Two good tools, built for different scopes
Both are GitOps on Kubernetes. The real question is whether you want a deployment engine to build a platform around, or a platform that already includes one.
Argo CD is the leading GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes and part of the CNCF graduated Argo project. It keeps clusters in sync with Git, shows drift and health clearly, and scales to many clusters with ApplicationSets.
It is focused by design. Builds, tests, cluster and database provisioning, promotion between stages and preview environments come from other tools you integrate, and you host and upgrade Argo CD yourself or pay a vendor to.
- Best-in-class GitOps sync and drift
- CD only, CI lives elsewhere
- Provisioning via Crossplane or CAPI
- Self-hosted unless you buy it hosted
Atmosly is an internal developer platform for Kubernetes. It is GitOps-native with drift detection, and adds what sits around delivery: governed provisioning for clusters and cloud resources, build and test stages, multi-stage promotion with approval gates, and preview environments per PR.
It is fully managed and agent-based, and it coexists with Argo CD, so you can run all CI/CD on Atmosly or move over at your own pace. The SquareOps services team can implement and run it for you.
- GitOps-native with drift detection
- Build and test before every deploy
- Governed provisioning and preview environments
- Fully managed, coexists with Argo CD
Argo CD syncs. Atmosly runs the platform around the sync.
Instead of assembling CI, Crossplane, promotion tooling and preview environments around Argo CD, Atmosly brings them onto one control plane with one audit trail.
Clusters and databases from a catalog, not a Crossplane project
With Argo CD, provisioning means writing and maintaining Crossplane or Cluster API manifests. Atmosly creates EKS, GKE or AKS clusters, node groups, add-ons and databases from a catalog, through guardrails you set.
- Create or import any cluster, public or private
- Version-pinned add-ons: ingress, cert-manager, secrets
- Cost caps and allow-lists on every request
The pipeline before and after the sync
Argo CD starts once an image exists. Atmosly also runs the stages before it, build and test, and the ones after it: promotion between stages, approval gates and post-deploy verification.
- Build with Docker, Buildpacks or Kaniko
- Approval gates and one-click rollback
- Coexists with Argo CD while you move over
Preview environments without an ApplicationSet to maintain
The pull request generator can stamp out an app per PR, but databases, secrets and policies are still yours to wire. In Atmosly every PR gets a governed environment with prod's policies, and it expires on merge.
- Ready in about 2 minutes, no tickets
- Seed data, RBAC and network policies from prod
- Clone a full stack for a tenant or region
Argo CD vs Atmosly, capability by capability
We kept Argo CD's genuine wins in the table. They're marked so you can see them at a glance.
Argo CD's wins are real: it defines GitOps sync, it is free and it has a huge community. Atmosly's case is the provisioning, pipeline and environments around it, managed for you.
Which one is right for your team?
It depends on scope, and on who you want running the platform.
- GitOps sync is the only gap you need to fill
- You already run CI and provisioning you like
- You want a free, CNCF graduated CD tool
- You have engineers to host and upgrade it
- You are building your own platform around it
- You want provisioning, CI/CD and environments on one platform
- You want to keep GitOps without self-hosting it
- Developers need preview environments without tickets
- Guardrails and one audit trail matter across clusters
- You'd like a partner (SquareOps) to implement and run it
If you need GitOps sync and already run CI and provisioning elsewhere, Argo CD is the standard and it is free. If you want that GitOps model inside a managed platform that also provisions, builds and hands out environments, that's Atmosly.
Connect a cluster freeFrom Argo CD to Atmosly in an afternoon
No big-bang migration. Connect read-only, run Atmosly alongside Argo CD, and move workloads onto Atmosly pipelines one at a time.
Rather not do it yourself? The SquareOps services team can run the migration and day-2 operations for you.
Managed Kubernetes servicesWhat teams comparing Argo CD ask
Not covered? An engineer replies within one business day.
consult@squareops.comArgo CD is a GitOps continuous delivery tool: it syncs Kubernetes clusters to the state in Git. Atmosly is an internal developer platform that is GitOps-native too, and also provisions clusters and cloud resources, runs build and test stages with promotion and approvals, and gives developers preview environments.
Yes. Atmosly coexists with Argo CD, so you can keep it for the applications it already syncs and move workloads to Atmosly pipelines at your own pace, or run all CI/CD on Atmosly.
No. Atmosly deployments are declarative and Git-driven, with drift detection and sync controls, on standard Kubernetes, Helm and Git.
Yes. Rolling, blue-green and canary strategies are built into Atmosly pipelines, along with approval gates, post-deploy checks and one-click rollback. With Argo CD, teams typically add Argo Rollouts for this.
Not very, and it is incremental. Connect a cluster read-only, ship one workload through an Atmosly pipeline while Argo CD keeps running, then adopt provisioning, environments and guardrails one capability at a time. The SquareOps services team can run the migration for you.
Any conformant Kubernetes cluster: EKS, GKE, AKS or self-managed, public or private, including on-prem and bare-metal. You import the cluster you already run, read-only, in minutes.
No. It runs on your own clusters on standard Kubernetes, Helm and Git, so what you build stays portable.
No. Atmosly is fully managed and agent-based, so there is no control plane to host, patch or upgrade, and SquareOps can run day-2 operations for you. Enterprise customers can self-host the control plane in their own VPC if they need to.