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MicroK8s vs k3d: catalog facts
MicroK8s	k3d
Free The open-source software is available without a license fee. Hosting, hardware and…	Free Free and open source, supported by sponsorships.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hosted	Command line
Add-ons turn common cluster components on with one command Clusters of three or more nodes gain high availability automatically	Creates single- and multi-node Kubernetes clusters in seconds Runs entirely inside Docker
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	Requires Docker and kubectl Aimed at development rather than production clusters
Self-hosted	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: Apache-2.0	License not stated
Not stated if an account is needed	No account 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 24, 2026

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