Choosing an open source PostgreSQL operator for Kubernetes used to be a question about features and community size. In 2026, it has become a question about licensing posture, image distribution, and whether the project you pick today will still be operationally open in three years.
TL;DR
MinIO is archived. Bitnami's free catalog got cut. Crunchy Data's official images come with redistribution and consulting restrictions. "Open source" today is doing less work than it used to.
Three questions decide whether an operator is operationally open or just source-available: are the container images publicly redistributable, are core operational features in the open-source build, and is the roadmap genuinely public.
Percona's PostgreSQL Operator hard-forks at v3.0.0. Fully redistributable images, public roadmap, public issue tracker. This post is the why; parts 2 and 3 are the how.
