Longhorn vs Rook: Key Differences & When to Use Each

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

Key Differences

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

Feature

Longhorn

Storage

Rook

Storage

Side-by-side comparison of developer tools
Distributed block storage for Kubernetes
Cloud-native storage orchestrator for Kubernetes
GitHub Stars
⭐ 7,681
⭐ 13,486
Contributors
👥 157
👥 670
Pricing
✓ Free
Enterprise: Contact sales
✓ Free
Enterprise: Contact sales
Languages
Shell
Go
Features
  • Cncf
  • Distributed Systems
  • High Availability
  • K8s Sig Storage
  • Kubernetes
  • Ceph
  • Cloud Native
  • Cncf
  • Docker
  • Etcd
Integrations
  • • kubernetes
  • • kubernetes
  • • docker
Momentum Score
47/100 (slowing)
79/100 (stable)
Community Health
23/100 (needs-attention)
73/100 (good)
Maturity Index
18/100 (experimental)
50/100 (emerging)
Innovation Score
26/100 (traditional)
65/100 (progressive)
Risk Score (higher is safer)
22/100 (high)
53/100 (low)
Developer Experience
24/100 (poor)
95/100 (excellent)
Links

Longhorn Strengths

Rook Strengths

  • ✓ More popular (13,486 stars)
  • ✓ Larger community (670 contributors)

When to Use Longhorn vs Rook

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

Data source: GitHub API

Last updated: 5/4/2026