K3s vs Palette
K3s
k3s.io
Palette
spectrocloud.comSide by side
| Figure | K3s | Palette |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Container Orchestration Software | 7.7 (#13) | 8.0 (#9) |
| Spec score · Container Management Software | 7.8 (#15) | 8.1 (#11) |
| Integrations | The upgrade documentation describes Kubernetes-native automated upgrades using Rancher's system-upgrade-controller. | The maker lists integrations including Argo CD, Kubeflow, Redis, Istio, Datadog, Splunk, Prometheus, Grafana, and Calico. |
Plans
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.