What is Helm used for?

Helm is the Kubernetes package manager, using Charts to install, upgrade and share pre-configured Kubernetes applications. It is a good fit for installing popular software on a cluster and packaging an app for repeatable deployments.

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

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

What are some alternatives to Helm?

Similar open-source tools in the Infrastructure & Containers category include Minikube, Kubernetes and KubeStellar. SaaS products in the same category include Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service and Docker Desktop.

Is Helm actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Helm was on 1 October 2026, and the latest release is v4.3.0, published on 9 September 2026. The project has 30k stars on GitHub.

Helm: open-source infrastructure & containers

About Helm

Helm is a tool for managing Charts, which are packages of pre-configured Kubernetes resources. The project compares it to apt, yum or Homebrew for Kubernetes. Helm renders templates and talks to the Kubernetes API, and it can run on a laptop, in CI/CD or wherever you need it. It is written in Go, a CNCF project, and released under the Apache-2.0 license.

With Helm you can find and use popular software packaged as Charts, share your own applications, build reproducible deployments, manage Kubernetes manifest files and track releases of Helm packages. A chart contains a Chart.yaml description and one or more templates holding manifests, and charts can live on disk or be pulled from remote chart repositories. Helm v4 is the current stable release, while v3 is in support mode with bug fixes and security fixes for a limited period. Installation is by binary download or package managers.

Key features

Charts package Kubernetes resources together
Templated manifests with configurable values
Release management for installed charts
Remote chart repositories for sharing
Runs from a laptop or CI/CD pipeline
Installs through Homebrew, Chocolatey and others

Good fit for

→Installing popular software on a cluster
→Packaging an app for repeatable deployments

Built with: Go; Kubernetes
Tags: helm; kubernetes; package-manager; charts; cncf; devops; deployment; golang

Helm: questions and answers

What is Helm used for?: Helm is the Kubernetes package manager, using Charts to install, upgrade and share pre-configured Kubernetes applications. It is a good fit for installing popular software on a cluster and packaging an app for repeatable deployments.
Is Helm open source?: Yes. Helm is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at helm/helm and is written mainly in Go.
Is Helm free?: Yes. Helm is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
What are some alternatives to Helm?: Similar open-source tools in the Infrastructure & Containers category include Minikube, Kubernetes and KubeStellar. SaaS products in the same category include Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service and Docker Desktop.
Is Helm actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Helm was on 1 October 2026, and the latest release is v4.3.0, published on 9 September 2026. The project has 30k stars on GitHub.