Software category guide
A cloud management platform (CMP) gives IT teams one control plane for provisioning, governing and operating workloads across private clouds, public clouds and virtualization. Some CMPs are infrastructure platforms you run yourself to build a private cloud; others sit on top of AWS, Azure and Google Cloud to add self-service, policy and cost control.
This page covers both camps: open-source platforms you can self-host (Apache CloudStack, OpenStack, OpenNebula) and commercial platforms for governance, self-service and cloud spend (HPE Morpheus, CloudBolt, Scalr, Flexera One). It is written for platform engineers, IT operations and technical founders choosing where to standardize.
Tools, licences and pricing checked against vendor and repository pages on November 7, 2026.
| Tool | Best for | Pricing | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apache CloudStack | Building a private IaaS cloud with an Apache-governed project | Free, open source | Apache-2.0 |
| OpenStack | Large-scale private or telco clouds with a dedicated platform team | Free, open source | Apache-2.0 |
| OpenNebula | Private cloud and edge deployments that need a simpler stack than OpenStack | Free, open source (self-hosted) | Apache-2.0 |
| HPE Morpheus | Hybrid cloud self-service and automation across VMs and containers | See vendor pricing; free trial available | Proprietary |
| CloudBolt | Enterprises standardizing governance and self-service across clouds | See vendor pricing | Proprietary |
| Scalr | Governing Terraform or OpenTofu across many teams and cloud accounts | Free up to 50 runs per month; then $0.99 per run, Enterprise by quote | Proprietary |
| Flexera One | FinOps and cloud spend governance | See vendor pricing | Proprietary |
Best for: Building a private IaaS cloud with an Apache-governed project · Free, open source
Apache CloudStack is an open-source Infrastructure-as-a-Service platform. It is an Apache Software Foundation project used to build and operate private clouds on top of hypervisors such as KVM.
Best for: Large-scale private or telco clouds with a dedicated platform team · Free, open source
OpenStack is a collection of open-source components for compute, networking and storage that together form a cloud platform. The Nova compute service is maintained on opendev.org and mirrored on GitHub.
Best for: Private cloud and edge deployments that need a simpler stack than OpenStack · Free, open source (self-hosted)
OpenNebula is an open-source cloud and edge computing platform for building and running private clouds and distributed deployments. The repository lists Apache-2.0 for the main code alongside additional licence files.
Best for: Hybrid cloud self-service and automation across VMs and containers · See vendor pricing; free trial available
HPE Morpheus Software is a hybrid cloud platform that provides a governed control plane to provision, automate and manage VMs, containers and clouds. HPE also offers a VM Essentials edition licensed per socket.
Best for: Enterprises standardizing governance and self-service across clouds · See vendor pricing
CloudBolt is a commercial hybrid cloud management platform for provisioning self-service, governance and cloud cost optimization.
Best for: Governing Terraform or OpenTofu across many teams and cloud accounts · Free up to 50 runs per month; then $0.99 per run, Enterprise by quote
Scalr is a Terraform and OpenTofu automation and management platform that adds policy, access control and a hierarchy of environments on top of IaC runs.
Best for: FinOps and cloud spend governance · See vendor pricing
Flexera One is a commercial IT management platform covering cloud cost optimization, FinOps and software asset management across public cloud and on-premises.
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| If you need… | Start with |
|---|---|
| Build my own private cloud on open source | Apache CloudStack, OpenStack, OpenNebula |
| Simplest self-hosted private cloud | OpenNebula or Apache CloudStack |
| Hybrid self-service across VMs and containers | HPE Morpheus, CloudBolt |
| Govern Terraform or OpenTofu runs across teams | Scalr |
| Cloud cost control and asset management | Flexera One, CloudBolt |
Quick answers to common questions
OpenStack, CloudStack and OpenNebula are platforms you run to create a cloud on your own hardware. Commercial CMPs usually manage clouds that already exist, adding self-service, policy and cost control on top.
Often not. The native tools of AWS, Azure or Google Cloud cover most needs. A CMP pays off when you span several clouds or on-prem, or need consistent governance and chargeback.
All three open-source platforms here demand real operations skill. OpenNebula and Apache CloudStack are generally regarded as simpler to deploy than OpenStack, which has many more moving parts.
Most commercial vendors on this page price by quote. Scalr publishes a per-run price after a free tier of 50 runs per month, and HPE Morpheus offers a free trial.
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