K3s vs MicroK8s
K3s
k3s.ioMicroK8s
canonical.comSide by side
| Figure | K3s | MicroK8s |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $2.08/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 7 |
| Spec score · Container Orchestration Software | 7.7 (#13) | 8.3 (#6) |
| Spec score · Container Management Software | 7.8 (#15) | 8.3 (#7) |
| High availability | K3s supports high-availability setups with an embedded datastore or external MySQL, PostgreSQL, or etcd datastore. | Adding three or more MicroK8s nodes enables resilient Dqlite-backed high availability and automatic recovery after a node failure. |
| Integrations | The upgrade documentation describes Kubernetes-native automated upgrades using Rancher's system-upgrade-controller. | Built-in examples include Prometheus, Jaeger, Istio, LinkerD, Knative, DNS, registry and dashboard services enabled through addons. |
| Use cases | The documentation lists edge, homelab, IoT, continuous integration, development, ARM single-board computers, air-gapped environments, and embedded Kubernetes as use cases. | Canonical positions MicroK8s for developer workstations, production, public clouds, edge deployments, IoT and software-vendor embedded platforms. |
Plans
MicroK8s
- MicroK8sFree
- Ubuntu Pro PersonalFree
- Ubuntu Pro Workstation$25 a year
- Ubuntu Pro with 24/7 Enterprise support — Workstation$300 a year
- Ubuntu Pro Server with unlimited VMs$500 a year
- Ubuntu Pro with 24/7 Enterprise support — Server$1,775 a year
- Ubuntu Pro with 24/7 Enterprise support — Server full support$3,400 a year
In their own words
K3s
K3s is a certified, lightweight Kubernetes distribution for IoT and edge computing. It runs self-hosted on Linux and is released for x86_64, ARMv7, and ARM64. The distribution arrives as one binary or a minimal container image; the site describes the binary as under 70 MB, while documentation says under 100 MB. Documented uses include edge systems, homelabs, IoT, continuous integration, development, ARM single-board computers, air-gapped environments, and embedded Kubernetes. SQLite is the default datastore, with etcd, MySQL, and Postgres available. K3s packages containerd or cri-dockerd, Flannel, CoreDNS, Traefik, ServiceLB, Kube-router, local-path-provisioner, and Spegel. High-availability deployments can use embedded storage or external MySQL, PostgreSQL, or etcd. Air-gapped installation supports private registries, manually deployed images, or an embedded registry mirror. Security guidance includes hardening and CIS self-assessment material. Automated Kubernetes-native upgrades use Rancher’s system-upgrade-controller.
MicroK8s
MicroK8s is a lightweight Kubernetes distribution that can run on a single node or scale to a high-availability production cluster. It is positioned for developer workstations, production, public clouds, edge deployments, IoT and embedded software-vendor platforms. The self-hosted distribution supports Linux, macOS and Windows, and packages upstream Kubernetes services in a minimal CNCF-certified distribution. Three or more nodes enable Dqlite-backed high availability and automatic recovery after a node failure. Strict confinement restricts workloads to explicitly granted files, system resources and hardware. Cluster API can automate cluster creation and lifecycle management through YAML manifests, including rolling HA upgrades. GPU workloads can use the NVIDIA GPU Operator, including NVIDIA Multi-Instance GPU. Official and community addons provide services such as DNS, certificate management, Prometheus, Istio and dashboards. Security updates apply automatically by default, with rollback on failure, and Kubernetes upgrades can be done with one command. MicroK8s has no license fees. Ubuntu Pro subscriptions are also listed, including $25 a year for a workstation subscription and $500 a year for a server subscription with unlimited VMs.