K3s vs K8s: What are the Differences & Use Cases

When it comes to container orchestration, K8s (Kubernetes) has become a de facto standard for managing applications and infrastructure at scale across on-premise data centres and public clouds. But as organizations look to deploy containerized workloads to devices at the edge of their network or for Internet of Things (IoT) applications, the full Kubernetes distribution can be overkill. This is where K3s comes in. Developed by Rancher Labs, K3s is a lightweight Kubernetes distribution designed specifically for resource-constrained edge and IoT environments. In this article, we'll explain the key differences between K3s and the upstream Kubernetes project to help you understand when each makes the most sense for your application architecture and deployment needs. Try the Kubernetes Deployments Lab for free. Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It allows you to define your application's desired state and ensures that it runs consistently in a cluster of machines. Kubernetes automates tasks such as load balancing, self-healing, and scaling, making it easier to manage and maintain container-based applications. It has become the industry standard for container orchestration, simplifying the management of complex, distributed applications. To learn more about how it works, check out this blog: Kubernetes Architecture Explained: Overview for DevOps Enthusiasts. At its core, K3s shares the same API and fundamental concepts as Kubernetes.