Is Syself Autopilot an alternative to OpenShift?

For Kubernetes on Hetzner, yes: Syself runs it on your Hetzner Cloud and bare-metal servers. OpenShift you run yourself, or buy managed on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud or IBM Cloud. If your developers depend on OpenShift’s built-in tools or on Red Hat’s ecosystem, Syself Autopilot does not replace them.

Can OpenShift run on Hetzner?

Yes, with the generic install. Hetzner is not one of the platforms OpenShift integrates with, and Red Hat does not test on it. You provide the servers, load balancers and DNS, and the cluster can’t create or replace machines on its own.

Can we run our databases on Hetzner bare metal?

Yes, and it is why teams pick it. The server includes its NVMe disks, and traffic on the default 1 Gbit uplink is unlimited. On Syself Autopilot, databases run on those disks under an operator such as CloudNativePG. You run them, or an agency runs them for you in your cluster. KubeVirt can run virtual machines on the same servers.

Who is on call for us, around the clock?

Syself runs the servers, the operating system, Kubernetes and the in-cluster components. Your applications, databases and data stay with you, or with an agency you hire. Syself Autopilot includes support from the Syself team on business days; Premium Support adds a custom SLA and 24/7 cover.

How do upgrades compare?

On both, you decide when to upgrade and neither can roll a cluster back. OpenShift updates its nodes in place, one by one. Syself ships tested updates every week; once you trigger one, Syself replaces each node with a fresh one running the new release, and every release has passed its tests on real clusters before you can choose it.

What about compliance?

OpenShift is ahead on built-in scanning: its Compliance Operator checks clusters against DISA STIG, CIS, PCI-DSS and NIST 800-53 profiles. Syself Autopilot ships CIS and STIG conformance, an SBOM and advisories with every release, and controls for SOC 2, ISO 27001 and BSI C5 that you evidence to your auditor. Syself is working toward ISO 27001.

What does it cost, and why pay for Syself Autopilot?

Self-managed OpenShift is a subscription per 2 cores or 4 vCPUs of workers, or per bare-metal server, quoted by Red Hat. On Hetzner, the platform work stays with you, including patching: tracking CVEs, testing fixes and rolling them out to every node, at least monthly. Syself Autopilot does it for a platform fee plus a usage-based fee tied to your infrastructure spend.

When is Syself Autopilot not the right choice?

When your developers rely on OpenShift’s built-in tools, when your auditors expect its compliance scans, or when you want Red Hat’s certified partner ecosystem. OpenShift, managed on a big cloud or run by you, is the better answer then.

Syself Autopilot vs Red Hat OpenShift: Which Is Right for Your Kubernetes on Hetzner?

OpenShift installs on Hetzner, but it has no Hetzner integration. You then create and replace the servers, add the Hetzner cloud and storage drivers and test each upgrade. Syself Autopilot does that work on servers in your own Hetzner account, and ships only releases that passed its tests.

Red Hat OpenShift

What it is: Red Hat’s Kubernetes platform, with developer tools built in: an image registry, builds, a web console and a catalog of add-ons, on Red Hat’s own node operating system.¹⁷¹⁶
Who does the work: On your own servers, you install it, provide the machines, start each upgrade and add the Hetzner cloud integration and storage driver.¹⁵¹⁸¹⁴ Red Hat’s managed versions run on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and IBM Cloud.²¹
Where it runs: Hetzner is not one of the platforms OpenShift integrates with, and Red Hat does not test on it. There you use the generic install, where you provide the servers, load balancers and DNS.¹⁴¹⁵

What it is: Fully managed Kubernetes for Hetzner: standard upstream Kubernetes on Syself Linux, with KubeGate in front of the API server, built and tested as one release.¹³²⁴²³
Who does the work: Syself sets up each server, builds the node OS, fixes its CVEs and tests every release.⁶³³²²³ Syself Autopilot includes support from the Syself team.¹⁰ You decide when to roll out each Cluster Stack release.
Where it runs: 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 reasons to choose OpenShift are on this list too.

Red Hat OpenShift · 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 OpenShift at a Glance

