# Radar

> Radar is open-source Kubernetes visibility for platform engineering teams. One Helm chart for self-host (Apache 2.0), or Radar Cloud for fleet aggregation, persistent retention, SSO, and routed alerts.

Radar gives engineers a unified view of every Kubernetes cluster they run - topology, event timeline (past the 1-hour TTL), Helm releases, image filesystem inspection, cluster audits, and an MCP server for AI agents. The full engine is Apache 2.0 and runs from a single binary or Helm chart. Radar Cloud is the hosted control plane that adds multi-cluster fleet view, retention up to 1 year, SAML/OIDC SSO, scoped RBAC, and routed alerts.

## Product

- [Product Overview](https://radarhq.io/product): Everything Radar OSS and Radar Cloud ship together
- [Topology](https://radarhq.io/product/topology): Live Kubernetes resource graph - SSE-updated, ELK.js-laid-out, group by namespace or label
- [Event timeline](https://radarhq.io/product/timeline): Every K8s event and resource delta, persisted past the kube-apiserver 1-hour TTL
- [Image filesystem viewer](https://radarhq.io/product/image-filesystem): Browse any container image's filesystem - tree, sizes, symlinks - without kubectl exec
- [Cluster audit](https://radarhq.io/product/cluster-audit): 31 best-practice checks across security, reliability, and efficiency
- [AI via MCP](https://radarhq.io/product/mcp): Model Context Protocol server for Claude, Cursor, Copilot, and other agent clients

## Use cases

- [Solutions](https://radarhq.io/solutions): What Radar is for - troubleshooting, multi-cluster ops, GitOps, Helm, compliance
- [For SREs](https://radarhq.io/for/sre): Cut incident MTTR without adding another dashboard
- [For Platform Engineering](https://radarhq.io/for/platform-engineering): Self-serve Kubernetes visibility, org-wide
- [For DevOps Leaders](https://radarhq.io/for/devops-leaders): Kubernetes as a business function

## Compare

- [All comparisons](https://radarhq.io/vs): How Radar stacks up against the tools platform teams already use
- [Radar vs Lens](https://radarhq.io/vs/lens): Open-source, native, and a fraction of the size
- [Radar vs k9s](https://radarhq.io/vs/k9s): Team-native Kubernetes visibility, keyboard-friendly
- [Radar vs Headlamp](https://radarhq.io/vs/headlamp): Both Apache 2.0 browser-native K8s UIs - Headlamp extends via plugins, Radar ships topology, timeline, traffic, GitOps, cost, and audit in core
- [Radar vs FreeLens](https://radarhq.io/vs/freelens): The MIT community fork of Open Lens vs a single-binary K8s UI with the operations stack in core
- [Lens alternatives](https://radarhq.io/lens-alternative): The six real Lens alternatives in 2026, honestly compared
- [Kubernetes Dashboard alternative](https://radarhq.io/kubernetes-dashboard-alternative): The Dashboard was retired in Jan 2026 - what replaces it

## Open source and pricing

- [Open Source](https://radarhq.io/open-source): Radar OSS comparison - local binary, self-hosted, and Cloud
- [Migrate from OSS to Cloud](https://radarhq.io/migrate): 10 minutes, one Helm flag
- [Pricing](https://radarhq.io/pricing): Per-cluster pricing, never per seat - Free tier includes 3 clusters, $99/cluster/mo Team, custom Enterprise
- [Pricing (markdown)](https://radarhq.io/pricing.md): Flat markdown version of the pricing page for programmatic parsing
- [GitHub repo](https://github.com/skyhook-io/radar): Apache 2.0, the full engine
- [Documentation](https://radarhq.io/docs): Install, configuration, and reference

## Company

- [About Radar](https://radarhq.io/about): The team behind Radar and our OSS commitments
- [Community](https://radarhq.io/community): GitHub, Discussions, Discord, and the maintainers
- [Changelog](https://radarhq.io/changelog): Every tagged Radar release
- [Support](https://radarhq.io/support): Support channels, response-time matrix by tier, SLA definitions
- [Demo](https://radarhq.io/demo): Book a 30-minute walkthrough

