{"id":49065,"date":"2025-04-09T14:43:30","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T14:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/?p=49065"},"modified":"2025-07-12T05:56:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T05:56:26","slug":"openshift-compare-okd-vs-codeready-containers-vs-openshift-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/openshift-compare-okd-vs-codeready-containers-vs-openshift-local\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenShift: Compare OKD vs CodeReady Containers vs OpenShift Local"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83e\udde0 First, let\u2019s define each term clearly:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. \ud83d\udd35 <strong>OKD<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Community<\/strong> version of OpenShift<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Free, open-source<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Includes Kubernetes + Operators + Developer tools (S2I, Pipelines, etc.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Production-ready and <strong>multi-node capable<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Can be installed on <strong>bare metal or cloud (AWS, GCP, etc.)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. \ud83d\udfe0 <strong>CodeReady Containers (CRC)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Old name<\/strong> for the <strong>local version<\/strong> of OpenShift\/OKD<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Provides a <strong>single-node OpenShift\/OKD cluster<\/strong> on your laptop<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Primarily for developers and testers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Rebranded<\/strong> in recent versions\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. \ud83d\udfe2 <strong>OpenShift Local<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>New name for CRC<\/strong> starting from <strong>OpenShift 4.12+<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Same concept: local, single-node OpenShift<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Can be <strong>OpenShift (Red Hat)<\/strong> or <strong>OKD<\/strong> depending on the bundle you download<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udcca Comparison Table<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Feature<\/th><th>OKD<\/th><th>CodeReady Containers (CRC)<\/th><th>OpenShift Local<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Type<\/td><td>Community version of OpenShift<\/td><td>Local dev env for OKD\/OCP<\/td><td>Renamed version of CRC<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Nodes<\/td><td>Multi-node (prod ready)<\/td><td>Single-node only<\/td><td>Single-node only<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Target Users<\/td><td>Sysadmins, DevOps, Enterprises<\/td><td>Developers, testers<\/td><td>Developers, testers<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Runs On<\/td><td>Bare metal, Cloud (AWS, GCP, etc.)<\/td><td>Local machine via VM<\/td><td>Local machine via VM<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Customization<\/td><td>Fully customizable<\/td><td>Limited<\/td><td>Limited<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Supported by Red Hat?<\/td><td>\u274c Community-supported<\/td><td>\u2705 (OCP only) \/ \u274c (OKD)<\/td><td>\u2705 (OCP only) \/ \u274c (OKD)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Upgradeable<\/td><td>Yes (via installer + Operators)<\/td><td>Partially \/ recreate needed<\/td><td>Partially \/ recreate needed<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>UI \/ Console<\/td><td>\u2705 Full OKD Console<\/td><td>\u2705 Full Console<\/td><td>\u2705 Full Console<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Includes S2I, Pipelines, etc.<\/td><td>\u2705<\/td><td>\u2705<\/td><td>\u2705<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Uses Installer?<\/td><td>\u2705 (You use <code>openshift-install<\/code>)<\/td><td>\u274c<\/td><td>\u274c<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Virtualization Required?<\/td><td>\u274c<\/td><td>\u2705<\/td><td>\u2705<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Latest branding<\/td><td>Still called <strong>OKD<\/strong><\/td><td>\u2705 Deprecated<\/td><td>\u2705 Use this now<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83e\udde9 Relationship Between Them<\/h2>\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\" aria-describedby=\"shcb-language-1\" data-shcb-language-name=\"PHP\" data-shcb-language-slug=\"php\"><span><code class=\"hljs language-php\">OKD \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2510\n         \u251c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u25ba CodeReady Containers (CRC) \u2500\u2500\u2500\u25ba OpenShift Local (<span class=\"hljs-keyword\">New<\/span> name)\nOpenShift\u2518\n<\/code><\/span><small class=\"shcb-language\" id=\"shcb-language-1\"><span class=\"shcb-language__label\">Code language:<\/span> <span class=\"shcb-language__name\">PHP<\/span> <span class=\"shcb-language__paren\">(<\/span><span class=\"shcb-language__slug\">php<\/span><span class=\"shcb-language__paren\">)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>OKD<\/strong> is the full platform (multi-node, install yourself)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>CRC<\/strong> was a packaging of <strong>OKD\/OpenShift<\/strong> for local testing (single-node)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>OpenShift Local<\/strong> is the <strong>new name for CRC<\/strong>, continuing the same purpose<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2705 So When Should You Use What?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Use Case<\/th><th>Best Option<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Learn OpenShift\/OKD quickly on your laptop<\/td><td>\u2705 <strong>OpenShift Local (CRC)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Deploy apps and test CI\/CD on OpenShift<\/td><td>\u2705 <strong>OpenShift Local or OKD<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Run production workloads<\/td><td>\u2705 <strong>OKD or OpenShift (multi-node)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Build custom OpenShift-like platform<\/td><td>\u2705 <strong>OKD<\/strong> (fully open source)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Need Red Hat support<\/td><td>\u2705 <strong>Red Hat OpenShift<\/strong> (not OKD)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83c\udfaf Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>OKD<\/strong> = Full, community OpenShift (multi-node, production-capable)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>CodeReady Containers<\/strong> = Old name for local OpenShift\/OKD<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>OpenShift Local<\/strong> = New name for CRC (use this moving forward)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>They are all part of the <strong>same ecosystem<\/strong> \u2014 just for different use cases: <strong>Production (OKD\/OpenShift)<\/strong> vs <strong>Local Dev\/Test (CRC\/OpenShift Local)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udfe0 <strong>OpenShift Local<\/strong> = The tool<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s the CLI tool you install (<code>crc<\/code>) that sets up a <strong>single-node OpenShift cluster<\/strong> locally in a VM.<br>The actual version (OKD or OCP) depends on the <strong>bundle<\/strong> you download.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udd39 Two types of bundles for OpenShift Local:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Bundle Type<\/th><th>Uses Which Platform?<\/th><th>Where to Download?<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>\u2705 <strong>OCP Bundle<\/strong> (Official Red Hat)<\/td><td><strong>OpenShift Container Platform<\/strong> (paid\/licensed)<\/td><td><a class=\"\">console.redhat.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\ud83c\udd93 <strong>OKD Bundle<\/strong> (Community)<\/td><td><strong>OKD (Open Source OpenShift)<\/strong><\/td><td><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/code-ready\/crc\/releases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">github.com\/code-ready\/crc\/releases<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ud83e\udde0 First, let\u2019s define each term clearly: 1. \ud83d\udd35 OKD 2. \ud83d\udfe0 CodeReady Containers (CRC) 3. \ud83d\udfe2 OpenShift Local \ud83d\udcca Comparison Table Feature OKD CodeReady Containers (CRC) OpenShift Local Type&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5153],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-openshift"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49065"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49068,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49065\/revisions\/49068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}