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For those who don't know https://headlamp.dev https://headlamp.dev already exists and is in CNCF.

aiiotnoodle 8mo ago
How does this compare to LENS? https://lenshq.io/ https://lenshq.io/ Always used the free and paid version and never heard of headlamp. Having a look its basically the same but for free.
- johnj-hn 8mo ago
  I never really felt great about Lens. The interface and workflow just never resonated with me. No shade to the crew behind Lens, it’s purely subjective opinion, and I’m sure a lot of people would say I’m wrong. I like Headlamp. It’s much closer to how I think these kinds of apps should work. Prior to starting work on Luxury Yacht, my favorite app in this category was https://infra.app/ https://infra.app/ but unfortunately that has seemingly been abandoned. As far as how they compare… I think they’re all pretty comparable in terms of features. It’s just a question of finding the one that has the UI you like. I did try to build some stuff into Luxury Yacht that I haven’t seen in other apps, though. There’s an object diff panel, where you can compare two objects (even in different clusters) and it will diff the YAML. I also have a json log parser, that will render json logs as a table so it’s much easier to read. Just small things like that.
- stackskipton 8mo ago
  Kubernetes Ops person here who opens HeadLamp at start of the day and leaves it open. Lens is much better than HeadLamp IMO but if you are cost sensitive, HeadLamp can probably get you 95% there.
  - p1anecrazy 8mo ago
    Can you elaborate a little, please? Also, do you use these tools for managed K8s or standard one?
  - vitaliyf 8mo ago
    There is also a https://github.com/freelensapp/freelens https://github.com/freelensapp/freelens fork.
johnj-hn 8mo ago
Hey there. I didn’t submit this post but I am the author of the app. I didn’t know about Headlamp when I started working on Luxury Yacht. I only discovered it a few weeks ago. Headlamp is great, and of course having CNCF’s backing means a lot. I’m not trying to sell Luxury Yacht. It’s free to use. I’m not going to try to convince anyone to choose it over Headlamp, or any other tool. Of course I’m flattered if people like what I built, but that’s the extent of my investment. I like Luxury Yacht better than Headlamp, but of course I do, because I built it to work exactly the way I want it to.
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]
- caniszczyk 8mo ago
  I think LY has a great user interface, and I didn't mean to dismiss your amazing work! That's what makes open source great. I think Headlamp is less know but now that it's part of Kubernetes SIG UI and the kubernetes dashboard is essentially being deprecated, you'll see a lot more headlamp usage in the future imho and I think headlamp can benefit from more awareness and getting more folks involved too! https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/headlamp https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/headlamp https://thelandsca.pe/2025/05/21/headlamp-now-part-of-the-sig-ui/ https://thelandsca.pe/2025/05/21/headlamp-now-part-of-the-si...
  - johnj-hn 8mo ago
    Oh hey, no worries! I didn't take your post in a bad way. Headlamp is a great project and I honestly can't believe I hadn't heard about it until very recently. I'm glad you're spreading the word about it.
  - Art9681 8mo ago
    The author must have taken inspiration from Orbstack which is itself a MacOS app for managing containers, VMs and a local Kube cluster. The first image in the README shows they've selected the cluster Orbstack provisions as the one being managed.
evenh 8mo ago
I've tried to make Headlamp work with GKE/GDC clusters multiple times on macOS but I simply cannot get it working correctly w/gke-gcloud-auth-plugin. Worked out of the box with Luxury Yacht. I do also like the speed of Luxury Yacht!

How does this compare to LENS? https://lenshq.io/ https://lenshq.io/ Always used the free and paid version and never heard of headlamp. Having a look its basically the same but for free.

johnj-hn 8mo ago
I never really felt great about Lens. The interface and workflow just never resonated with me. No shade to the crew behind Lens, it’s purely subjective opinion, and I’m sure a lot of people would say I’m wrong. I like Headlamp. It’s much closer to how I think these kinds of apps should work. Prior to starting work on Luxury Yacht, my favorite app in this category was https://infra.app/ https://infra.app/ but unfortunately that has seemingly been abandoned. As far as how they compare… I think they’re all pretty comparable in terms of features. It’s just a question of finding the one that has the UI you like. I did try to build some stuff into Luxury Yacht that I haven’t seen in other apps, though. There’s an object diff panel, where you can compare two objects (even in different clusters) and it will diff the YAML. I also have a json log parser, that will render json logs as a table so it’s much easier to read. Just small things like that.
stackskipton 8mo ago
Kubernetes Ops person here who opens HeadLamp at start of the day and leaves it open. Lens is much better than HeadLamp IMO but if you are cost sensitive, HeadLamp can probably get you 95% there.
- p1anecrazy 8mo ago
  Can you elaborate a little, please? Also, do you use these tools for managed K8s or standard one?
- vitaliyf 8mo ago
  There is also a https://github.com/freelensapp/freelens https://github.com/freelensapp/freelens fork.

johnj-hn 8mo ago

Hey there. I didn’t submit this post but I am the author of the app. I didn’t know about Headlamp when I started working on Luxury Yacht. I only discovered it a few weeks ago. Headlamp is great, and of course having CNCF’s backing means a lot. I’m not trying to sell Luxury Yacht. It’s free to use. I’m not going to try to convince anyone to choose it over Headlamp, or any other tool. Of course I’m flattered if people like what I built, but that’s the extent of my investment. I like Luxury Yacht better than Headlamp, but of course I do, because I built it to work exactly the way I want it to.

deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]
caniszczyk 8mo ago
I think LY has a great user interface, and I didn't mean to dismiss your amazing work! That's what makes open source great. I think Headlamp is less know but now that it's part of Kubernetes SIG UI and the kubernetes dashboard is essentially being deprecated, you'll see a lot more headlamp usage in the future imho and I think headlamp can benefit from more awareness and getting more folks involved too! https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/headlamp https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/headlamp https://thelandsca.pe/2025/05/21/headlamp-now-part-of-the-sig-ui/ https://thelandsca.pe/2025/05/21/headlamp-now-part-of-the-si...
- johnj-hn 8mo ago
  Oh hey, no worries! I didn't take your post in a bad way. Headlamp is a great project and I honestly can't believe I hadn't heard about it until very recently. I'm glad you're spreading the word about it.
- Art9681 8mo ago
  The author must have taken inspiration from Orbstack which is itself a MacOS app for managing containers, VMs and a local Kube cluster. The first image in the README shows they've selected the cluster Orbstack provisions as the one being managed.

evenh 8mo ago

I've tried to make Headlamp work with GKE/GDC clusters multiple times on macOS but I simply cannot get it working correctly w/gke-gcloud-auth-plugin. Worked out of the box with Luxury Yacht. I do also like the speed of Luxury Yacht!