I keep seeing Kubernetes recommended for almost every project, even small apps or internal tools.
But recently I came across this post that made me rethink that approach: https://devops-daily.com/posts/when-kubernetes-is-wrong-default
It argues that Kubernetes should not be the default and that simpler options often make more sense.
Curious what others think. Are you still starting with Kubernetes, or choosing simpler setups first?
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Hey!
I think Kubernetes is still a great tool, just not always the best starting point.
If you go with something like DigitalOcean’s managed Kubernetes, it is much easier than running your own cluster. A lot of the heavy lifting is handled for you, so you can focus more on your app instead of the infrastructure.
That said, for smaller projects it can still be more than you actually need. A simpler setup like App Platform with a managed database is often faster to get started with and requires almost no ops work.
So it really depends on your use case. Kubernetes is great when you need it, but starting simple and moving to it later usually works better.
Heya, @1c73a43cf7ab4e9cb7f9e551f34a5e
Honestly I think yeah, for most small stuff it’s overkill. Read that article and it pretty much matches what I’ve seen - the painful part isn’t really learning k8s, it’s the constant upkeep after. Upgrades, cert stuff, debugging weird pod networking issues when something breaks at a bad time. Adds up fast.
For small apps I usually just start with the boring option - a single Droplet running Docker Compose does the job 90% of the time. App Platform if I don’t even want to ssh into anything. Lately I’ve also been messing around with Coolify on a Droplet which feels kinda like a self-hosted Heroku, not sure yet if I’d run something serious on it but for side projects it’s been nice.
Regards
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