A portal on top, or the platform underneath
Port started as an internal developer portal and now describes itself as the platform to build, govern and operate the agentic SDLC. It brings your services, repositories, teams, cloud resources and AI agents into one catalogue, measures them with scorecards, and gives people and agents governed self-service actions that trigger the tools you already run. Port announced a $100M Series C at an $800M valuation, led by General Atlantic, to build that agentic layer.
Ankra is a different kind of product. It is the Kubernetes platform itself: it builds the cluster on the provider you choose, runs CI and delivery onto it, installs add-ons and keeps operating it with security ranking, cost estimates, backups and an AI assistant.
The two overlap only in part, and are often complements. Port suits a company whose tools already work and whose problem is visibility, standards and self-service across them. Ankra suits a team whose problem is the platform underneath. Many teams would want a portal on top of a platform.
What each one runs
Port does not create clusters, build images or deploy workloads. Its Kubernetes integration installs an exporter in each cluster that syncs resources into the catalogue on a periodic resync. Port’s actions and Workflows, generally available since August 2026, trigger your CI and infrastructure tools, such as GitHub Actions, GitLab and Azure DevOps, with approvals that can happen in Slack.
Ankra builds kubeadm or k3s clusters on Hetzner, OVHcloud, UpCloud, DigitalOcean, AWS EC2 and Proxmox VE, creates EKS, GKE, AKS, DOKS, OVHcloud MKS and UpCloud UKS, and imports any conformant cluster. Ankra Pipelines run tests, rootless builds and Semgrep, Checkov and Trivy scans in your own cluster behind a policy gate, and Ankra’s own deployment engine applies stacks of Helm charts in dependency order. Applications work with GitHub repositories, and some documented pipeline stage kinds, including in-pipeline approval, do not run yet.
There is no built-in integration between Port and Ankra. Because Port’s actions trigger tools such as GitHub Actions, an action can run the Ankra CLI the same way it would run any other command-line tool.
Catalogue, standards and teams
This is Port’s core strength. Its catalogue spans many tools, its scorecards track standards per service, and its dashboards show ownership and health across the organisation. Ankra has no service catalogue, scorecards or plugin system. It shows the clusters, applications, stacks and pipelines it runs, and projects group them for teams, with cost and notifications per project. If you need a catalogue of everything your engineering organisation owns, Port, or a portal like it, is the right tool.
Security and compliance
Port’s homepage lists SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, GDPR and CCPA, and its security page repeats SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001. Port does not scan images itself; it brings findings from your scanners into the catalogue and scorecards. Its pricing puts SSO on Standard and SCIM, Private Link and an IP allowlist on Enterprise.
Ankra’s Security Center scans running workloads across every cluster and ranks vulnerabilities by CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue and FIRST’s EPSS scores. Cloud Cost estimates spend from list prices, and backups write to a bucket you own. Single sign-on is OIDC on Enterprise, with no SAML or SCIM. Ankra’s certification status is on its trust page.
How the AI works
Port’s AI is about running and governing agents across the software lifecycle. Port AI Builder, launched in July 2026, builds workflows from a chat, and its plan mode waits for approval before building. Port’s hosted MCP server lets Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot and other clients read the catalogue and run actions, with headers that restrict which actions may run or turn writes off. Its October 2026 updates let workflows create and manage Claude Managed Agents, and since August 2026 Cursor cloud agents and their runs sync into the catalogue.
Ankra’s AI operates the platform it runs. The assistant reads logs, events, manifests, stack history, Git and pipeline runs. AI Insights analyses every firing alert, and the AI Gateway reviews pull requests on GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket Cloud. In-product AI writes wait for a person by default, under autonomy controls. Ankra’s MCP server has 500+ tools; its writes are audited, and the MCP client decides how to confirm them.
When to choose Ankra, and when to choose Port
Choose Ankra when the gap is the platform itself: you want clusters built on the provider you choose, CI and delivery onto them, and security ranking, cost and backups in one product.
Choose Port when
- your clusters, CI and infrastructure code already work, and the problem is visibility, ownership and standards across many services and tools
- you want one governed place to run and track AI coding agents such as Claude and Cursor across the lifecycle
- you need a vendor that states SOC 2 Type 2 certification and ISO 27001 compliance, or SCIM provisioning, today
Choose both when you want a portal for the whole engineering organisation and a platform underneath that builds and runs the Kubernetes side.
Compare the work that remains
- Create the foundation. Note which tool creates the cluster and who maintains that code.
- Ship a release. Include tests, scans, an approval and a rollback, and note which tool runs each step.
- Find an owner. Pick a service and find its owner, its standards score and its open vulnerabilities.
- Investigate a vulnerability. Find every affected running workload.
- Compare total cost. Port charges per seat: free for 5, then from $30 a seat a month billed annually on Basic or from $48 on Standard. Ankra’s free tier includes 30 worker vCPU; beyond that Startup costs €0.01 per worker vCPU-hour (about €7.20 a month), and your provider bills the servers.
See Port’s pricing and Ankra’s pricing.
Reviewed 9 November 2026 against Port’s documentation and pricing. Product scope and plans can change.