## Optional

- [Introducing Radar Cloud: Multi-Cluster Kubernetes Visibility for Teams](https://radarhq.io/blog/introducing-radar-cloud): Radar Cloud is the hosted team layer on top of Radar OSS: fleet views, SSO on every plan, K8s-native RBAC via impersonation. Cluster state never leaves.
- [Migrating from Lens and OpenLens in 2026](https://radarhq.io/blog/migrating-from-lens): A practical migration guide for Lens and OpenLens users: what changed, when to move, and how to switch to Freelens, Headlamp, k9s, or Radar.
- [Radar MCP vs kubectl: A Kubernetes Agent Benchmark on 52 Faults](https://radarhq.io/blog/radar-mcp-vs-kubectl-benchmark): We benchmarked Radar's Kubernetes MCP server against raw kubectl on 52 live-cluster faults. Radar improved diagnosis quality and cut tool calls by 76%.
- [The Best Kubernetes Dashboards in 2026 (Including Our Competitors)](https://radarhq.io/blog/best-kubernetes-dashboards-2026): Seven Kubernetes UIs ranked by use case - by a team that builds one of them. Where k9s wins, where Headlamp wins, and where we think Radar does.
- [SSO and RBAC Without Passing Around Kubeconfigs](https://radarhq.io/blog/sso-and-rbac-without-passing-around-kubeconfigs): A contractor needs read-only access to one staging cluster by Monday. Without SSO and scoped RBAC, that ticket bounces for a week. Here's how Radar Cloud collapses it.
- [Why We Priced Radar Per Cluster, Not Per Seat](https://radarhq.io/blog/why-per-cluster-pricing): Per-seat pricing punishes a visibility tool's whole point: more eyes. The five pricing models we compared, why per-cluster won, where it's a worse deal.
- [Why Radar Cloud Doesn't Cache Your Cluster State](https://radarhq.io/blog/why-radar-cloud-doesnt-cache-your-cluster-state): Most multi-cluster dashboards copy your cluster state into a backend cache. Radar Cloud doesn't. Here's why the reverse-proxy model is the right call.
- [Agents, UIs, and CLIs: The False Choice in Kubernetes Operations](https://radarhq.io/blog/agent-or-ui-false-choice-kubernetes-operations): Kubernetes ops spans three surfaces: CLI, UI, and AI agent. kubectl is fine, but a live cluster graph deserves better than raw YAML - for humans and agents alike.
- [Radar's In-Cluster Architecture: Outbound-Only, Scoped, Live by Default](https://radarhq.io/blog/the-radar-cloud-agent-architecture): How Radar's in-cluster install works: outbound-only TLS, read-only RBAC by default, ~32MB RSS. The five questions every platform team asks, answered.
- [Radar OSS or Radar Cloud? An Honest Take on When to Use Each](https://radarhq.io/blog/radar-oss-or-radar-cloud-an-honest-take): The most common question in our GitHub issues: do I need Radar Cloud, or is OSS enough? Here's the honest answer, with the five questions that actually decide it.
- [Five Questions You Can't Answer With kubectl](https://radarhq.io/blog/five-questions-you-cant-answer-with-kubectl): kubectl hands you one object at a time, as raw YAML. Here are five questions - relationships, isolation, image contents, history, posture - where that runs out of road.
- [Cluster Audit: The 31 Checks That Catch What You Forgot](https://radarhq.io/blog/cluster-audit-the-31-checks-that-catch-what-you-forgot): Most clusters fail the same checks. Radar's built-in audit runs 31 of them inline against your live state. Inspired by Polaris and the NSA / CISA hardening guide.
- [MCP for Kubernetes: Live Cluster Context for AI Tools](https://radarhq.io/blog/mcp-for-kubernetes-live-cluster-context-for-ai-tools): Pointing an AI at raw kubectl works, badly. Radar's built-in MCP server gives Claude, Cursor, and friends a token-optimized, RBAC-aware view of your cluster.
- [The Fleet Visibility Gap: Why Teams With 5+ Clusters Hit a Wall](https://radarhq.io/blog/the-fleet-visibility-gap): Every tool that worked at 2 clusters breaks at 8. kubectl, Lens, k9s, Headlamp are all single-cluster-at-a-time. Here's where the wall is and what it looks like.
- [What We're Building in 2026: Radar OSS and Radar Cloud](https://radarhq.io/blog/what-were-building-in-2026-radar-oss-and-cloud): Two shipping dates, one product line. Radar OSS in January, Radar Cloud in February. Here's the scope, the split, and what won't make it into v1.