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K3s vs MicroK8s: catalog facts
K3s	MicroK8s
Free The open-source software is available without a license fee. Hosting, hardware and…	Free The open-source software is available without a license fee. Hosting, hardware and…
Linux, Self-hosted, Command line	Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hosted
Single binary installs a conformant cluster in under a minute Runs comfortably on small ARM boards and low-memory hosts	Add-ons turn common cluster components on with one command Clusters of three or more nodes gain high availability automatically
Defaults to SQLite for a single server; high availability needs etcd or an external database Bundled Traefik and ServiceLB have to be disabled if you prefer your own	Installation is tied to snap, which is awkward on distributions that do not ship it Add-on versions track Canonical's choices rather than upstream release timing
Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License: Apache-2.0	License: Apache-2.0
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.