Software Alternatives & Reviews

k3s VS Google Kubernetes Engine

Compare k3s VS Google Kubernetes Engine and see what are their differences

k3s logo k3s

K3s is a lightweight Kubernetes distribution by Rancher Labs intended for IoT, Edge, and cloud deployments.

Google Kubernetes Engine logo Google Kubernetes Engine

Google Kubernetes Engine is a powerful cluster manager and orchestration system for running your Docker containers. Set up a cluster in minutes.
  • k3s Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-09
  • Google Kubernetes Engine Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-05

k3s videos

Siroko K3s Sun Glasses Unboxing and Review | Big Muscle Gains

More videos:

  • Review - Elecraft K3S Transceiver Review

Google Kubernetes Engine videos

Getting Started with Containers and Google Kubernetes Engine (Cloud Next '18)

More videos:

  • Review - Optimize cost to performance on Google Kubernetes Engine
  • Tutorial - Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) | Coupon: UDEMYSEP20 - Kubernetes Made Easy | Kubernetes Tutorial

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to k3s and Google Kubernetes Engine)
DevOps Tools
52 52%
48% 48
Developer Tools
31 31%
69% 69
Cloud Computing
41 41%
59% 59
Cloud Hosting
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare k3s and Google Kubernetes Engine

k3s Reviews

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Google Kubernetes Engine Reviews

Top 12 Kubernetes Alternatives to Choose From in 2023
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is a prominent choice for a Kubernetes alternative. It is provided and managed by Google Cloud, which offers fully managed Kubernetes services.
Source: humalect.com
11 Best Rancher Alternatives Multi Cluster Orchestration Platform
Google Kubernetes Engine is a CaaS (container as a service) platform that lets you easily create, resize, manage, update, upgrade, and debug container clusters. Google Kubernetes Engine, aka GKE, was the first managed Kubernetes service, and therefore, it is highly regarded in the industry.
Top 10 Best Container Software in 2022
If you need a speedy creation of developer environments, working on micro services-based architecture and if you want to deploy production grade clusters then Docker and Google Kubernetes Engine would be the most suitable tools. They are very well suited for DevOps team.
7 Best Containerization Software Solutions of 2022
If you’re looking for a managed solution to help you deploy and scale containerized apps on your virtual machines quickly, Google Kubernetes Engine is a great choice.
Source: techgumb.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, k3s should be more popular than Google Kubernetes Engine. It has been mentiond 159 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

k3s mentions (159)

  • Linux fu: getting started with systemd
    For self-hosting I've found https://k3s.io to be really good from the SUSE people. Works on basically any Linux distro and makes self-hosting k8s not miserable. - Source: Hacker News / 19 days ago
  • 15 Options To Build A Kubernetes Playground (with Pros and Cons)
    K3S: is a lightweight distribution of Kubernetes that is designed for resource-constrained environments. It is an excellent option for running Kubernetes on a virtual machine or cloud server. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • K3s Traefik Ingress - configured for your homelab!
    I recently purchased a used Lenovo M900 Think Centre (i7 with 32GB RAM) from eBay to expand my mini-homelab, which was just a single Synology DS218+ plugged into my ISP's router (yuck!). Since I've been spending a big chunk of time at work playing around with Kubernetes, I figured that I'd put my skills to the test and run a k3s node on the new server. While I was familiar with k3s before starting this project,... - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Building a no-code Helm UI with Windmill - Part 1
    I’ve created a local cluster with K3S and installing Windmill could not be simpler with just one chart to configure, which already has sane defaults to get started. For this demo we will also configure workers to passthrough environment variables to our scripts so that they have access to the Kubernetes API server for later. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Highly scalable Minecraft cluster
    You should be familiar with Kubernetes and have set up a Kubernetes cluster. I recommend k3s. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
View more

Google Kubernetes Engine mentions (42)

  • Using NetBird for Kubernetes Access
    Set up a remote Kubernetes cluster. For this tutorial, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) was chosen; however, feel free to use any remote Kubernetes cluster. - Source: dev.to / 4 days ago
  • The 2024 Web Hosting Report
    Docker swarm still exists, it still works, and some of these other container orchestrators are still hanging on, but for the most part, you’re using Kubernetes if you’re doing this stuff at work. Generally it's well-understood that kubernetes is hard to get right, and so most people use it via a managed provider like Elastic Kubernetes Service from AWS, Azure Kubernetes Service from MSFT, or Google Kubernetes... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • 15 Options To Build A Kubernetes Playground (with Pros and Cons)
    Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is a managed Kubernetes service on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). It offers a fully managed, scalable, and secure environment for running containerized applications with Kubernetes. GKE provides seamless integration with other GCP services like Google Cloud Storage, Stackdriver Logging, and Cloud IAM, making it easy to build and deploy applications on... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Creating Kubernetes Operators with operator-sdk
    Kubernetes is a project created by Google in mid-2015 that quickly became the standard for managing container execution. You can host it on your machines or use a solution delivered by one of the big cloud players like AWS, Google, and DigitalOcean. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Cuber: Deploy your apps on Kubernetes easily
    > What does "Deploy on Kubernetes" mean? What kind of a question is this? It means to deploy "on Kubernetes". It doesn't mean to run a script on a server. It means you need a Kubernetes cluster where you have deploy permissions. Then you can deploy on Kubernetes. > Where do I get a button "Rent a Kubernetes"? https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing k3s and Google Kubernetes Engine, you can also consider the following products

Kubernetes - Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers

k3sup - from Zero to KUBECONFIG in < 1 min 🚀. Contribute to alexellis/k3sup development by creating an account on GitHub.

Docker - Docker is an open platform that enables developers and system administrators to create distributed applications.

Rancher - Open Source Platform for Running a Private Container Service

Amazon ECS - Amazon EC2 Container Service is a highly scalable, high-performance​ container management service that supports Docker containers.

Portainer - Simple management UI for Docker