Freelens is an Open Source and Free Kubernetes IDE for 2025!

I have been playing around with various Kubernetes IDE solutions for years now and there are many different ones that offer great solutions for working with Kubernetes to be honest. I have written about and have been showing solutions like Open Lens and Lens over the past few years. My new favorite is Aptakube. However, Freelens is another great solution to know. It now brings back a great free and opensource solution for running a “Lens” type interface for working with Kubernetes.

What is Freelens?

Lens is a tool that is known from Mirantis. It is a paid product that provides a very slick interface and many features and functionality. OpenLens was a free and open source version of Lens that the Lens project contributed to. However, the writing was on the wall that the contributions would soon end and they finally did. Lens stopped updating the code in the free repo so there wasn’t a way to get access to this any longer.

Enter Freelens. It is a TypeScript-based desktop IDE that aims to bring all the features and functionality for the most part of Lens (and a few new tricks) without proprietary licensing. Freelens ships binary installers for macOS (Intel + Apple Silicon), Windows (x64 + Arm64).

Also just about every mainstream Linux packaging format AppImage to Flatpak, Snap, DEB, and RPM. So you can drop it straight onto your workstation or into a jump-box VM in the lab.

Visit the official Github repo here:

• Freelens · GitHub

Features

Freelens packages kubectl v1.33, Helm v3.18, and its own lightweight Go proxy. This means it works even on laptops with no tool-chain installed. The current release, v1.3.2 (9 June 2025), is a focus on stability and CVE patching.

It bumps Electron to the Chrome 134 runtime. It also introduces quality-of-life touches like persistent terminals and cleaner YAML dumps. It also has automatic proxy restarts if the chosen port is busy.

Drilling down one release to v1.3.1 and you’ll see pod tables now include live CPU / memory columns, namespace deletion prompts, smarter key sorting in the built-in editor, and an option to pin the listen address for port-forward jobs. All of these features are helpful in exposing a service only on localhost during a demo or other activities.

Earlier milestones added node draining that works on clusters 1.31+, shell access for Windows and Bottlerocket worker nodes. Also it has auto-detection of Helm repos. So the app now feels mature enough to replace Lens in everyday ops.

Extensions

One of the cool thing about these types of apps is that they are built with extensibility in mind with a plugin architecture. With plugins, you can extend the functionality of the solution

Freelens uses a plug-in architecture similar to VS Code. Extensions are just tarballs compiled with pnpm and dropped into the GUI. A good showcase is the FluxCD dashboard extension, which overlays GitOps resources (HelmReleases, Kustomizations, etc.) directly on the cluster sidebar. From one panel you can reconcile, suspend, resume, or dig into event history without touching the CLI.

Other community add-ons bring node-level pod menus, ArgoCD views, and custom CRD inspectors. Because extensions run inside the Electron sandbox, they don’t require cluster-side CRDs or additional RBAC you only need read/write perms in your kubeconfig, a big plus for security-minded shops.

Installing Freelens on Your Workstation

macOS

1. Choose the DMG or PKG that matches your CPU.
2. Open the image, drag Freelens into Applications, and launch.
3. When prompted, paste in your ~/.kube/config or import multiple files for multi-cluster views.

Windows

• Grab the signed MSI or EXE
• Installer drops Freelens into Program Files and installs a desktop shortcut
• WinGet users can simply run winget install freelens

Linux

Package managers on Fedora, Debian 12+, Ubuntu 22.04+, Arch (AUR), and Flatpak all host current builds. For immutable distros—or just convenience—download the AppImage, chmod +x, and run it portable.

First-Run Experience

On launch, Freelens scans your kubeconfig contexts and builds a “hotbar” for quick switching. Each cluster opens in its own tabbed pane with:

• Global Overview – Nodes, namespaces, CRDs, and real-time health.
• Workloads – Deployments, DaemonSets, StatefulSets, and Jobs with sortable pod status.
• Network – Services, Ingress, NetworkPolicies.
• Storage – PVCs, VolumeSnapshots, and CSI-specific objects.
• Helm Releases – Direct chart upgrades or rollbacks.
• Logs & Shell – In-app tailing and bash/zsh access.

Viewing workloads.

All tables support fuzzy search and column filters, so hunting for “nginx” no longer requires kubectl get gymnastics. Right-click brings up context menus to scale, cordon, exec, or open a YAML editor. Because Freelens embeds Nerd Fonts, resource icons render cleanly on high-DPI monitors—no more question-mark glyphs.

Multi-Cluster Hotbars and Workspaces

If you run a split-brain lab with Proxmox VMs, EKS, and maybe MicroK8s at the edge, Freelens groups clusters into workspaces. Think of workspaces as visual kube-contexts. You can change one kubeconfig entry, and the workspace updates across the board. Hotbars below the main toolbar let you favorite critical namespaces or workloads. This is perfect when you need an at-a-glance view of production versus dev.

Security

The security of the solution looks to be very good. The updates recently has updated the code to Electron 35 that includes hardened sandboxing and updated Chrome’s V8. This mitigates the recent CVEs such as CVE-2025-5419 and CVE-2025-4664. Freelens also respects Kubernetes RBAC. Your permissions are never escalated beyond the creds in your config. Terminal sessions launch with the bundled proxy, so no external shell scripts are copied into pods. This is something that used to raise eyebrows with the Lens solution.

Comparing Freelens and Lens in 2025

For home-labbers, DevOps engineers and others who prefer zero-cost tooling and enterprises wary of future price hikes with subscriptions and others, Freelens looks like it is a great solution.

Real-World Use Cases in the Home Lab

• Learning GitOps – Pair the FluxCD extension with a private Flux repo and see reconciliations without tailing controllers.
• Edge Cluster Fleet – Use hotbars to pin Pi-based K3s or Talos clusters next to main Proxmox workloads.
• Demo Day – Share your screen, right-click, and scale a Deployment while Grafana dashboards update in the next browser tab. With no kubectl typo risk.
• Troubleshooting – Filter pods by “CrashLoopBackOff,” open the YAML editor, and patch env vars live, all inside the same window.

Roadmap and Community

The maintainers have hinted at:

• Prometheus metrics overlay for nodes and workloads.
• Built-in OIDC provider wizard for easy IDP integration.
• Helm OCI registry browser.

Feature requests and bug reports live in GitHub Discussions. Also there is a Discord channel that keeps release chatter up-to-date. With 2 k+ GitHub stars in its first year, momentum looks to be solid with nightly builds for adventurous users. They can use these to test upcoming features without waiting for tagged releases.

Wrapping up

Freelens feels like Lens circa 2021. It is lightweight, free, and community-driven as an open-source project. If you’re running Kubernetes in a home lab (or watching clusters at work) and want a GUI thatis free, give Freelens a spin. Point it at your kubeconfig, install the FluxCD extension if GitOps is your jam. You can enjoy a clean, modern dashboard that keeps pace with upstream Kubernetes and doesn’t have a subscription cost.