GravityKit
GravityKit ships weekly across a whole plugin suite, with an MCP server now part of the lineup.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
Incus vs Prowler
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Incus and Prowler — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Incus vs Prowler: at a glance
What is Incus?
Incus settled its 7.0 LTS, then went straight back to a monthly feature cadence.
7.0.0 LTS landed in early May and became the supported baseline, followed by 7.0.1 as its first patch. The feature branch has not paused: 7.1 in May cleaned up the issues the LTS surfaced, 7.2 in June added migration-compatible hypervisor flags for stateful migration and aligned node-specific network configuration, and 7.3 at the end of July added native Windows and macOS installers to the build workflow, a QMP command timeout, and /32 and /128 addresses for OCI containers. Underneath, QEMU capabilities like SPICE, 9p and virtio audio are increasingly gated on runtime detection rather than assumed.
What is Prowler?
Prowler is turning its scanner into an agent that acts — and putting it behind the subscription.
Prowler still ships an open-source multi-cloud security scanner, but the last six releases have been about Lighthouse AI, its in-product agent, and the MCP server that feeds it. Lighthouse went from read-only Q&A to executing scans and managing providers, and now carries page context and reaches every tool family the MCP server advertises. Alongside that, 5.34.0 redrew the product line: CLI, Local Server, Local Dashboard and Hub stay free, while Cloud, Private Cloud and Lighthouse carry a subscription note on nearly every new feature.
Incus vs Prowler: editorial side-by-side
Incus
5.0INFRA · APIS
Incus settled its 7.0 LTS, then went straight back to a monthly feature cadence.
◆ Current state
7.0.0 LTS landed in early May and became the supported baseline, followed by 7.0.1 as its first patch. The feature branch has not paused: 7.1 in May cleaned up the issues the LTS surfaced, 7.2 in June added migration-compatible hypervisor flags for stateful migration and aligned node-specific network configuration, and 7.3 at the end of July added native Windows and macOS installers to the build workflow, a QMP command timeout, and /32 and /128 addresses for OCI containers. Underneath, QEMU capabilities like SPICE, 9p and virtio audio are increasingly gated on runtime detection rather than assumed.
◆ Where it's heading
The rhythm is a monthly feature release running alongside a long-term branch, and the recent work leans toward reach rather than new primitives: clients built natively for Windows and macOS, translations updated in nearly every release, feature gating so the same daemon behaves correctly across host configurations. Stateful migration getting migration-compatible CPU flags is the most operationally significant item, since it is what makes live migration work across non-identical hosts.
◆ Prediction
The cadence in this window is a feature release roughly every four to six weeks with LTS patches interleaved, so a 7.4 is the expected next step. The entries give no indication of a headline feature queued for it.
Prowler
7.5INFRA · APIS
Prowler is turning its scanner into an agent that acts — and putting it behind the subscription.
◆ Current state
Prowler still ships an open-source multi-cloud security scanner, but the last six releases have been about Lighthouse AI, its in-product agent, and the MCP server that feeds it. Lighthouse went from read-only Q&A to executing scans and managing providers, and now carries page context and reaches every tool family the MCP server advertises. Alongside that, 5.34.0 redrew the product line: CLI, Local Server, Local Dashboard and Hub stay free, while Cloud, Private Cloud and Lighthouse carry a subscription note on nearly every new feature.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is a control plane, not a scanner. Prowler MCP is becoming the real API surface — integrations, users and roles are now agent-manageable on both Cloud and the self-hosted server, with RBAC as the only guardrail. Enterprise consolidation plumbing is arriving at the same cadence as the AI work: multi-domain SAML, Compliance Watchlist and Cross-Provider Compliance all target the org juggling many tenants and frameworks. The patch releases in between are dominated by container CVE reduction and correctness fixes in M365 and Attack Paths.
◆ Prediction
The admin surfaces not yet wired to MCP are the obvious next additions — compliance framework selection and the watchlist itself, given every other section of the app has been connected in sequence over the last four releases.
Alternatives to Incus and Prowler
Other Infra & APIs products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Incus or Prowler.
LibreSpeed
After a two-year redesign, LibreSpeed is adding tests instead of polishing pixels.
Nautobot
A security advisory cycle forced Nautobot to break its REST API on both supported branches at once.
Gatekeeper
Gatekeeper grew a package manager for policies — and a benchmark to prove they are not too slow.
GoCD
GoCD's changelog is one maintainer keeping a 2010s CI server running on current runtimes.
Firecracker
Firecracker's microVMs can now grow and shrink devices while running.
See all Incus alternatives → · See all Prowler alternatives →
Recent activity from Incus and Prowler
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoProwlerCompliance Watchlist and multi-domain SAML SSO
- 3d agoProwlerContainer CVE cleanup and an M365 false-FAIL fix
- 3d agoProwlerLighthouse AI gains page context and the full MCP toolbox ⚡
- 7d agoIncusNative Windows and macOS installers; QMP command timeouts
- 9d agoProwlerFinding Groups dispatch to Jira; Attack Paths query filtering
- 21d agoProwlerLighthouse AI can now act, not just answer ⚡
- 21d agoProwlerProduct family renamed; Cross-Provider Compliance arrives
- 27d agoIncusFirst patch release on the 7.0 LTS branch
- 1mo agoIncusMigration-compatible hypervisor flags for stateful migration
- 2mo agoIncusFixes for issues surfaced by the 7.0 release
- 3mo agoIncusIncus 7.0 LTS, with runtime-detected QEMU feature gating
- 4mo agoIncusVolume snapshots while attached; OVN dhcp gateway option
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Incus and Prowler?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Prowler is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 5.0), with 2 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Incus better than Prowler?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Prowler is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 5.0), with 2 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Incus?
Top Incus alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Incus alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/incus for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Prowler?
Top Prowler alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Prowler alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/prowler for the full list with editorial commentary on each.