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Documentation Index

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This guide walks you through creating your first product, connecting a cluster, and publishing to the marketplace. By the end, your software will be available for customers to purchase and deploy.

Start the interactive quickstart

The guided onboarding in the dashboard is the fastest path to your first deployment.

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Prerequisites

  • An Akua account (sign up at akua.dev)
  • A Stripe account (only required if you want to accept payments)
No Kubernetes or DevOps expertise is required. Akua handles the infrastructure for you.

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What you’ll do

Create your first product

Pick a source (a Helm chart, a GitHub repository, or a Docker image) and Akua packages it into a deployable product.

Configure pricing

Connect Stripe and set up pricing plans for your marketplace listing.

Deploy to a cluster

Deploy your product to a managed or imported .

Go live

Your product appears in the marketplace, ready for customers to purchase and deploy.

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What’s next

After completing the quickstart, your product is live and customers can purchase it from the marketplace.

Customize your marketplace

Brand your storefront and optimize for customer conversion.

Add more products

Expand your catalog with additional software offerings.

Connect AI tools

Use agents and the MCP server to manage Akua programmatically.

Import an existing cluster

Connect existing Kubernetes infrastructure instead of creating a new cluster.

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Background concepts

A cluster is a group of machines working together under Kubernetes. Workers are the compute nodes where your products actually run. Akua’s managed clusters handle the Kubernetes control plane for you: you add your own worker machines and Akua takes care of the rest.
Regions let you organize your infrastructure by geography. Choosing the right region improves performance for your customers and can help meet data residency requirements.
  • Regions are named by location: for example, fsn1 for Falkenstein, Germany on Hetzner Cloud.
  • Deploying in multiple regions provides redundancy and lower latency for global customers.
Helm charts are the standard packaging format for Kubernetes applications. When you create a product from a Helm source, Akua composes it into a per-installation package and provisions a private repository for every customer deployment.
Akua integrates with to handle customer payments. You connect your own Stripe account through the dashboard.
  • You do not need a Stripe account to try Akua or test deployments.
  • Connect Stripe from Settings → Stripe when you’re ready to accept purchases.
  • Marketplace payments →

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Troubleshooting

  • Confirm the machine has outbound internet access.
  • Verify you copied the full join command without truncation.
  • Run the command as root (with sudo).
  • Wait 2–3 minutes for the connection to establish, then refresh the dashboard.
You can connect it to Akua instead of creating a new one. See the cluster import guide →.

Concepts

Understand packages, sources, products, and installations.

Clusters

Managed and imported Kubernetes infrastructure.

Marketplace payments

Accept customer payments with Stripe Connect.

Plans and pricing

Compare free and Pro tiers.