Leaving OpenShift Virtualization
OpenShift Virtualization runs KubeVirt. Its VMs are ordinary KubeVirt VirtualMachine objects. So moving off OpenShift's control plane does not mean rewriting your VMs. It means choosing a different platform around the same objects.
Zorvia, with optional commercial support, is one way to do that. This page compares them with OpenShift, including where OpenShift is the better choice.
Every Zorvia "Yes" below maps to a feature in FEATURE_MATURITY.md. Only GA and Beta items are production promises. Anything Experimental is labelled as such.
Free code, optional commercial support​
| Zorvia | Commercial support | |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | Apache-2.0, free for production | Same Apache-2.0 code, plus a support contract |
| Best for | Teams that run KubeVirt themselves and want a real control plane without a subscription | Teams that need production support and SLAs they can put in a contract |
| Surfaces | CLI, TUI, web console, one Fabric API | Same |
| Support | Community (GitHub issues) | Production support and SLAs |
| Start | Quick start | Book a demo or 30-day PoC |
Start with Zorvia to prove the model against your own cluster at no cost. Add commercial support when you need support you can put in a contract. Tell sales your cluster size and what you need, and they will say what is included today.
ZeusOS is a separate Zyvor product. It is proprietary (not open source) and is not the enterprise edition of Zorvia. See zyvor.dev/zeus-os if you want to look at it.
Honest comparison​
| Capability | OpenShift Virtualization | Zorvia | Commercial support |
|---|---|---|---|
| VM create and day-2 without hand-written YAML | Yes | Yes (vm-lifecycle, GA) | Same as Zorvia |
| Live migration between nodes | Yes | Yes (live-migration, GA; needs shared storage) | Same as Zorvia |
| Snapshots and restore | Yes | Yes (snapshots-restore, GA) | Same as Zorvia |
| Web console with VNC and serial | Yes | Yes (web-console, GA) | Same as Zorvia |
| Terminal UI | No | Yes | Same as Zorvia |
| Audit trail with export | Cluster audit log | Yes (audit-trail, GA, JSONL export) | Same as Zorvia |
| SSO | Built-in OAuth server | OIDC (oidc, Beta) | Same as Zorvia |
| Drift detection and change-plan gating | No | Yes (zorvia change drift / zorvia change plan) | Same as Zorvia |
| Runs on any KubeVirt cluster | No, OpenShift only | Yes | Same as Zorvia |
| Software cost | Red Hat subscription | $0 (Apache-2.0) | $0 for the software; a paid service contract for support (pricing) |
| Vendor support contract | Yes (Red Hat) | No, community | Yes (production support and SLAs) |
| Multi-cluster management | Yes (Advanced Cluster Management) | Experimental (fleet-multicluster, inventory stub) | Ask sales |
| VM migration from VMware | Yes (Migration Toolkit for Virtualization) | Zorvia's own importer is Experimental (transiva-migration, plan only); use the Zyvor suite, Transiva then h2kvm then GuestKit (separate tools) | Migration Factory (Transiva, h2kvm); ask sales |
| Operator lifecycle and certified ecosystem | Yes (OLM, certified operators) | No | No |
| Telco-grade networking (SR-IOV, NFV, encrypted mesh) | Mature | Experimental (gpu-sriov-numa, plan only) | Ask sales |
Choose OpenShift when​
- You need a Red Hat support contract or certified-stack requirement written into a procurement rule.
- You already run OpenShift for containers and want one platform, one vendor.
- You depend on operators from the certified catalogue, or on telco-grade networking today.
- You need cluster-to-cluster VM migration tooling that is already GA.
Choose Zorvia when​
- You want KubeVirt without a per-node subscription and are happy to run it yourself.
- You want the same actions from a terminal, a TUI and a browser.
- You want drift and change-plan checks before a change ships.
Choose commercial support when​
- You want the same KubeVirt-native approach with a vendor behind it.
- You need production support and SLAs in a contract.
- You have multi-cluster or migration needs. Ask sales what is covered today; the Experimental items in the table above are not promises.
What does not change​
Your VirtualMachine, DataVolume and PersistentVolumeClaim objects stay as they are. The adoption runbook shows how to point Zorvia at an existing KubeVirt cluster, read-only first.
What is not done yet​
- Zorvia has no production VM importer of its own; its Transiva hook is Experimental and plan-only. Migrating from VMware today means the separate Zyvor suite: Transiva (export; Apache-2.0 Community, Platform adds CBT and waves), h2kvm (convert and deploy to KubeVirt; free for non-production, paid licence for production) and GuestKit (boot-readiness). None of these are driven from the Zorvia console yet.
- Running Zorvia on OpenShift itself has not been verified. See the runbook for what to check.
- Format conversion (VMDK, VHD to qcow2) is not shipped.
Cost​
Red Hat does not publish a list price for OpenShift Virtualization. It states that OpenShift Virtualization Engine is licensed per bare-metal node (Red Hat). Put your own quote against the licence line above. A calculator that takes your figure, and assumes none, is planned.
Scope of this comparison and who is responsible for what​
This page compares control planes over the same KubeVirt objects. It is not a like-for-like price or support comparison; use a customer-specific quote for that (OPENSHIFT_COMPARISON.md).
- Zorvia runs on KubeVirt infrastructure you operate. Unless a Managed contract says otherwise, you own Kubernetes, KubeVirt, storage, networking, hardware and guest operations. Commercial support gives diagnostic guidance for those, not ownership (SUPPORT_SCOPE.md).
- OpenShift bundles a supported platform stack; Zorvia does not replace that stack, and does not claim equivalent certification or support coverage.
- Commercial support is a paid service contract around the Apache-2.0 software, not a software licence. Nothing in the product enforces it.
Talk to us​
- Commercial support: talk to sales (fallback sales@zyvor.dev). Tell us your node count and your current subscription, and we will tell you what is possible today.
- Also from Zyvor: ZeusOS, a separate proprietary product.