What is Apache CloudStack used for?

Apache CloudStack is an open-source infrastructure-as-a-service platform for deploying and managing large networks of virtual machines. It is a good fit for service providers offering public cloud and companies building private or hybrid clouds.

Is Apache CloudStack open source?

Yes. Apache CloudStack is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at apache/cloudstack and is written mainly in Java.

Is Apache CloudStack free?

Yes. Apache CloudStack is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Apache CloudStack?

Yes. Apache CloudStack can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Apache CloudStack an alternative to?

Apache CloudStack is an open-source alternative to Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2 and Alibaba Cloud. Other open-source alternatives to Amazon Web Services include Ubicloud and Sealos.

Is Apache CloudStack actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Apache CloudStack was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is 4.23.0.0, published on 2 September 2026. The project has 3.1k stars on GitHub.

Apache CloudStack: open-source infrastructure & containers

About Apache CloudStack

Apache CloudStack is open source software for deploying and managing large networks of virtual machines as a highly available, scalable infrastructure-as-a-service cloud. Service providers use it to offer public cloud services, while companies use it for private on-premises clouds or as part of a hybrid setup. It is written mainly in Java and Python.

The project describes it as a turnkey solution that includes the full stack most organizations want from an IaaS cloud: compute orchestration, network-as-a-service, user and account management, resource accounting, a complete native API and a user interface. Administrators can manage the cloud through a web interface, command-line tools or a query-based API.

CloudStack supports a range of hypervisors, including VMware vSphere, KVM, XenServer, XenProject and Hyper-V, as well as OVM and LXC containers. Topics also mention Kubernetes, XCP-ng and libvirt. It is an Apache Software Foundation project licensed under Apache-2.0, with documentation, a demo, news and events pages and security reporting procedures on its website.

Key features

Infrastructure-as-a-service cloud orchestration
Supports VMware, KVM, XenServer and Hyper-V
Network-as-a-service capabilities
User and account management
Web interface, command line and native API
Resource accounting

Good fit for

→Service providers offering public cloud
→Companies building private or hybrid clouds

Built with: Java; Python; Kubernetes
Tags: iaas; cloud; virtualization; kvm; vmware; orchestration; apache; private-cloud

Apache CloudStack: questions and answers

What is Apache CloudStack used for?: Apache CloudStack is an open-source infrastructure-as-a-service platform for deploying and managing large networks of virtual machines. It is a good fit for service providers offering public cloud and companies building private or hybrid clouds.
Is Apache CloudStack open source?: Yes. Apache CloudStack is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at apache/cloudstack and is written mainly in Java.
Is Apache CloudStack free?: Yes. Apache CloudStack is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Apache CloudStack?: Yes. Apache CloudStack can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Apache CloudStack an alternative to?: Apache CloudStack is an open-source alternative to Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2 and Alibaba Cloud. Other open-source alternatives to Amazon Web Services include Ubicloud and Sealos.
Is Apache CloudStack actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Apache CloudStack was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is 4.23.0.0, published on 2 September 2026. The project has 3.1k stars on GitHub.