Helm vs Longhorn: Key Differences & When to Use Each

Comprehensive side-by-side comparison of features, pricing, and metrics

Key Differences

Compare Helm and Longhorn across features, pricing, integrations, and community metrics. Helm / Longhorn.

Feature

Helm

Package Manager

Longhorn

Storage

Side-by-side comparison of developer tools
Package manager for Kubernetes
Distributed block storage for Kubernetes
GitHub Stars
⭐ 29,777
⭐ 7,681
Contributors
👥 998
👥 157
Pricing
✓ Free
Enterprise: Contact sales
✓ Free
Enterprise: Contact sales
Languages
Go
Shell
Features
  • • Chart
  • • Charts
  • • Cncf
  • • Helm
  • • Kubernetes
  • • Cncf
  • • Distributed Systems
  • • High Availability
  • • K8s Sig Storage
  • • Kubernetes
Integrations
  • • kubernetes
  • • kubernetes
Momentum Score
79/100 (stable)
47/100 (slowing)
Community Health
73/100 (good)
23/100 (needs-attention)
Maturity Index
67/100 (growing)
18/100 (experimental)
Innovation Score
76/100 (innovative)
26/100 (traditional)
Risk Score (higher is safer)
68/100 (low)
22/100 (high)
Developer Experience
54/100 (needs-improvement)
24/100 (poor)
Links
🌐 Visit Website View on GitHub
🌐 Visit Website View on GitHub

Helm Strengths

  • ✓ More popular (29,777 stars)
  • ✓ Larger community (998 contributors)

Longhorn Strengths

When to Use Helm vs Longhorn

Use Helm when its strengths align better with your stack and team needs, and choose Longhorn when its ecosystem, integrations, or cost profile is a better fit.

Related comparisons

Helm vs Kubernetes → Longhorn vs MinIO → Helm vs Docker → Longhorn vs Rook → Helm vs MinIO → Longhorn vs Kubernetes → Helm vs Istio → Longhorn vs Docker → Helm vs Docker Compose → Longhorn vs Istio → Helm vs Drone → Longhorn vs Docker Compose →

More Comparisons

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Data source: GitHub API

Last updated: 5/4/2026