Your owncloud.Free toself-host.
FreeZenith turns raw servers into a full internal developer platform — a private cloud on Kubernetes you host yourself. Runs on your own Hetzner account today, with on-premises next. No SaaS, no bill.
An internal developer platform you actually own.
FreeZenith is a source-available, free-to-self-host internal developer platform — the private-cloud layer that turns bare Kubernetes into a self-service platform for your engineers. Everything runs on infrastructure you control, so there is no SaaS dependency, no per-seat pricing, and nothing leaves your network.
Runs on your hardware
Point FreeZenith at fresh servers — a Hetzner box or on-prem hosts with SAN storage and virtualization — and it installs a production k3s cluster on top.
A full platform, not a toolbox
Networking, security policy, backups, metrics and a developer portal come pre-integrated. No stitching together a dozen Helm charts by hand.
Self-service for your team
Developers ship apps, databases and services through a Backstage portal and GitOps — while you keep full control of the underlying cluster.
Best-in-class open source, pre-integrated.
FreeZenith wires proven CNCF-ecosystem projects into one coherent platform on k3s / Kubernetes — so you get the whole thing working together, out of the box.
Backstage
A single pane of glass for your engineers — service catalog, software templates, docs and self-service actions. The front door to the platform.
Cilium
eBPF-powered CNI for pod networking, load balancing and deep network observability, with identity-aware network policy between workloads.
Kyverno
Kubernetes-native policy engine that validates, mutates and enforces guardrails on every workload — security baselines applied automatically.
Velero
Scheduled cluster and volume backups to object storage, with tested restores — so your private cloud survives a bad day.
VictoriaMetrics
A fast, resource-efficient metrics stack for long-term time-series storage, dashboards and alerting across the whole platform.
k3s / Kubernetes
A lightweight, certified Kubernetes distribution as the base layer — small enough for a single node, ready to scale to a cluster.
Everything a platform team ships — built in.
The capabilities you would otherwise assemble yourself, delivered as one self-hosted platform and driven from the developer portal.
App deployments
Ship containers and Git repos with zero-downtime rollouts, autoscaling and rollbacks.
Managed databases
PostgreSQL and friends with automated backups and point-in-time recovery.
Object storage
S3-compatible buckets with presigned URLs, wired straight into your apps.
API gateway
Ingress, routing, rate limiting and TLS handled at the edge of the platform.
Security by default
Kyverno guardrails and Cilium network policy enforced on every workload.
Metrics & dashboards
VictoriaMetrics + Grafana dashboards for apps, databases and the cluster.
GitOps delivery
Declarative, Git-driven deploys — your cluster state lives in version control.
Backup & restore
Scheduled Velero snapshots to object storage with tested recovery.
Multi-tenancy
Namespace isolation and RBAC so teams share one platform safely.
A full platform, on infrastructure you own.
Managed clouds are fast but lock you in and bill per seat. Raw Kubernetes is yours but you assemble everything by hand. FreeZenith gives you the whole platform — self-hosted, integrated, free.
| FreeZenith | Managed PaaS | DIY Kubernetes | Other self-hosted | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on your own infrastructure | ||||
| Full platform out of the box | ||||
| Developer portal (Backstage) | ||||
| Policy, backups & metrics built in | ||||
| Data stays in your network | ||||
| Free to self-host | ||||
| No vendor lock-in | ||||
| One-command install | n/a |
Your infrastructure. Your rules.
FreeZenith does not host anything for you — it runs on infrastructure you provide and control. This version targets Hetzner; on-premises support is on the roadmap.
Hetzner
Bring your own Hetzner account, spin up affordable cloud or dedicated servers, and let FreeZenith provision k3s and the full platform on top. Ideal for lean teams and startups.
- Use your own Hetzner account
- Cheap, powerful EU hardware
- Full platform installed for you
Your datacenter
Bring your own SAN storage and virtualization layer, and FreeZenith will run as the cloud platform on top. Data never leaves your walls — built for sovereignty.
- SAN storage + virtualization
- Full data sovereignty
- Great fit for EU / regulated / banks
One portal for the whole platform.
Your team works from a Backstage-powered console — deploy, inspect and operate everything running on your private cloud.
Platform overview
production · eu-central
Running apps
12
3 namespaces
Databases
5
backups healthy
Policy pass rate
100%
Kyverno
Cluster CPU
38%
6 nodes
requests / sec · last 15m
Interface shown is illustrative. A public, hands-on demo is on the way.
From bare servers to a private cloud.
Three steps. No account to create, no key to buy — just your infrastructure and the CLI.
Get the source
Clone the repository and build the CLI. Everything is open — inspect it before you run it.
git clone https://github.com/taikuri-infra/Zenith.git
cd Zenith && make cliPoint at your servers
Describe your target — a Hetzner box or on-prem hosts. FreeZenith does the rest over SSH.
zen init
# edit zenith.yaml: hosts, storage, domainInstall the platform
One command provisions k3s and the full stack: Cilium, Kyverno, Velero, VictoriaMetrics and Backstage.
zen install
# ✔ your private cloud is liveFree to self-host, and yours to keep.
Read the code, run it, fork it, and shape where it goes. FreeZenith is built in the open — contributions, issues and ideas welcome.