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CheckOps
Best chaos engineering tools in 2026
These are chaos engineering tools in the CheckOps directory, used to test how systems behave when parts of the stack fail. The directory has 17 tagged entries in this area; this page lists 15.
How we picked
CheckOps is a genuine and free directory. There are no paid sponsors, featured listings, or paid placement on these pages. The shortlist is built from tools already in the directory whose tags match the topic, with a preference for entries that have a fuller CheckOps page so the facts in the table can be checked against the source essay. This is not a claim that one tool is objectively better than another, and it is not a paid ranking.
Well-known tools that already have a CheckOps page in this area are listed first. The rest of the shortlist is filled from other tagged entries, preferring fuller essays so the facts in the table can be checked. That order is a way to keep the page useful, not a quality score and not a paid ranking.
Tools
G1. Gremlin
Gremlin is an enterprise reliability management and resilience testing platform with fault injection, reliability scoring, dependency discovery and Foresight AI agents; custom quotes and a 30-day free trial.
Read the CheckOps page · Commercial, with a free or trial tier tagged
C2. Chaos Mesh
Chaos Mesh is a CNCF incubating, Apache-2.0 chaos engineering platform for Kubernetes that defines pod, network, DNS, HTTP, I/O, time, stress, kernel, JVM and cloud faults as custom resources.
Read the CheckOps page · Open source
C3. Chaos Toolkit
Chaos Toolkit is an Apache-2.0 open-source chaos engineering toolkit and orchestration framework for developers, with declarative experiments and extensions for clouds and platforms.
Read the CheckOps page · Open source
L4. LitmusChaos
LitmusChaos is a 100% open-source CNCF chaos engineering platform that uses Kubernetes custom resources to define chaos and steady-state hypotheses, with a hub of experiments and a control-plane UI.
Read the CheckOps page · Open source
C5. ChaosBlade
ChaosBlade is an Apache-2.0 chaos engineering toolkit from Alibaba that injects CPU, memory, network, disk, process, JVM, container and Kubernetes faults from one CLI, with an AI agent layer.
Read the CheckOps page · Open source
T6. Toxiproxy
Toxiproxy is Shopify's MIT-licensed TCP proxy for simulating network and system conditions such as latency, timeouts and bandwidth limits in chaos and resiliency testing.
Read the CheckOps page · Open source
K7. Krkn
Krkn is an Apache-2.0 CNCF sandbox chaos and resiliency testing tool for Kubernetes, focused on improving performance under failure conditions.
Read the CheckOps page · Open source
A8. AWS Fault Injection Service
AWS Fault Injection Service (FIS) is a managed chaos engineering service for running fault-injection experiments on AWS workloads, priced at $0.10 per action-minute.
Read the CheckOps page · Commercial
A9. AWS Resilience Hub
AWS Resilience Hub is a managed AWS service that assesses application resilience against RTO and RPO targets, recommends improvements and runs resilience tests via AWS FIS.
Read the CheckOps page · Commercial
P10. Pumba
Pumba is an Apache-2.0 chaos testing, network emulation and stress testing tool for Docker containers, able to kill, pause and stop containers and add network delays or packet loss.
Read the CheckOps page · Open source
S11. Steadybit
Steadybit is a chaos engineering and reliability platform with a 30-day free trial and an open-source Reliability Hub of 200+ actions for injecting faults and verifying resilience.
Read the CheckOps page · Commercial, with a free or trial tier tagged
A12. Azure Chaos Studio
Azure Chaos Studio is Microsoft's managed chaos engineering service for injecting faults into Azure resources, run from the portal or by an AI agent.
Read the CheckOps page · Commercial
C13. Chaosd
Chaosd is an Apache-2.0 chaos engineering toolkit from the Chaos Mesh project for injecting faults into physical and virtual Linux hosts via a CLI or HTTP service.
Read the CheckOps page · Open source
C14. Chaos Monkey for Spring Boot
Chaos Monkey for Spring Boot is an Apache-2.0 library from codecentric that attacks running Spring Boot apps with latency, exceptions, kills and memory assaults, controlled via Actuator.
