How to install Helm on Windows, Mac, and Linux?

What is Helm?

Helm is a package manager specifically designed for Kubernetes that simplifies the deployment and management of workloads within Kubernetes clusters. It allows users to define, install, and upgrade complex resources using pre-configured templates known as Helm charts. Helm charts bundle all the necessary Kubernetes resources, such as deployments, services, and config-maps, making them easy to share, reuse, and version. By providing a standardized framework for deploying and managing Kubernetes workloads, Helm enables more efficient handling of Kubernetes resources.

Install Helm

This knowledge base article offers step-by-step instructions for installing Helm, a command-line tool used to deploy and manage Kubernetes workloads using Helm charts. It is recommended to install Helm using a package manager on Windows, Mac, or Linux operating systems for greater ease and consistency. After completing the installation, it is important to verify the Helm version to confirm that the installation was successful. For comprehensive guidance, please refer to the Helm documentation.

Windows (Chocolatey)

You can use the following commands to install Helm in the Chocolatey-based Windows operating system.

# Install Helm.
$ choco install kubernetes-helm

# Check Helm version.
$ helm version

Windows (Scoop)

You can use the following commands to install Helm in the Scoop-based Windows operating system.

# Install Helm.
$ scoop install helm

# Check Helm version.
$ helm version

Windows (Winget)

You can use the following commands to install Helm in the Winget-based Windows operating system.

# Install Helm.
$ winget install Helm.Helm

# Check Helm version.
$ helm version

Mac (MacPorts)

You can use the following commands to install Helm in the MacPorts-based Mac operating system.

# Install Helm.
$ sudo port install helm-3.17

# Symlink Helm binary executable program.
$ sudo ln -s /opt/local/bin/helm3.17 /opt/local/bin/helm

# Check Helm version.
$ helm version

Mac (Homebrew)

You can use the following commands to install Helm in the Homebrew-based Mac operating system.

# Install Helm.
$ brew install helm

# Check Helm version.
$ helm version

Linux (RPM)

You can use the following commands to install Helm in RPM-based Linux operating systems such as CentOS Linux, Red Hat Linux, Fedora Linux, Amazon Linux, Alma Linux, Rocky Linux, etc., or any other similar equivalents.

# Install Helm.
$ sudo yum install helm

# Check Helm version.
$ helm version

Linux (Debian)

You can use the following commands to install Helm in Debian-based Linux operating systems such as Ubuntu Linux, Mint Linux, Kali Linux, Kubuntu Linux, etc., or any other similar equivalents.

# Install required system packages.
$ sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg-agent software-properties-common

# Add Helm official GPG key to package manager.
$ curl https://baltocdn.com/helm/signing.asc | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/helm.gpg > /dev/null

# Add Helm repository to package manager source list.
$ echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/helm.gpg] https://baltocdn.com/helm/stable/debian/ all main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/helm.list

# Check for package updates.
$ sudo apt update

# Install Helm.
$ sudo apt install helm

# Check Helm version.
$ helm version