Why balenaOS Often Wins
Fleet management for edge/IoT devices is less about “can I update a box remotely?” and more about whether you can reliably ship software, troubleshoot failures, and evolve hardware over years without turning operations into a bespoke engineering project.
balena’s approach — balenaOS on-device plus the balena Supervisor and balenaCloud (or self-hosted openBalena) — is built around that lifecycle: running containerized applications on constrained devices, updating them safely, and managing fleets with a developer-friendly workflow.
The Core Difference Edge App Platform vs Update Tool vs Cloud Runtime
Most fleet-management options fall into one of three buckets:
A. End-to-End Edge App Platforms balena
balena is built as a complete stack for the full device lifecycle. It combines a purpose-built embedded OS (balenaOS), an on-device agent that enforces desired state and communicates with the cloud (balena Supervisor), and a fleet console for build/deploy, device targeting, and remote operations (balenaCloud or self-hosted openBalena).
This “full stack” matters because the hard problems show up at the seams: OS, app runtime, deployment orchestration, and remote access.
B. OTA Update Frameworks Mender hawkBit
Tools like Mender and Eclipse hawkBit are excellent for rolling out updates, especially OS or firmware-style deployments with staged rollouts. They can be a strong fit when your primary need is robust OTA.
The tradeoff is that you often still have to build the rest: application runtime, logging, remote access, and day-2 operations. That becomes added integration and maintenance over time.
C. Cloud Edge Runtimes Greengrass IoT Edge
AWS IoT Greengrass and Azure IoT Edge provide mechanisms to deploy components or modules to devices at scale, often with deep integration into their cloud ecosystems. This can be ideal if you’re already standardized on that cloud.
The tradeoff is ecosystem coupling and an operating model that assumes you’re “all-in” on the cloud’s runtime patterns, which may reduce portability across environments.
Application Delivery Containers as the Common Language
How you ship software matters. In practice, teams move faster when deployment matches modern workflows instead of requiring bespoke embedded pipelines.
balenaOS Containers by Default
balena is explicitly container-based: you build and deploy containerized services, and the Supervisor keeps the correct version running. This mirrors modern DevOps practices (CI/CD, registries, reproducible builds) and reduces the “special embedded snowflake” factor.
The result is faster iteration with per-service updates and predictable rollbacks, without rebuilding full device images for every change.
Mender hawkBit Update-First
Mender and hawkBit excel at OS and firmware update orchestration and staged rollouts. They’re less opinionated about the application runtime, which can be a benefit if you want full control over your app stack.
In many deployments, that also means more assembly work: defining how apps run, how they’re updated, and how day-2 operations are handled.
Greengrass IoT Edge Cloud Semantics
AWS and Azure provide component or module delivery at scale, often designed around cloud-first patterns. This can be a strong fit when your architecture and operations are already standardized in that ecosystem.
The tradeoff is that the deployment model often assumes cloud-native semantics and tighter coupling to that provider’s tooling and operational approach.
Remote Access and Troubleshooting The 2 a.m. Category
The best fleet tools assume devices will break in the field and you’ll need secure, standardized access to diagnose and resolve issues.
balena Remote Ops Built In
balena includes SSH access workflows and CLI-driven remote access patterns as part of managing devices. When multiplied across hundreds or thousands of nodes, having standardized remote operations becomes a major differentiator.
Update-First Stacks Often Require Add-Ons
Many update-focused systems treat remote debugging as an integration project. Teams often deploy separate remote-access agents and manage keys, tunnels, and auditing independently — adding complexity as fleets grow.
Reliability and Safe Updates Avoiding Bricked Devices
Robust fleet management avoids risky in-place updates and uses safer primitives like staged rollouts, health checks, and rollback strategies.
The Industry Lesson
Naive package updates (apt/yum in-place) can brick devices. Safer approaches typically use staged rollouts, rollback, and health checks to protect devices in the field.
Mender Strong OS-Level Rollback
Mender is particularly strong for robust OTA device management and rollback-friendly approaches when the core change is OS or firmware updates, especially with staged deployments and safer update patterns.
balena Smaller App Updates via Containers
balena minimizes full device image churn when you’re primarily shipping application updates. Containers are smaller and easier to reason about than rebuilding complete firmware images for every change. If your product changes weekly, the container-first model reduces risk by narrowing the unit of change.
Operational Simplicity and Time-to-Value
As fleets grow, the biggest cost is often the integration tax — the extra tooling you assemble and maintain for years to keep devices manageable.
Ubuntu Core + Landscape A Different Model
Ubuntu Core + Landscape can be a strong option if you’re already standardized on Ubuntu administration. However, snaps and Ubuntu estate management are a different mental model than containerized microservices on embedded hardware.
FleetDM Great for Endpoints Not Embedded Fleets
FleetDM excels in IT endpoint management and security posture for workstations and servers. Embedded gateways running product workloads usually need a different set of lifecycle and deployment tools.
balena Reduces Integration Tax
Every time you assemble your own stack — updater, remote access, logging, registry, build pipeline, device onboarding — you add surface area you must maintain. balena collapses those pieces into one cohesive system designed around long-lived device fleets.
Why balenaOS Is Often the Best Choice
A Complete Lifecycle System
balena isn’t just “an updater.” It’s a coherent stack designed for edge apps and long-lived devices: OS, on-device agent, and fleet console working together.
Modern Delivery with Containers
Containers make embedded deployment match modern software delivery. Teams ship with familiar CI/CD patterns and can roll forward or back without cloud-only runtimes.
Remote Ops Are First-Class
Secure access and troubleshooting workflows are part of the product experience, not a separate integration project bolted on later.
Scales Down and Scales Out
balena’s model works whether you have 20 devices or 20,000 through device targeting, repeatable deployments, and standardized on-device behavior.
Less Long-Term Maintenance Burden
By reducing the number of separate tools you have to stitch together, balena lowers long-term operational complexity across the life of the fleet.
A Smarter Approach to Fleet Management
balenaOS often comes out on top because it treats fleet management as an application delivery and operations problem, not merely an updating problem.
By standardizing on containers, enforcing desired state with an on-device agent, and pairing that with a purpose-built fleet console and remote access workflows, balena reduces the operational complexity that dominates real-world deployments.
That’s why balenaOS plays a key role in reliable device operations — and why it supports the long-term foundation behind Round 2 POS. Connect with our team to learn more.
