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Harness Chaos Engineering vs LitmusChaos

LitmusChaos is an open-source CNCF incubation project that provides a comprehensive chaos engineering platform for Kubernetes environments. Harness Chaos Engineering is the enterprise-ready, feature-rich version built on top of LitmusChaos.

Key Relationship
  • Harness is the original creator of LitmusChaos which was donated to CNCF and is now hosted as a CNCF incubation project. Harness continues to be the primary sponsor of LitmusChaos.
  • Harness Chaos Engineering is built on the LitmusChaos foundation with many additional enterprise features

Why Choose Harness Chaos Engineering?​

Harness Chaos Engineering is perfect for:

  • Enterprise teams needing advanced governance and security
  • Multi-cloud and hybrid infrastructure environments
  • Organizations requiring comprehensive platform integrations
  • Teams wanting a fully managed SaaS solution with enterprise support
  • Large-scale deployments requiring enterprise-grade scalability and performance

Comprehensive Feature Comparison​

CategoryFeatureLitmusChaosHarness Chaos Engineering
Chaos OrchestrationCentralized chaos portal✅✅
Resilience probes✅✅
Chaos hubsPublic hubEnterprise hub
Prometheus metrics✅✅
Direct ChaosHub launches✅✅
YAML-based experiments✅✅
Parallel fault execution✅✅
UI experiment controls❌✅
Event-driven chaos✅✅ (via webhooks)
Ready-to-use templates❌✅
Experiment halt capability❌✅
BYOC support✅✅
UI tagging for targets❌✅
Cross-cluster experiments❌✅
Deployment & AgentsSaaS deployment❌✅
Self-managed platform✅✅
Kubernetes native agent✅✅
Linux native agent❌✅
Windows native agent❌✅
Scope-based isolation✅✅
Advanced ManagementUI CRUD operations✅✅
Multi-cluster experiments❌✅ (GameDays/pipelines)
Parallel experiments❌✅ (GameDays/pipelines)
Out-of-box experiments❌✅
Chaos experiment templates✅✅
Experiment scheduling✅✅
Advanced scheduling (cron)✅✅
GameDays❌✅
Pipelines❌✅
Resilience score✅✅
Experiment analytics✅✅
Advanced analytics❌✅
Chaos experiment comparison❌✅
ChaosHub export❌✅
Direct hub scheduling❌✅
GameDay portal❌✅
ChaosGuard governance❌✅
Authentication & AuthorizationUsername authentication✅✅
LDAP provider❌✅
SAML provider❌✅
OAuth providers❌✅
Role-based access control✅✅
Okta provisioning (SCIM)❌✅
Azure AD provisioning❌✅
OneLogin provisioning❌✅
Multiple projects❌✅
Multiple organizations❌✅
Security FeaturesTwo-factor authentication❌✅
Kubernetes secrets✅✅
External secret managers✅✅
Built-in RBAC rolesBasic✅
Custom RBAC roles❌✅
Audit trail (2-year retention)❌✅
Integrated secrets management❌✅
IP allowlist management❌✅
Discovery & RecommendationsAuto-discover Kubernetes services❌✅
Auto-create experiments❌✅
Service map visualization❌✅
Manual experiment recommendations❌✅
Traffic-based recommendations❌✅
Resilience recommendations❌✅
Governance ControlsChaosHub RBACs✅✅
Infrastructure RBACs✅✅
Experiment CRUD RBACs✅✅
GameDay RBACs❌✅
Target-specific RBACs❌✅
Fault-specific RBACs❌✅
User-specific RBACs❌✅
Time-window RBACs❌✅
ServiceAccount RBACs❌✅
Platform IntegrationsHarness CD integration❌✅
Terraform provider❌✅
APM IntegrationsPrometheus probe✅✅
Datadog probe❌✅
Dynatrace probe❌✅
Splunk Observability probe❌✅
AppDynamics probe❌✅

