What is CloudNativePG used for?

CloudNativePG is a Kubernetes operator that manages the full lifecycle of PostgreSQL clusters, including high availability, failover, backups and updates, without external HA tools. It is a good fit for running production PostgreSQL on Kubernetes, GitOps-managed database clusters, and automated failover and disaster recovery.

Is CloudNativePG open source?

Yes. CloudNativePG is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg and is written mainly in Go.

Is CloudNativePG free?

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

Can I self-host CloudNativePG?

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

What is CloudNativePG an alternative to?

CloudNativePG is an open-source alternative to Amazon RDS, Azure SQL Database, PlanetScale and Aiven. Other open-source alternatives to Amazon RDS include Autobase, PostgreSQL and Neon.

Is CloudNativePG actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to CloudNativePG was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.30.1, published on 23 September 2026. The project has 9.4k stars on GitHub.

CloudNativePG: open-source alternative to Amazon RDS

About CloudNativePG

CloudNativePG, often shortened to CNPG, is an open-source platform for running PostgreSQL databases on Kubernetes. Its core component is an operator that handles the whole operational lifecycle, from deployment to ongoing maintenance, in a way that fits GitOps-driven CI/CD automation.

It takes a Kubernetes-native approach to primary and standby cluster management. Rather than relying on external high-availability tools such as Patroni, repmgr or Stolon, the operator integrates directly with the Kubernetes API, and the status of a PostgreSQL cluster is exposed on the Cluster resource. It follows the operator pattern to reconcile the desired state, and application containers are immutable. Topics also list failover, switchover, replication, disaster recovery, a kubectl plugin, a Prometheus exporter and JSON logging.

CloudNativePG is a CNCF project written in Go and licensed under Apache-2.0, with a quickstart guide, governance policies, a list of adopters and pointers to commercial support. It is intended for Kubernetes administrators who want PostgreSQL managed as a native workload.

Key features

Kubernetes operator for PostgreSQL clusters
Primary and standby cluster management
Automated failover and switchover
Direct Kubernetes API integration
Immutable application containers
Prometheus exporter and JSON logging
Companion kubectl plugin

Good fit for

→Running production PostgreSQL on Kubernetes
→GitOps-managed database clusters
→Automated failover and disaster recovery

Built with: Go; PostgreSQL; Kubernetes
Tags: postgresql; kubernetes; operator; high-availability; database; cncf; failover; devops; golang

CloudNativePG: questions and answers

What is CloudNativePG used for?: CloudNativePG is a Kubernetes operator that manages the full lifecycle of PostgreSQL clusters, including high availability, failover, backups and updates, without external HA tools. It is a good fit for running production PostgreSQL on Kubernetes, GitOps-managed database clusters, and automated failover and disaster recovery.
Is CloudNativePG open source?: Yes. CloudNativePG is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg and is written mainly in Go.
Is CloudNativePG free?: Yes. CloudNativePG is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host CloudNativePG?: Yes. CloudNativePG can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is CloudNativePG an alternative to?: CloudNativePG is an open-source alternative to Amazon RDS, Azure SQL Database, PlanetScale and Aiven. Other open-source alternatives to Amazon RDS include Autobase, PostgreSQL and Neon.
Is CloudNativePG actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to CloudNativePG was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.30.1, published on 23 September 2026. The project has 9.4k stars on GitHub.