About KEDA
KEDA is a Kubernetes-based Event Driven Autoscaler that drives the scaling of any container in Kubernetes based on the number of events needing to be processed. It is a single-purpose, lightweight component that can be added into any Kubernetes cluster.
KEDA works alongside standard Kubernetes components like the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler and extends functionality without overwriting or duplication. It allows explicit mapping of apps for event-driven scale while other apps continue to function, making it a flexible option for various Kubernetes applications.
Key features
- Autoscaling for every workload in a Kubernetes cluster
- Event-driven scaling based on event processing needs
- Catalog of 70+ built-in scalers for cloud platforms, databases, messaging systems, telemetry systems, CI/CD, and more
- Support for deployments, jobs, and custom resources with /scale sub-resource
- Scale-to-zero capability to reduce environmental impact
- Extensible with bring-your-own or community-maintained scalers
Good fit for
- Scaling event-driven applications in Kubernetes
- Optimizing workload scheduling and reducing environmental impact
KEDA: questions and answers
- What is KEDA used for?
- KEDA is a Kubernetes-based Event Driven Autoscaler that scales containers based on event processing needs. It is a good fit for scaling event-driven applications in Kubernetes, and optimizing workload scheduling and reducing environmental impact.
- Is KEDA open source?
- Yes. KEDA is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at kedacore/keda and is written mainly in Go.
- Is KEDA free?
- Yes. KEDA is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
- Can I self-host KEDA?
- Yes. KEDA can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
- What is KEDA an alternative to?
- KEDA is an open-source alternative to Azure Container Apps. Other open-source alternatives to Azure Container Apps include Sealos, Rainbond and OpenFaaS.
- Is KEDA actively maintained?
- Yes. The most recent commit to KEDA was on 13 October 2026, and the latest release is v2.21.0, published on 23 September 2026. The project has 11k stars on GitHub.
Open-source alternatives to KEDA
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Sealos
Hosting & PaaS
Deploy real projects from GitHub or your AI coding agent, then keep them running with AI-p
OSSvs Heroku★ 18k
Rainbond
Hosting & PaaS
Rainbond is an open-source container platform that requires no Kubernetes expertise. Its c
OSSvs Heroku★ 6.3k
OpenFaaS
Hosting & PaaS
OpenFaaS - Serverless Functions Made Simple
OSSvs AWS Lambda★ 26k
Epinio
Hosting & PaaS
Opinionated platform that runs on Kubernetes, that takes you from App to URL in one step.
Apache-2.0vs Heroku★ 613
Coolify
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Self-hosting platform with superpowers. Deploy apps, databases & 280+ services to your
Apache-2.0vs Heroku★ 63k
Dokku
Hosting & PaaS
A docker-powered PaaS that helps you build and manage the lifecycle of applications
MITvs Heroku★ 32k
SaaS alternatives to KEDA
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Azure Container Apps
Infrastructure & Containers
Serverless container service on Azure for microservices and jobs
SaaS
Amazon ECS
Infrastructure & Containers
Managed container orchestration service on AWS
SaaS
AWS Fargate
Infrastructure & Containers
Serverless compute engine for running containers on AWS without managing servers
SaaS
Google Kubernetes Engine
Infrastructure & Containers
Managed Kubernetes service on Google Cloud with autoscaling and autopilot mode
SaaS
Amazon EKS
Infrastructure & Containers
Managed Kubernetes control plane and worker nodes on AWS
SaaS
Azure Kubernetes Service
Infrastructure & Containers
Managed Kubernetes service on Microsoft Azure
SaaS