Read the CheckOps page · Open source
H15. Harness Resilience Testing (Chaos Engineering)
Harness Chaos Engineering, now presented as part of Harness Resilience Testing, is a commercial chaos platform built on LitmusChaos with experiment libraries, probes and resilience scoring.
Read the CheckOps page · Commercial, with a free or trial tier tagged
Comparison
License, pricing model, and languages or platforms are taken from tags on each CheckOps page. Pricing notes are a short excerpt from that page's Pricing section when one exists. A blank or "not stated" cell means the CheckOps page does not record it.
| Tool | License | Pricing model | Languages / platforms | Pricing notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gremlin | Commercial, with a free or trial tier tagged | Paid, SaaS, Trial | Not stated in the tags on the CheckOps page | Gremlin offers custom quotes, priced per service, with a 30-day free trial. Professional services are scoped per engagement. See Gremlin's pricing page. |
| Chaos Mesh | Open source | Free, Open source | Not stated in the tags on the CheckOps page | Chaos Mesh is free and open source under Apache-2.0. |
| Chaos Toolkit | Open source | Free, Open source | Not stated in the tags on the CheckOps page | Chaos Toolkit is free and open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. |
| LitmusChaos | Open source | Free, Open source | Not stated in the tags on the CheckOps page | LitmusChaos is free and open source under Apache-2.0. |
| ChaosBlade | Open source | Free, Open source | Kubernetes, Java | ChaosBlade is free and open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. |
| Toxiproxy | Open source | Free, Open source | Not stated in the tags on the CheckOps page | Toxiproxy is free and open source under the MIT licence. |
| Krkn | Open source | Free, Open source | Kubernetes | Krkn is free and open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. |
| AWS Fault Injection Service | Commercial | Paid, SaaS | Not stated in the tags on the CheckOps page | From AWS FIS pricing: $0.10 per action-minute, plus $0.10 per action-minute per additional account in multi-account experiments; GovCloud $0.12; experiment reports $5 each. |
| AWS Resilience Hub | Commercial | Paid, SaaS | Not stated in the tags on the CheckOps page | For the original service, the first 3 assessed applications are free for 6 months, then $15 per application per month. |
| Pumba | Open source | Free, Open source | Not stated in the tags on the CheckOps page | Pumba is free and open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. |
| Steadybit | Commercial, with a free or trial tier tagged | Paid, SaaS, Trial | Not stated in the tags on the CheckOps page | From Steadybit's pricing page: a 30-day free trial with unlimited agents; paid plans on request, see site. |
| Azure Chaos Studio | Commercial | Paid, SaaS | Not stated in the tags on the CheckOps page | Usage-based; see Azure Chaos Studio pricing. |
| Chaosd | Open source | Free, Open source | Not stated in the tags on the CheckOps page | Chaosd is free and open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. |
| Chaos Monkey for Spring Boot | Open source | Free, Open source | Java | Chaos Monkey for Spring Boot is free and open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. |
| Harness Resilience Testing (Chaos Engineering) | Commercial, with a free or trial tier tagged | Free tier, Paid, SaaS | Kubernetes | Harness lists a Free plan that includes Harness Open Source; Essentials and Enterprise plans are available through sales. |
FAQ
- How did CheckOps pick these tools?
- CheckOps is a genuine and free directory. There are no paid sponsors, featured listings, or paid placement on these pages. The shortlist is built from tools already in the directory whose tags match the topic, with a preference for entries that have a fuller CheckOps page so the facts in the table can be checked against the source essay. This is not a claim that one tool is objectively better than another, and it is not a paid ranking.
- Does CheckOps sell placement on this list?
- No. CheckOps does not sell featured or paid placement, and this page does not include sponsored listings.
- How many chaos engineering tools are in the directory?
- This shortlist has 15 tools. The directory has 17 tagged entries in this area. See the Production monitoring & observability stage for the wider set.
- Are the one-line summaries complete reviews?
- No. Each line is taken from the tool's CheckOps page (the short description, or the opening of the essay when that description is empty). Open the linked page for the full write-up.