Software Alternatives & Reviews

k3s VS minikube

Compare k3s VS minikube 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.

minikube logo minikube

Run Kubernetes locally. Contribute to kubernetes/minikube development by creating an account on GitHub.
  • k3s Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-09
  • minikube Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-27

k3s videos

Siroko K3s Sun Glasses Unboxing and Review | Big Muscle Gains

More videos:

  • Review - Elecraft K3S Transceiver Review

minikube videos

Minikube in Kubernetes | Coupon: UDEMYNOV20 | Udemy: Kubernetes Made Easy | Kubernetes Tutorial

More videos:

  • Review - Minikube: Bringing Kubernetes to the Next Billion Users - Thomas Strömberg, Google
  • Review - Using minikube (Kubernetes) for Local Node.js Development [I]

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to k3s and minikube)
DevOps Tools
82 82%
18% 18
Cloud Computing
61 61%
39% 39
Developer Tools
62 62%
38% 38
Development
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, k3s should be more popular than minikube. 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 / 21 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

minikube mentions (21)

  • Building Llama as a Service (LaaS)
    With the containerized Node.js/Express API, I could run multiple containers, scaling to handle more traffic. Using a tool called minikube, we can easily spin up a local Kubernetes cluster to horizontally scale Docker containers. It was possible to keep one shared instance of the database, and many APIs were routed with an internal Kubernetes load balancer. - Source: dev.to / 26 days ago
  • Can I scale my dockerized Flask solution with Kubernetes?
    Install Minicube - a tool that allows us to spin up a Kubernetes cluster in a local machine Run minikube start to start your Kubernetes cluster Run minikube dashboard to spin up a web-based user interface that allows you to manage your Kubernetes cluster. - Source: dev.to / 29 days ago
  • DevOps experience without Kubernetes
    Https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube for local learning that's lightweight. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Minikube service URL not working
    Root@vagrant-ubuntu-trusty:~/docker-containers# docker imagesREPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZEdockercontainers\_jenkins latest bb1142706601 4 days ago 1.03GBdockercontainers\_sonar latest 3f021a73750c 4 days ago ... Source: about 1 year ago
  • Best way to install and use kubernetes for learning
    Minikube (https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube) - based off of docker machine, uses driver for backend, so can use KVM, Vagrant, or Docker itself to bootstrap K8S cluster. Source: over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing k3s and minikube, you can also consider the following products

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

Kontena Lens - Kontena Lens is an open-source desktop application that comes with a reliable way to manage and monitor Kubernetes clusters.

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

Rancher - Open Source Platform for Running a Private Container Service

Minishift - Minishift is an advanced-level tool that is used to control and run the local base OKD with the help of a cluster which is single nodded, and it works perfectly inside the virtual machine.

Portainer - Simple management UI for Docker