What is Helm?
Helm is an open-source package manager for Kubernetes. It packages applications as versioned "charts" containing templated Kubernetes manifests, and manages installs, upgrades and rollbacks as tracked releases. Created in 2015 and later donated to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, Helm reached CNCF Graduated status in 2020.
Read the full overview
Sources checked 27 September 2026: official website, documentation, project history.
Key capabilities
- Charts: Reusable, versioned packages of Kubernetes manifests with templating.
- Releases: Tracked install/upgrade/rollback history per deployment.
- Repositories: Publish and consume charts from chart repositories.
Kubernetes application packaging, templating and release management are its core areas; Helm itself has no hosted service or vendor.
Choose Helm when a team needs a repeatable, versioned way to install and upgrade Kubernetes applications, rather than applying raw manifests by hand or maintaining ad-hoc templating scripts.
Because Helm is community/CNCF-governed rather than vendor-backed, verify chart quality and maintenance status for any third-party chart before using it in production.
Technical details
- Access
- Self-hosted
- Source model
- Open source
- Founded
- 2015
- Pricing model
- Open source
- API
- Not specified
- Website
- helm.sh ↗
Official resources
What to verify for your environment
Start from the users, systems and operating responsibilities the tool needs to support.
- Confirm current features, licensing and support terms with the publisher.
- Validate deployment, data location, access control, backup and recovery requirements.
- Test integrations, export paths and a representative operational workflow before committing.
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