Hi there @chuckln25,

I would personally go for a Managed Database Cluster as it is very convenient. I like the fact that you can add read-only replicas at any time and scale vertically along with the backups and the option for a standby node in case of a failure.

Running your database on a Droplet is also an option, but you need to make sure that you have good backups in place and also make sure that you tweak the settings accordingly. If you are going for MySQL, you can follow the steps here on how to tweak your settings:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/questions/how-to-tweak-mysql-mariadb-configuration-for-increased-performance-and-stability

I would suggest Kubernetes, only if you have experience with containers and container orchestration.

I hope that this helps!
Regards,
Bobby