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

Theme	Red Hat OpenShift self-managed	fully managed, on your servers
Who runs the platform	Red Hat OpenShift You, on your own servers; Red Hat runs managed versions on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and IBM Cloud²¹	Syself Autopilot Syself runs the platform and the cluster lifecycle; you run the workloads¹
New and failed servers	Red Hat OpenShift You create servers yourself; a generic install can’t create or replace machines¹⁵¹⁹	Syself Autopilot Syself checks the disks and installs Syself Linux from the Hetzner rescue system; failed cloud servers are replaced, and on bare metal Syself tells you what broke when the hardware is at fault⁶¹³⁴
Operating system	Red Hat OpenShift Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS: a read-only /usr, updated as one image with each OpenShift release and rebooted in place¹⁶	Syself Autopilot Syself Linux from release 1.36: read-only and checked by the kernel block by block as it is read; a new version arrives as a fresh node. A security team tracks each CVE, checks whether your clusters are exposed and ships the fix in a tested release; support is included³
Upgrades	Red Hat OpenShift You start the upgrade and the cluster updates node by node; no rollback¹⁸	Syself Autopilot Tested updates every week, listed in the Version Hub; you trigger one and Syself drains, removes and replaces each node; no rollback⁵⁷
Smallest production cluster	Red Hat OpenShift Three machines of 4 vCPU and 16 GB that also run your apps, or three control-plane machines plus at least two workers; the install also needs a temporary bootstrap machine¹⁵	Syself Autopilot Three control-plane nodes of at least 4 vCPU and 8 GB, plus worker nodes for your apps; one control-plane node is enough for dev⁸
Developer tools	Red Hat OpenShift Image registry, builds, web console, add-on catalog, pipelines and GitOps with Argo CD²¹²²	Syself Autopilot Kubernetes; you add your own CI/CD and GitOps tools⁹
Virtual machines	Red Hat OpenShift OpenShift Virtualization, included in every edition, on bare metal²²	Syself Autopilot KubeVirt for virtual machines, and Kata Containers for pods in their own micro VM, on bare-metal nodes²⁷³⁰
Compliance	Red Hat OpenShift Compliance Operator scans against DISA STIG, CIS, PCI-DSS and NIST profiles²⁰	Syself Autopilot CIS and STIG conformance; an SBOM and advisories with every release, in the Version Hub¹¹¹²
Support	Red Hat OpenShift Standard 8x5 or Premium 24x7 with a subscription²²	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 agencies¹⁰
Price	Red Hat OpenShift Subscriptions per 2 cores or 4 vCPUs of workers, or one per physical server on bare metal, quoted by Red Hat; OKD, the community version, has no subscription and only community support²²²⁵	Syself Autopilot A platform fee plus a usage-based fee tied to your infrastructure spend, not to nodes or clusters; price your servers in the pricing calculator¹⁰

This reflects OpenShift Container Platform 4.22 and Syself Autopilot 1.36 on Hetzner.

Who Does the Work of Running Kubernetes

Every setup covers the same layers: servers, OS, Kubernetes and in-cluster components. See which jobs stay with you when OpenShift runs on Hetzner.

Red Hat OpenShift self-managed

6 of 12 jobs left to you, 4 shared

fully managed, on your servers

1 of 12 jobs left to you, 4 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
Create and set up new servers A generic OpenShift install can’t create machines; you create them and boot Red Hat’s OS.¹⁵ Syself builds each node in the rescue system with everything on disk, so a booting node downloads nothing and does not depend on a registry.⁶

Red Hat OpenShift You
Syself Autopilot Syself
Bring bare-metal servers into a cluster Hetzner has no server types or instant delivery for bare metal, so renting is the only manual step. Syself Autopilot checks its disks, installs Syself Linux from the rescue system and joins it to the cluster. With OpenShift, you boot the installer on it.¹³⁶¹⁵

Red Hat OpenShift You
Syself Autopilot Syself
Replace a server that fails Without a way to create machines, OpenShift can’t replace one on Hetzner.¹⁵¹⁹ Syself replaces cloud servers. On bare metal it reboots the node and, when the hardware is at fault, tells you what broke so you can open the Hetzner ticket.⁴

Red Hat OpenShift You
Syself Autopilot Shared
Provide load balancers and DNS for the Kubernetes API A generic OpenShift install needs them in place before it starts. Syself Autopilot puts a load balancer in front of the API servers for you.¹⁵²⁴

Red Hat OpenShift You
Syself Autopilot Syself
Operating system Install it, patch it and keep every node the same
Patch the operating system and follow its CVEs Red Hat ships OS updates with each OpenShift release and publishes CSAF and VEX files for its advisories.¹⁶³⁵ Syself checks each CVE against the SBOM and ships fixes in a release built and tested as one; a release with an overdue CVE does not ship.³²

Red Hat OpenShift Red Hat
Syself Autopilot Syself
Kubernetes Install, configure and upgrade the components
Decide when to upgrade Neither upgrades a cluster on its own. Red Hat’s update service lists the versions you can move to and known risks.¹⁸ Syself ships tested updates every week, and the Version Hub shows what changed, what got fixed and where security stands.²³² You choose when each cluster moves.

Red Hat OpenShift Shared
Syself Autopilot Shared
Upgrade Kubernetes and the parts around it Both update node by node once you start, and neither can roll back.¹⁸⁷ On OpenShift, the Hetzner drivers you added are yours to upgrade.¹⁴ On Syself Autopilot, one update moves the OS, Kubernetes, networking and the Hetzner integration together.²

Red Hat OpenShift Shared
Syself Autopilot Syself
Test each platform update before it ships Red Hat doesn’t test on Hetzner, so the Hetzner setup around OpenShift is yours to test.¹⁴ Syself tests the node OS, Kubernetes and cluster components together on real clusters.²³

Red Hat OpenShift Shared
Syself Autopilot Syself
Inside the cluster The network plugin, the Hetzner integration and storage
Connect the cluster to Hetzner’s load balancers and volumes OpenShift has no Hetzner integration, so the Hetzner cloud integration and storage driver are yours to install and upgrade. Every Syself release includes them, tested with the rest.¹⁴²

Red Hat OpenShift You
Syself Autopilot Syself
Run CI/CD and GitOps tools OpenShift includes pipelines and GitOps; on Syself Autopilot you install your own.²¹⁹

Red Hat OpenShift Red Hat
Syself Autopilot You
Day to day Backups, access, logs and the workloads
Run the databases and services, and back up their data Syself Autopilot ships the storage and documents operators such as CloudNativePG.²⁹ You run the databases, or an agency runs them for you in your cluster. With OpenShift on Hetzner they are yours too.

