A visual alternative to k9s
k9s is a brilliant terminal UI - fast, live and keyboard-driven. Kubius keeps that feel in a native macOS GUI, and adds the things a terminal can't show well: metrics charts, dependency graphs, cost, and click-through navigation.
Works with Google GKE, Amazon EKS, Azure AKS, DigitalOcean, self-managed & more · macOS Sonoma (14) or later
Why a GUI
Keep the speed, gain the visuals
- Metrics are numbers and text gauges - trends are hard to see
- No dependency graphs or visual relationships
- No built-in cost view
- Everything shares one terminal window
- Real metrics charts with history, per pod and node
- Dependency graphs you can click through
- Cost & FinOps by cluster, namespace and node
- A window per cluster, plus click and ⌘K navigation
Fast like k9s, visual like a GUI
Keyboard-first, still
A ⌘K command palette and back/forward history keep you moving without the mouse - the muscle-memory speed k9s fans expect.
Live watch streams
Lists update the instant the cluster changes, on by default - no manual refresh.
Metrics as charts
CPU and memory history for pods and nodes as real charts, so you can see a trend, not just a current number.
Dependency graphs
Visualise how resources relate and click straight through them - something a text UI can't do.
Cost & FinOps
Spend by cluster, team and node, and where it's idle - built in, no extra tooling.
Multiple clusters at once
Open a window per cluster and lay them side by side - production and staging together.
Side by side
Kubius vs k9s
k9s is a free, open-source terminal UI; Kubius is a native GUI with visuals built in.
| Kubius | k9s | |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | Native macOS GUI | Terminal UI |
| Keyboard-fast navigation | ||
| Point-and-click + ⌘K palette | ||
| Metrics as charts with history | Text gauges | |
| Dependency graphs | ||
| Built-in cost & FinOps | ||
| Multiple cluster windows | ||
| Pricing | €49 one-time | Free (open source) |
Simple, one-time pricing
Pay once. No subscription.
One-time licence from €49 - no subscription. 14-day free trial, no card required.
Free 14-day trial · macOS Sonoma (14) or later · No agents, nothing to install in-cluster
Questions, answered
Is Kubius trying to replace k9s?
Not exactly - k9s is excellent if you live in the terminal. Kubius is for when you want the same live, keyboard-fast feel in a native GUI, with metrics charts, dependency graphs and cost that a terminal UI can't show as well.
Is it as fast to navigate as k9s?
That's the goal. A ⌘K command palette jumps to any resource, back/forward history and favourites keep you moving, and every list is a live watch stream - so it stays quick on big clusters.
k9s is free - why would I pay?
k9s being free and open source is a real plus. You'd pick Kubius for the native visuals (charts, graphs), the built-in cost and right-sizing, and multi-cluster windows. It's a one-time licence, not a subscription.
Does it use my existing kubeconfig?
Yes - it reads your kubeconfig and reuses your cloud auth (GKE, EKS, AKS, DigitalOcean), so it connects to exactly the clusters k9s does.