Comprehensive Fault Coverage Comparison​

CategoryFault Type/ServiceLitmusChaosHarness Chaos Engineering
Kubernetes Pod FaultsContainer kill✅✅
Pod delete✅✅
Pod autoscaler✅✅
Disk fill✅✅
Filesystem fill❌✅
Pod CPU hog✅✅
Pod memory hog✅✅
Pod network latency✅✅
Pod network loss✅✅
Pod network corruption✅✅
Pod network duplication✅✅
Pod network partition✅✅
Pod network rate limit❌✅
Pod DNS error✅✅
Pod DNS spoof✅✅
Pod HTTP latency✅✅
Pod HTTP status code✅✅
Pod HTTP modify body✅✅
Pod HTTP modify header✅✅
Pod HTTP reset peer✅✅
Pod API block❌✅
Pod API latency❌✅
Pod API modify body❌✅
Pod API modify header❌✅
Pod API status code❌✅
Pod I/O stressPartial✅
Pod I/O error❌✅
Pod I/O latency❌✅
Pod I/O attribute override❌✅
Pod I/O mistake❌✅
Time chaos❌✅
JVM CPU stress❌✅
JVM method exception❌✅
JVM method latency❌✅
JVM modify return❌✅
JVM trigger GC❌✅
JVM MongoDB faults❌✅
JVM Solace faults❌✅
JVM SQL faults❌✅
Redis cache expire❌✅
Redis cache limit❌✅
Redis cache penetration✅✅
Kubernetes Node FaultsNode CPU hog✅✅
Node memory hog✅✅
Node I/O stress✅✅
Node network latency❌✅
Node network loss❌✅
Node restart✅✅
Node drain✅✅
Node taint✅✅
Kubelet service kill✅✅
Kubelet density stress❌✅
AWS Cloud FaultsEC2 stop by ID/tag✅✅
EC2 CPU hog❌✅
EC2 memory hog❌✅
EC2 I/O stress❌✅
EC2 network latency❌✅
EC2 network loss❌✅
EC2 process kill❌✅
EC2 DNS chaos❌✅
EC2 HTTP faults❌✅
Windows EC2 faults❌✅
EBS loss by ID/tag❌✅
ECS agent stop❌✅
ECS task stop/scale❌✅
ECS instance stop❌✅
ECS container faults❌✅
ECS Fargate faults❌✅
ECS network restrict❌✅
ECS update limits❌✅
Lambda inject latency❌✅
Lambda status code❌✅
Lambda modify response❌✅
Lambda update memory/timeout❌✅
Lambda delete concurrency❌✅
Lambda event mapping❌✅
Lambda role permission❌✅
RDS instance delete❌✅
RDS instance reboot❌✅
DynamoDB replication pause❌✅
ALB/CLB/NLB AZ down❌✅
AZ blackhole❌✅
VPC route misconfiguration❌✅
Resource access restrict❌✅
SSM chaos by ID/tag❌✅
GCP Cloud FaultsVM instance stop✅✅
VM instance stop by label✅✅
VM disk loss✅✅
VM disk loss by label✅✅
VM service kill❌✅
SQL instance failover❌✅
Azure Cloud FaultsVM basic operations✅✅
VM resource stress❌✅
Web apps❌✅
VMware InfrastructureVM power operations✅✅
Resource stress❌✅
Network chaos❌✅
Windows-specific❌✅
Linux OS FaultsCPU stress❌✅
Memory stress❌✅
Disk fill❌✅
Filesystem fill❌✅
Disk I/O stress❌✅
Network latency❌✅
Network loss❌✅
Network corruption❌✅
Network duplication❌✅
Network rate limit❌✅
Process kill❌✅
Service restart❌✅
DNS error/spoof❌✅
Time chaos❌✅
API faults (block/latency/modify)❌✅
JVM faults❌✅
Redis faults❌✅
Windows OS FaultsAll Linux equivalents❌✅
SSH-based FaultsRemote system chaos❌✅
Cloud Foundry FaultsCF application faults❌✅
Kube-Resilience FaultsAdvanced K8s scenarios❌✅
Load TestingK6 load generation❌✅
Locust load generation❌✅