K9s

Helm

helm/helm

Popular

Package manager for Kubernetes; charts template, version and release apps with their dependencies.

Kustomize

kubernetes-sigs/kustomize

Popular

Template-free YAML overlays for customizing Kubernetes manifests per environment; built into kubectl.

Headlamp

kubernetes-sigs/headlamp

Trending

Extensible Kubernetes web and desktop UI under SIG UI; the official successor to Kubernetes Dashboard.

Freelens

freelensapp/freelens

Rising

Free, open-source fork of the Lens Kubernetes IDE, created after Lens went closed source.

Lens

k8slens.dev

Desktop Kubernetes IDE from Mirantis for multi-cluster management; proprietary with paid tiers.

kind

kubernetes-sigs/kind

Popular

Runs local Kubernetes clusters using Docker containers as nodes; the standard for testing and CI.

minikube

kubernetes/minikube

Runs a local single- or multi-node Kubernetes cluster for development and learning on any OS.

Helmfile

helmfile/helmfile

Declarative spec for deploying many Helm releases across environments with diff and sync.

Tilt

tilt-dev/tilt

Automates the inner dev loop on Kubernetes with live updates, a web UI and a Starlark Tiltfile.