Helm 4.0.0 29,435 shipped on 12 November 2025, six years after Helm 3.0.0; 4.3.0 and 3.22.0 came out together on 9 September 2026, and Helm 3 gets security fixes only until 11 November 2026. This chapter runs Helm 3.22.0; everything shown also works in Helm 4, which still supports apiVersion: v2 charts.
| Area | Helm 3 (3.22.0) | Helm 4 (4.3.0) |
|---|---|---|
| Applying objects | Client-side three-way merge | Server-side apply for new releases |
| Waiting | --wait polls a fixed list of kinds | kstatus watcher (--wait=watcher) |
| Plugins | Executables | Also WebAssembly; post-renderers must be plugins |
With server-side apply, changing a field another manager owns is a conflict, not a silent overwrite. Helm 4.3.0 upgraded a Helm 3 release here and kept client-side apply (helm Update in managedFields) until given --server-side=true (helm Apply).