MicroK8s vs OKD

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.

OKD is a free, self-hosted Kubernetes platform for managing applications and clusters at scale. It extends Kubernetes with more than 100 preinstalled Operators and includes a web console, authentication, image registry and tooling, monitoring, networking, node configuration and upgrades, and Operator management. Cluster nodes run an immutable operating system managed through cluster APIs. OKD states that it is 100% compliant with Kubernetes, with additional patches for some advanced features, and its defaults include hardened configuration. The platform supports autoscaling, rolling updates, and policy controls. Installation works on bare metal, virtualization platforms, and cloud platforms, using installer-provisioned or user-provisioned infrastructure. Integrated deployments cover areas such as GitOps, service mesh, virtualization, and storage. Downloads include stable releases and nightly builds for installer and client tools. The installation guide provides signed-checksum verification instructions; its examples cover Linux and macOS client and installer archives and Windows client archives. OKD directs users to Kubernetes Slack’s #okd-dev channel and a Google Group. It describes uses for technologists, students, and OpenShift contributors and partners.