The problem with Helm charts today

If you have run Kubernetes in production, you have probably experienced the pain of finding a good Helm chart. The ecosystem is fragmented: official charts are abandoned, community charts vary wildly in quality, and the dominant player wraps everything in proprietary images.

We built HelmForge because we believed there should be a better option.

What makes HelmForge different

Every HelmForge chart is built around three principles:

1. Official upstream images only

We never rebuild or wrap upstream Docker images. When you deploy PostgreSQL with HelmForge, you get the official postgres image from Docker Hub. No custom entrypoints, no vendor lock-in, no wondering what was added to the image.

2. Built-in S3 backup from day one

Backup should not be an afterthought. Charts that manage data include a configurable CronJob for S3-compatible backup out of the box. Point it at MinIO, AWS S3, or any compatible endpoint and your data is protected.

backup:
  enabled: true
  schedule: '0 2 * * *'
  s3:
    endpoint: https://s3.amazonaws.com
    bucket: my-backups
    existingSecret: backup-credentials

3. Security as default

Every container runs as non-root with read-only root filesystems where possible. Security contexts, network policies, and pod disruption budgets are not hidden behind flags — they are the default.

The numbers

Since our first release, HelmForge has grown to over 30 stable charts covering databases, CMS platforms, identity management, monitoring, and more. Every chart goes through:

Automated CI with helm lint, helm template, and unit tests
Local k3d validation before every release
GPG provenance and Cosign keyless signing for every artifact
Conventional Commits powering automated semantic versioning

What is next

We are actively building more charts based on community requests. If there is an application you want to see in HelmForge, request it and the community votes on priorities.

HelmForge is MIT licensed and always will be. Check out the getting started guide or browse the chart catalog to find what you need.

Introducing HelmForge: Why We Built It