Cascade vs Proxmox
This is a different kind of comparison. Proxmox VE and Cascade operate at different layers of the same stack — understanding where each fits is more useful than treating them as direct alternatives.
| Feature | Cascade | Proxmox VE |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Hosting management platform — billing, provisioning, client portal | Virtualisation platform — hypervisor for KVM and LXC |
| KVM / LXC virtualisation | Yes — Cascade provisions KVM and LXC workloads | Yes — core feature, excellent hypervisor |
| Client-facing portal | Yes — full client portal with services, billing, support | No — admin-only UI, not designed for end customers |
| Built-in billing & invoicing | Yes — built in | No — billing requires a separate tool (WHMCS, Blesta, etc.) |
| Automated VPS provisioning for customers | Yes — customers can self-serve, fully automated | No — manual admin setup; not designed for automated customer provisioning |
| Game server hosting | Yes — containerd-backed, 40+ games | No — not in scope |
| Web hosting panel | Yes — built in | No |
| Database management | Yes — built in | No — infrastructure layer only |
| DNS management | Yes — full zone control, built in | No |
| Support ticket system | Yes — built in | No |
| Cluster management & HA | Multi-node support — HA roadmap | Yes — excellent clustering and high availability built in |
| Storage management (Ceph, ZFS, NFS) | Works alongside your storage — not a storage management tool | Yes — deep Ceph, ZFS, and NFS integration |
| Licence cost | Founding rate during early access | Free and open source (AGPL); optional paid enterprise subscription for support and updates |
| Can be used together | Yes — Cascade can manage workloads running on Proxmox nodes | Yes — Proxmox is the hypervisor layer; Cascade sits above it |
The honest summary
Proxmox is excellent infrastructure software. Its clustering, storage integration, and HA capabilities are genuinely impressive, and it's one of the most widely used hypervisors in self-hosted VPS environments. It is not a client-facing platform and was never designed to be.
If you are already running Proxmox nodes, Cascade can sit above them — handling the client portal, billing, automated provisioning, game servers, web hosting, and everything your customers interact with. You keep Proxmox doing what it does well; Cascade handles the business layer above it.
Already running
Proxmox nodes?
Cascade works alongside your existing infrastructure. Apply for early access to see how it maps to what you already run.