹ It does not replace failed ones, and patching stays with you: tracking CVEs, testing fixes and rolling them out to every node, at least monthly.²⁰⁴⁵ On Syself Autopilot, Syself does this for your servers.¹⁰⁶
: Cloudfleet runs it on Google Cloud in Frankfurt or Iowa, chosen when you create the cluster.²⁷²⁸⁴¹ On Syself Autopilot it runs on your own Hetzner servers and Syself operates it. If Syself is unreachable, the cluster keeps running; adding or replacing nodes, scaling and upgrades wait.¹
: Cloudfleet upgrades the control plane on the release channel you pick; Stable needs Pro and Extended needs Enterprise. Running nodes are not upgraded: you drain them or re-add self-managed ones.²² Syself ships tested updates every week; you trigger one and Syself replaces every node one at a time. There is no rollback, so a stalled upgrade is fixed forward.²¹⁵
: Cloudfleet charges per cluster, plus a fee per vCPU above the included amount.¹⁷ Syself charges a platform fee plus a usage-based fee tied to your infrastructure spend, not to nodes or clusters.¹¹ The fee pays for work that stays with you on Cloudfleet: bare-metal servers, OS CVE fixes, node upgrades and release testing on real clusters.⁶³⁹²⁵ The Hetzner bill comes on top of either.
: Yes, on both; operators run the same way. On Syself Autopilot, databases run on Hetzner Cloud volumes or on bare metal with local NVMe, and Syself documents CloudNativePG and Velero.³⁵¹²¹³ On Cloudfleet, bare-metal servers are self-managed.²⁰ Syself bare-metal nodes also run KubeVirt VMs and Kata Containers.¹⁴³⁴
: Cloudfleet offers a Migration Acceleration Program with credits and help from its architects.¹⁷ Syself’s team or agencies and integrators migrate you. Day to day, your workloads and data stay with you on both: you run the databases, or an agency runs them for you in your cluster.³⁸⁴²
: Your workloads move as to any conformant cluster: manifests, Helm charts and data are upstream Kubernetes.¹ Cloudfleet-specific settings, such as the `networking.cfke.io` load balancer annotations, need replacing.²⁵ Leaving Syself works the same way; Syself Linux, KubeGate and the node agent stay behind.⁴²⁴⁹

Other Comparisons

Comparing Cloudfleet and Syself?

Tell Syself about your setup, cloud or bare metal, and see which work Syself Autopilot does for you. You can price your servers in the pricing calculator first.

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Syself Autopilot vs Cloudfleet: vs Which Is Right for Your Kubernetes on Hetzner?