Reliably

Reliably helps teams explore operational risks and incidents as part of building resilience engineering capability. The platform is based on the open-source Chaos Toolkit. Its experiment builder is designed to make experiments without learning a new language and provides more than 300 actions, including attacks and probes. Teams can import JSON Chaos Toolkit experiments, reuse templates, schedule executions and review scores, freshness indicators, timelines and dashboards. Runs can use GitHub Actions, Reliably-managed execution, the CLI, Docker, Kubernetes jobs or cron jobs. Listed targets include AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, Prometheus and Spring. Pre-checks can block an experiment before it starts, while configured safeguards can interrupt one during execution. Environments store variables and encrypted secrets used by the app, CLI or GitHub workflows. The free plan costs £0 per free and allows one team member, 180 cloud execution minutes per month, a 10-minute cloud execution cap and two weeks of data retention. Start costs £40/mo.

Reliably provides experiment creation, scheduling and safety controls for resilience work. Its free tier has clear limits on team size, cloud execution time and data retention.

Reliably suits teams that want to schedule and review chaos engineering experiments against cloud, Kubernetes or other listed targets. The free plan is limited to one team member.

Overview

Reliably is a resilience engineering platform for teams that want to investigate operational risk through planned experiments. It is best suited to engineering groups that need a shared workflow for designing, scheduling and reviewing chaos experiments. Its range of execution options and safety controls is a compelling combination, though meaningful team use quickly runs beyond the free plan’s tight caps.

Key features

Experiment design and management

The builder offers more than 300 actions, including attacks and probes, without requiring users to learn a new language. Teams can also import JSON Chaos Toolkit experiments and reuse custom templates, which makes Reliably a practical fit for groups bringing existing Chaos Toolkit work into a managed workflow. The free plan’s five custom experiments and single template are restrictive for teams building a reusable experiment library.

Scheduling, scores, freshness indicators, timelines and dashboards help teams organize runs and review their activity. Supported targets include AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, Prometheus and Spring. These capabilities cover a useful range of infrastructure and monitoring targets, but they do not by themselves establish support for systems beyond those named.

Execution, integrations and safety

Teams can run plans through GitHub Actions, Reliably-managed execution, the CLI, Docker, Kubernetes jobs or cron jobs. That flexibility suits organizations that want to fit experiments into existing workflows rather than rely on one execution path. Documented integrations include Slack, Honeycomb, Dynatrace, Google Cloud, Grafana and OpenAI ChatGPT, alongside pre-checks, safeguards and auto-pause. Slack posts experiment activity to a channel in near real time, while Honeycomb receives traces through OpenTelemetry.

Reliably environments store variables and encrypted secrets for use by the app, CLI or GitHub workflows. Pre-checks can stop an experiment before it begins; configured safeguards can interrupt it during execution when conditions are not met. Those controls are important for teams running disruptive experiments against operational systems. Reliably describes itself as open source and says its approach avoids lock-in.

Pricing

Reliably has a free plan and paid plans billed monthly. The free tier is a useful starting point for one person evaluating the workflow, but its cloud runtime and retention limits make it a poor fit for sustained team use.

Start, Scale and Enterprise specify weekday 9/5 CET email support, with Enterprise offering an optional support SLA. The free plan includes email support. The paid-plan terms are monthly billing; no trial duration or renewal terms are stated.

Platforms

Reliably supports Linux, macOS, Windows, web and self-hosted use. Its hybrid deployment model and Kubernetes support, along with cloud and network fault injection and blast-radius controls, suit teams that need to run resilience work across different environments.

Who it's for

Reliably is a strong choice for engineering teams that want to build on Chaos Toolkit experiments, schedule work, choose among multiple execution methods and apply safety checks. The free plan can serve a solo evaluator, while Start accommodates a small team with modest cloud needs. Teams that need more cloud runtime, concurrency or retention should weigh Scale or custom-priced Enterprise. It is less suitable for a group that needs many seats or sustained cloud execution at no cost.

Pros and cons

• Flexible experiment workflow: The builder, JSON import, templates and scheduling bring experiment creation and management together.
• Multiple execution paths: GitHub Actions, managed runs, CLI, Docker and Kubernetes options can fit different deployment workflows.
• Meaningful safety controls: Pre-checks and configured safeguards can prevent or interrupt experiments when conditions fail.
• Free tier is narrow for teams: One seat, a 10-minute cloud run cap and two weeks of retention limit shared or ongoing use.
• Paid costs rise substantially: Start is £40.00 per month, while Scale is £330.00 per month before any additional-seat charges.

Alternatives

Chaos Engineering Platforms is a useful starting point for comparing options across the category.

• Chaos Mesh is worth considering when a free, open-source cloud-native platform that runs on Kubernetes is the priority.
• Krkn is a free alternative for readers who want its listed Linux, API, self-hosted and web platforms.
• Toxiproxy is a free, open-source TCP proxy under the MIT license, rather than a paid tiered Reliably plan.
• Chaos Toolkit is a free, open-source CLI under Apache License 2.0; it is a direct option for teams seeking the toolkit at the core of Reliably without its paid plans.
• ChaosBlade is a free open-source tool with 200+ experiment scenarios and support for three system platforms and four programming-language applications.
• chaosd offers a free Apache-2.0-licensed Linux binary and requires glibc v2.17 or later.
• FaultMesh offers a free Starter plan for up to three services, with core fault types, basic resilience scoring and community support; it is an option for a small service scope.
• LitmusChaos offers a free hosted SaaS and a free open-source platform for installation on a cluster.

Verdict

Choose Reliably if your engineering team wants Chaos Toolkit-based experiments, flexible execution and configurable safeguards in one workflow. Its strongest reason to buy is the combination of experiment management and execution choice; the main reason to look elsewhere is the cost of scaling beyond the limited free tier, especially when longer cloud runs, more seats or extensive retention matter.