CAST AI alternatives

3 tools to consider instead of CAST AI, shown against it.

CAST AI Kubecost OpenCost Zesty
Vendor CAST AI Group, Inc. IBM (Apptio) Cloud Native Computing Foundation (originated by Kubecost) Zesty Tech Ltd.
Pricing model Quote only Free tier + paid plans Open source + paid options Usage-based
Free tier Yes Yes Yes No
Deployment Cloud Cloud, Self-hosted Self-hosted Cloud
Open source No Yes (Apache-2.0 (core); proprietary (Enterprise)) Yes (Apache-2.0) No
Best for Kubernetes platform teams wanting automated cost optimization rather than just recommendations to act on manually. Platform teams needing granular, namespace-level Kubernetes cost visibility rather than blended cloud bills. Teams wanting a free, vendor-neutral standard for Kubernetes cost allocation without a commercial product. Teams wanting automated infrastructure rightsizing executed continuously rather than a report to act on manually.
Pricing

Custom-quoted based on cluster count, GPU usage and enabled modules; a free tier and ROI analysis are offered before committing.

Checked on the vendor's own page on September 21, 2026: no prices are published. Expect to be quoted.

Foundations tier is free for unlimited clusters up to 250 cores; larger deployments need a quoted Enterprise Self-hosted or Enterprise Cloud tier.

Foundations Free
Enterprise Self-hosted quote
Enterprise Cloud quote

Prices read from the vendor's own page on September 21, 2026. Vendors change prices; check the source before you budget.

Fully free, self-hosted CNCF project; no paid tier of its own.

Pricing has not been verified yet — see the vendor's site.

Usage-based pricing tied to actual usage and realized savings, marketed with a minimum 1:3 ROI guarantee; no published flat rates.

Checked on the vendor's own page on September 21, 2026: no prices are published. Expect to be quoted.

Features
  • Automated bin-packing and node rebalancing
  • Spot instance automation with fallback to on-demand
  • Rightsizing recommendations applied automatically
  • Kubernetes autoscaling across multiple clouds
  • Cost visibility and reporting by cluster/namespace
  • Security posture scanning for clusters
  • Real-time Kubernetes cost allocation by namespace/label/team
  • Multi-cluster and multi-cloud cost rollups
  • Rightsizing recommendations for requests/limits
  • Historical cost reporting and forecasting
  • Built on the open-source OpenCost specification
  • Showback/chargeback for platform teams
  • Real-time Kubernetes cost allocation by namespace/pod/label
  • Combines resource usage with actual cloud billing rates
  • Prometheus-compatible metrics endpoint
  • Lightweight standalone UI
  • Embeddable engine used by other cost tools (including Kubecost)
  • Vendor-neutral CNCF governance
  • Automated compute commitment resizing
  • Real-time block storage autoscaling
  • Kubernetes node provisioning automation
  • Cross-cloud coverage (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud)
  • Free ROI projection before commitment
  • Savings-tied, usage-based pricing model

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