Mirantis Licensing Explained: MKE, Container Runtime, Lens and k0s
This page answers the Mirantis licensing questions buyers actually ask — what the products cost, whether Mirantis and Docker are the same thing, and why MKE 4 may not be an upgrade path for you. Figures are Mirantis list prices in USD.
The short answer: Mirantis publishes real, transactable per-node prices for most of its line, which is refreshingly unusual — but MKE itself is quote-only. Two things to establish before any conversation goes further: MKE 4 drops Swarm entirely, so Swarm-dependent estates cannot move to it at all, and Mirantis is not Docker, Inc. — separate companies, separate products, separate bills.
Is Mirantis the same as Docker?
This is the most common confusion in the category, so it is worth being precise.
In 2019 Mirantis acquired Docker’s enterprise division. “Docker Engine – Enterprise” was renamed Mirantis Container Runtime (MCR). Both MCR and Docker CE descend from the same open source Moby project, and MCR remains fully compatible with Docker CLI, Dockerfiles and APIs.
Three things follow that buyers routinely get wrong:
- Mirantis does not own Docker, Inc. Docker still exists and independently sells Docker Desktop, Docker Hub and Docker Business. Buying MCR gives you nothing from Docker, Inc., and a Docker Business subscription gives you nothing from Mirantis.
- MCR is the descendant of Docker Engine Enterprise, not Docker Desktop. It is a server-side runtime. It does not address the Docker Desktop licensing question that drives most “do we owe Docker money?” conversations.
- Compatibility is not support. CLI and Dockerfile compatibility makes migration low-friction; what you are actually buying is FIPS validation, supported Windows Server containers, SLAs and lifecycle management.
| Mirantis Container Runtime | Docker CE | |
|---|---|---|
| Support | Vendor-backed, formal SLAs | Community only |
| FIPS 140-2 validated encryption | Yes | Not available |
| Windows Server containers | Enterprise-supported production path | No enterprise positioning |
| Image signing & vulnerability scanning | With Mirantis Secure Registry | Not offered |
MCR is the only route to a vendor-SLA’d, FIPS-validated, Docker-compatible runtime with supported Windows Server containers. That makes it a compliance purchase rather than a capability purchase — if you are running Kubernetes and have no FIPS or Windows Server requirement, containerd is free and sufficient.
What does Mirantis cost?
All prices are per node, per year.
| Mirantis Container Runtime | 1 year | 3 years |
|---|---|---|
| 8×5 support | $1,125/node | $3,037.50/node |
| 24×7 support | $2,250/node | $6,075/node |
Pricing is identical for Linux and Windows Server. Three-year terms carry a genuine 10% discount — worth noting, because several vendors in this category price multi-year at exactly 3× annual.
| Product | 8×5 | 24×7 |
|---|---|---|
| Mirantis Secure Registry | $9,999/node | $14,999/node |
| k0s — virtual machine (≤4 vCPUs) | $600/node | $950/node |
| k0s — bare metal (≤64 cores) | $900/node | $1,400/node |
| Mirantis Kubernetes Engine | Quote only — not published | |
Watch the k0s capacity bands. k0s support is priced per node but banded by capacity — up to 4 vCPUs for VMs, up to 64 cores for bare metal. This is the closest thing to per-core pricing in the Mirantis line and an easy place to under-budget. What happens above the band is not published; establish it before sizing.
Also note: if you find a “$500 per year, max 50 nodes” figure for MKE on a review site, it is unreliable. MKE does not appear on Mirantis’s own store at all.
Which MKE are you being quoted?
MKE 4 is a rebuild, not an upgrade. It is built on k0s rather than the MKE 3 architecture, managed declaratively via mkectl, and bundles Calico, NGINX ingress, Velero and minio. Critically, MKE 4 does not support Swarm. MKE 3’s dual Swarm-plus-Kubernetes orchestration continues on a separate product line.
So “MKE” now names two architecturally different products. A non-disruptive upgrade path from MKE 3.7 or 3.8 to MKE 4 exists only for users who do not need Swarm. If you have Swarm workloads, establish that in the first conversation — it is a hard blocker, not a migration exercise.
