Kubby vs Lens: a Lens alternative for Windows
Lens is the best-known Kubernetes IDE. Kubby is a newer desktop Kubernetes IDE built for Windows. Here is how they differ, so you can pick the one that fits your work.
Side by side
Kubby is free with every feature. Lens prices are per user, billed yearly.
| Topic | Kubby | Lens |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | ||
| Entry paid plan | None, Kubby is free | Plus: $300 / year ($25 a month) |
| AI assistant included from | Free | Plus: $300 / year |
| Offline use | Free, nothing to activate | Enterprise: $600 / year |
| Free use | Every feature, for everyone | Personal plan, not for organisations above $10M revenue or funding |
| Platform | ||
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS and Linux | No | Yes |
| Features | ||
| GitOps with Argo CD | Free | Plus and above ($300) |
| Audit log | Free | Enterprise ($600) |
| SSO (SAML / OIDC) and SCIM | No | Enterprise |
Lens details from lenshq.io/pricing as of October 2026. Lens is a trademark of its owner; Kubby is not affiliated with Lens.
Built into Kubby
What you get with Kubby, free, whatever tool you use today.
Everyday work
- Problems first: CrashLoopBackOff, OOMKilled and Pending at the top, with the reason
- PROD protection: type the cluster name before a change runs
- Logs before the crash, describe, events, pod and node shells
- Helm releases with values, upgrade and rollback
- Terminal profiles for PowerShell, cmd and WSL
Integrations
- Prometheus monitoring: nodes, capacity if a node fails, control plane, certificates, alerts
- Argo CD centre with "why Degraded?"
- Ask Kubby: blocks off-topic questions before they reach the model and applies changes only after you approve the diff
- Audit log and cluster-specific security news
Which one is for you?
Choose Kubby if
- your team works on Windows;
- you want monitoring, Argo CD and an AI assistant without paying for them;
- you work in a restricted network and need offline use without activation or an enterprise contract;
- you want guard rails on PROD clusters and an AI that cannot drift off-topic.
Choose Lens if
- you need macOS or Linux;
- you rely on Lens extensions or its team features;
- your company already standardised on Lens Enterprise with SSO.
Switching from Lens
Kubby reads the same kubeconfig files. Paste a kubeconfig or import a whole folder and your clusters appear; nothing is required in the cluster. Adding clusters
Try Kubby on your own clusters
Free for Windows, with every feature. Nothing to activate.