SRExpert vs Headlamp
Where Headlamp ends and operations begin
Headlamp is the official Kubernetes SIG UI project - Apache 2.0, free, and the recommended successor to the Kubernetes Dashboard that was archived in January 2026. It is a genuinely good UI: multi-cluster views, RBAC awareness, an active plugin ecosystem. What it is not is an operations platform. Security scanning, compliance evidence, alerting and on-call are things you assemble from separate plugins and products, then host and patch yourself. SRExpert ships them integrated and maintained, with 6+ AI models and a 30-day free trial of the full platform. Keep Headlamp if you want a free cluster UI you run. Choose SRExpert when you want the operations layer without building it.
Over Headlamp (Kubernetes SIG UI)
5-minute setup · free tier forever · no credit card
Credit where it is due. Headlamp is an Apache 2.0 project that now lives under the kubernetes-sigs organisation, and after the Kubernetes Dashboard was archived in January 2026 the SIG UI recommendation points to Headlamp as its successor. It runs as a desktop app or an in-cluster web UI, it is RBAC-aware so the interface reflects what your credentials actually allow, it has added multi-cluster views and a Projects concept for grouping resources, and its plugin ecosystem on Artifact Hub is active. If what you want is a free, well-maintained Kubernetes UI, Headlamp is the right default and this page will not pretend otherwise.
The distinction that matters is scope. Headlamp is a user interface for Kubernetes resources. SRExpert is an operations platform. Those overlap in the part where you look at your cluster, and diverge everywhere after it. Continuous CIS benchmark scanning mapped to SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS and ISO 27001. CVE detection across running images, misconfiguration checks and exposed-secret scanning. Alert deduplication and correlation, with on-call rotations and escalation policies attached. Six or more AI models with cluster context, rather than an alpha plugin you point at your own API key. In Headlamp, each of those is either a community plugin you adopt and maintain, a separate product you integrate, or simply absent.
The assembly cost is the honest comparison. A team that wants what SRExpert ships by default usually ends up running Headlamp plus Trivy plus Kyverno plus Prometheus plus Alertmanager plus a paging tool plus a spreadsheet holding the compliance evidence. That is six systems to upgrade, six sets of credentials to rotate, and still no single place that answers "is this cluster compliant, and who is on call for it". That is a perfectly reasonable trade when you have platform engineers to spend on it. When you do not, the assembly never quite finishes.
What SRExpert Has That Headlamp Doesn't
Real screenshots from SRExpert — features that Headlamp simply doesn't offer
Compliance Frameworks
Continuous CIS benchmark scanning mapped to SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, ISO 27001 and NIST, producing evidence you can hand to an auditor.
AI-Powered Kubernetes Operations
Natural language operations across 6+ AI models including Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini, with the platform's own view of cluster state behind every answer.
Smart Alerting and On-Call
Deduplication and correlation across clusters, 10+ notification channels, and on-call rotations with escalation policies in the same system.
Image and CVE Scanning
Vulnerability detection across every running image, with misconfiguration checks and exposed-secret scanning included rather than bolted on.
Team Management and SSO
Organisational roles and groups above cluster RBAC, with SSO through Microsoft and Google and audit logs of who changed what.
Integrated Monitoring
Prometheus and Grafana wired in from the start, so cluster metrics, alerts and operations live in one place instead of three.
SRExpert vs Headlamp (Kubernetes SIG UI)
| Feature | SRExpert | Headlamp (Kubernetes SIG UI) |
|---|---|---|
| Licence and Cost | EUR 89/mo Professional, 30 days of the full platform free | Free - Apache 2.0 open source |
| Multi-Cluster | Unified dashboard across all clusters | Yes - multi-cluster view built in |
| Helm Management | Browse, install, upgrade and rollback with one click | Yes - via plugin and App Catalog |
| AI Operations | 6+ models integrated (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Qwen, DeepSeek, OpenRouter) | AI Assistant plugin - alpha, bring your own model and key |
| Security Scanning | Built in - CVE, misconfigurations, secrets, RBAC analysis | Via community plugins (Trivy, Kyverno, Kubescape) |
| Compliance Frameworks | CIS mapped to SOC2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, ISO 27001, NIST | Not available |
| Alert Noise Reduction | Smart deduplication and correlation, 10+ channels, up to 70% less noise | No alerting system |
| On-Call Scheduling | Built-in rotations and escalation policies | Not available |
| Monitoring | Built-in Prometheus and Grafana integration | Resource metrics views - bring your own stack |
| RBAC and SSO | Org roles and groups with SSO (Microsoft, Google) plus audit logs | RBAC-aware UI - no organisational team layer |
| Deployment | Managed platform or self-hosted via Helm | Self-hosted in-cluster or desktop app |
| Who Maintains It | Vendor maintains and patches the platform | You host, patch and operate it |
Keep Headlamp for browsing if your team likes it - it is a good UI and it is free. Then start SRExpert free for 30 days and watch what stops being your problem: scanning, compliance evidence, alert noise and on-call, in one place you do not have to maintain.
Start free — 1 cluster, no credit card. See the difference yourself.