Freelens vs Lens 2025: Which Free Kubernetes IDE Reigns Supreme?

Freelens is a completely free, open-source Kubernetes IDE that delivers all the power of Lens without nagging for a subscription. In this video, I’ll show you how Freelens brings a slick GUI, built-in kubectl & helm, live metrics, persistent terminals, and a rich plugin ecosystem (FluxCD, Argo, CRD inspectors, and more) to your clusters. If you are managing Kubernetes in Proxmox VMs, EKS, or edge Kubernetes, Freelens makes context-switching, port-forwarding, and multi-cluster workspaces easy to manage. Check out the full blog post on VirtualizationHowto for all the details and screenshots: 👉 https://www.virtualizationhowto.com/f... Connect with me: Twitter:   / vspinmaster   LinkedIn:   / brandonlee   GitHub: https://github.com/brandon-lee-vht Join our home-lab community on Skool: https://www.skool.com/homelabexplorer... Recommended "Kubernetes-friendly" node: For a powerful mini PC that makes a great K8s edge node, check this out: https://geni.us/geekoma52025-3 Introduction to Free Lens - 0:00 Word about the video sponsor NAKIVO - 0:39 Overview of FreeLens and OpenLens deprecation - 1:23 Key features of FreeLens - 2:12 Security of the project updates, etc - 2:35 Showing how to install live metrics with Prometheus - 3:15 Built-in editor, pinning port-forwards - 4:05 Has a plugin architecture - 4:33 FluxCD and ArgoCD and other community addons - 4:50 Installation options across OS's - 5:15 Walkthrough of installation in Windows - 5:50 First run experience and points to note - 7:24 Fuzzy search, right-click to edit, delete, etc - 8:12 Security seems to be a focus of the tool - 9:07 FreeLens 1.3 vs Lens 6x - 9:53 Great for homelabs and other environments - 11:24 Roadmap and community involvement - 12:26 Wrapping up FreeLens - 12:59