Support lifecycle
| Version | GA | End of life |
|---|---|---|
| MKE 3.9.z | Mar 2026 | Mar 2028 |
| MKE 3.8.z | Dec 2024 | Mar 2027 |
| MSR 4.13.z | May 2025 | May 2027 |
| MSR 2.10.z | Jul 2026 | Jul 2028 |
| MCR Enterprise 29.0 | Mar 2026 | Mar 2028 |
Two things to note. The policy is a two-year maintenance lifecycle, but full support transitions to limited support after 12 to 18 months — budget upgrades on the shorter clock. And MSR 2.10 went GA after MSR 4.13 and runs longer; the higher version number is not the newer or better-supported line, which is easy to mis-scope.
Is Lens free for us?
Lens still has a free tier, but eligibility is revenue-gated rather than feature-gated:
| Plan | Price | Adds |
|---|---|---|
| Personal | $0 | Multi-cluster management, metrics, logs, Helm, port forwarding |
| Plus | $25/mo annual | AI integration, GitOps, EKS/AKS integration, Security Center |
| Pro | $25/user/mo | Team management, secure remote access, priority support |
| Enterprise | $50/seat/mo annual | Offline activation, air-gapped mode, SSO (SAML & OIDC), SCIM, audit logs |
The eligibility rule is the whole story. Organisations with revenue or funding of more than $10M in the last 12 months must purchase Lens Pro. The “or funding” clause is the trap — a pre-revenue startup that has raised $10M or more must pay. Most free-tier rules key on revenue or headcount; this one catches funded startups with no income. Check the cap table, not just the P&L.
Why your engineers may push back on Lens
Worth knowing before you propose it. In February 2023, Lens 6 introduced the paid tier — but the grievance was not the paywall. Mirantis removed core features from the open source OpenLens project, including logs and terminal access, reserving them for commercial Lens. The next open source version was less useful than the previous one, which the community characterised as repurposing an upstream project.
OpenLens became impractical — no prepackaged builds, manual compilation, patching back deleted features. Community forks OpenLens and FreeLens persist and are still actively recommended in 2026 buying guides. Expect FreeLens to be raised as the alternative.
What about k0s and k0rdent?
k0s is Apache 2.0, genuinely free and open source, originated by Mirantis and maintained by k0s contributors. Commercial support is available at the prices above. It matters strategically beyond its own SKU because MKE 4 is built on it, and Mirantis actively sells migration services from k3s to k0s.
One naming inconsistency to watch: the k0s project site describes support tiers as LabCare and ProdCare, the Mirantis store sells LabCare and OpsCare, and the corporate support page documents OpsCare and OpsCare Plus. Three vocabularies are live simultaneously — confirm which tier name is actually on your quote.
k0rdent is Mirantis’s strategic centre of gravity now, and it is AI infrastructure rather than classic Kubernetes. The May 2026 announcements added an AI Model Registry, Inference Mesh and Inference Runtime, positioned at enterprises and GPU cloud operators. No licensing, pricing or unit information is published. If it is being proposed to you, ask for reference customers — the flagship components are months old.
Frequently asked questions
We are on Swarm. Can we move to MKE 4?
No. MKE 4 drops Swarm entirely. You stay on the MKE 3.x line, which has its own lifecycle running to 2028 on the current version. This should be established in the first call, because it changes the whole conversation.
Why is Secure Registry roughly seven times the price of Container Runtime per node?
Because it is priced per registry node rather than per workload node — a registry cluster is a handful of nodes, not your whole fleet. That said, the counting basis is not clearly documented, so confirm exactly what constitutes a licensed MSR node before accepting a quote.
Do we need MCR if we are running Kubernetes rather than Docker?
Only if you need FIPS 140-2 validated encryption, supported Windows Server containers, or a vendor SLA on the runtime. Otherwise containerd is free and does the job.
Does Microsoft support Windows Server containers on Mirantis?
Microsoft’s support arrangement for Windows Server containers routes through Mirantis following the Docker Enterprise acquisition. The specifics of that arrangement are worth confirming directly if it is load-bearing for your compliance position.
Do multi-year terms save money?
Yes, genuinely — three-year MCR is priced at 2.7× the annual rate, a real 10% discount. That is worth knowing because several vendors in this space price multi-year at exactly 3× annual and call it a commitment benefit.
Pricing verified 19 September 2026 against Mirantis’s published store, product documentation, maintenance lifecycle tables and Lens pricing. MKE and k0rdent pricing are not published by Mirantis. Third-party review sites carrying MKE prices are unreliable — MKE does not appear on Mirantis’s own store.
Swarm, FIPS or Windows containers in the mix?
Those three requirements decide most Mirantis conversations, and each one narrows the options sharply. We size container platform estates against what you actually need to support, including whether MKE is the right answer at all.