Okteto
Cloud development environments that let you code directly in Kubernetes.
About
Okteto is a development platform that lets developers code directly inside Kubernetes without running Kubernetes locally. Running okteto up replaces a deployment with a development container carrying your tools, inherits the real deployment's secrets, configmaps, volumes, and sidecars, and syncs local file changes into the cluster instantly with hot-reload, so your IDE sees the remote cluster as a local filesystem. The platform also provides on-demand preview environments per pull request (with live URLs for reviewers) and Okteto Test for in-cluster test execution with production parity.
It works with any Kubernetes cluster (local or remote), installs inside your own infrastructure via Self-Hosted or BYOC, and offers a free cloud plan for individuals alongside paid team tiers. Limitations: maintaining okteto.yaml manifests alongside production manifests becomes a burden as service counts grow, full per-developer environments get expensive at scale, and the self-hosted edition requires a commercial license with meaningful cluster resources.
What it can do
- Remote development containers synced to your local IDE
- Preview environments per pull request with live URLs
- In-cluster test execution with production parity
- Inherits real deployment config (secrets, volumes, sidecars)
- Self-hosted or BYOC deployment inside your infrastructure
Setup
Install the Okteto CLI, add an okteto.yaml manifest to your repo, and run okteto up against a cluster.
Prerequisites
Access to a Kubernetes cluster; container images for your development environment.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 7/10
Scored 7/10 (metrics tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: Verified via vendor site/docs/GitHub and reputable coverage, wave 68; Trending score 68/100 from researcher assessment.
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.