Red Hat OpenShift You
Syself Autopilot Shared
Lock down access, networking and logs OpenShift restricts pods by default.³⁶ Syself hardens the control plane to CIS, firewalls every node by default and supports OIDC sign-in, but sets no default Pod Security level.³⁷³¹³⁸ RBAC, network policies, logs and alerts stay with you on both.

Red Hat OpenShift Shared
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

You pay Hetzner either way. OpenShift adds a subscription per worker core or bare-metal server (OKD has none), and you run the platform. Syself Autopilot costs a platform fee plus a usage-based fee tied to your infrastructure spend, and runs it.

Red Hat OpenShift self-managed

Subscription, per 2 cores or 4 vCPUs of workers, or per physical bare-metal server: Per 2 cores
per 4 worker vCPUs on managed OpenShift on AWS (ROSA), plus $0.25 / h per cluster with hosted control planes: $0.171 / h

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

Self-managed OpenShift prices are quoted by Red Hat; control-plane and infrastructure nodes are not counted.²² The managed rate is Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS, which does not run on Hetzner.²⁶

Syself empowered us to run Kubernetes on Hetzner, our favorite cloud provider. Their robust solution and regular updates help us a lot to have a secure and performant infrastructure. It is also great that Syself supports bare metal and especially GPU servers, so that we can use Kubernetes to run our AI workload.

Radim Kubacki

Software Engineer, Geneea

Questions Teams Ask Before Choosing

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

: For Kubernetes on Hetzner, yes: Syself runs it on your Hetzner Cloud and bare-metal servers.¹ OpenShift you run yourself, or buy managed on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud or IBM Cloud.²¹ If your developers depend on OpenShift’s built-in tools or on Red Hat’s ecosystem, Syself Autopilot does not replace them.
: Yes, with the generic install. Hetzner is not one of the platforms OpenShift integrates with, and Red Hat does not test on it.¹⁴ You provide the servers, load balancers and DNS, and the cluster can’t create or replace machines on its own.¹⁵¹⁹
: Yes, and it is why teams pick it. The server includes its NVMe disks, and traffic on the default 1 Gbit uplink is unlimited.²⁸ On Syself Autopilot, databases run on those disks under an operator such as CloudNativePG.²⁹ You run them, or an agency runs them for you in your cluster.³³ KubeVirt can run virtual machines on the same servers.²⁷
: Syself runs the servers, the operating system, Kubernetes and the in-cluster components.¹ Your applications, databases and data stay with you, or with an agency you hire.³³ Syself Autopilot includes support from the Syself team on business days; Premium Support adds a custom SLA and 24/7 cover.¹⁰
: On both, you decide when to upgrade and neither can roll a cluster back. OpenShift updates its nodes in place, one by one.¹⁸¹⁶ Syself ships tested updates every week; once you trigger one, Syself replaces each node with a fresh one running the new release, and every release has passed its tests on real clusters before you can choose it.⁵²³
: OpenShift is ahead on built-in scanning: its Compliance Operator checks clusters against DISA STIG, CIS, PCI-DSS and NIST 800-53 profiles.²⁰ Syself Autopilot ships CIS and STIG conformance, an SBOM and advisories with every release, and controls for SOC 2, ISO 27001 and BSI C5 that you evidence to your auditor. Syself is working toward ISO 27001.¹²¹¹
: Self-managed OpenShift is a subscription per 2 cores or 4 vCPUs of workers, or per bare-metal server, quoted by Red Hat.²² On Hetzner, the platform work stays with you, including patching: tracking CVEs, testing fixes and rolling them out to every node, at least monthly.³⁹ Syself Autopilot does it for a platform fee plus a usage-based fee tied to your infrastructure spend.¹⁰
: When your developers rely on OpenShift’s built-in tools, when your auditors expect its compliance scans, or when you want Red Hat’s certified partner ecosystem. OpenShift, managed on a big cloud or run by you, is the better answer then.

Other Comparisons

Running on Hetzner, or Planning To?

Request a 14-day trial without limits on your own Hetzner account or a free plan for one cluster of up to 5 nodes of any size. If OpenShift is the better fit, Syself will say so.

Run the Numbers Talk to Us

Syself Autopilot vs Red Hat OpenShift: vs Red Hat Open Shift Red Hat OpenShift Which Is Right for Your Kubernetes on Hetzner?

Red Hat Open Shift Red Hat OpenShift