k3s-io/k3s
Lightweight Kubernetes
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Where it stands
Rank, growth pace and release cadence relative to everything GStars tracks.
5 releases in the last 90 days, the latest 2 days ago, with 320 contributors on GitHub.
Peaked at #24 in the weekly ranking the week of Sep 27, its best in the past year.
Use Cases & Benefits
- Provides a lightweight, fully conformant Kubernetes distribution packaged as a single binary for easy installation and operation.
- Reduces memory footprint and binary size by consolidating components and removing in-tree storage and cloud providers while maintaining upstream compatibility.
- Use for deploying Kubernetes clusters on edge and IoT devices with limited resources and minimal OS dependencies.
- Use for continuous integration environments requiring fast, simple Kubernetes setups with secure defaults and embedded components.
- Use for ARM architecture and embedded Kubernetes scenarios where a small, production-ready cluster is needed without complex setup.
Should you depend on it?
License terms, project hygiene and risks, from GitHub metadata and GStars' snapshots.
License
Apache 2.0
Permissive: commercial use, modification and redistribution are allowed with attribution; includes an explicit patent grant from contributors.
Community files
- README: present
- Contributing guide: present
- Code of conduct: present
Watch-outs
No watch-outs from GStars' checks.
General guidance from repository metadata, not legal advice. How we score
From the README
Lightweight Kubernetes. Production ready, easy to install, half the memory, all in a binary less than 100 MB.
K3s is a fully conformant production-ready Kubernetes distribution with the following changes:
K3s bundles the following technologies together into a single cohesive distribution:
These technologies can be disabled or swapped out for technologies of your choice.
We wanted an installation of Kubernetes that was half the size in terms of memory footprint. Kubernetes is a 10 letter word stylized as k8s. So something half as big as Kubernetes would be a 5 letter word stylized as K3s. A '3' is also an '8' cut in half vertically. There is neither a long-form of K3s nor official pronunciation.
Daily snapshots
Stars gained per day, and how forks and open issues moved, from GStars' daily snapshots
+648 stars over 89 days across 14 snapshot days; best day +13 on Oct 2.
Forks
2.8K+76
Open issues
92+23
Compared with peers in Kubernetes
Fastest-growing repositories GStars tracks in this cohort for the week of Nov 8, by 7-day star growth
| Repository | Stars | +7d | Health | Last release |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| superplanehq/superplane | 9.8K | +1.0K | 75 | 13 days ago |
| kubernetes/kubernetes | 129.0K | +344 | 75 | 4 days ago |
| etcd-io/etcd | 52.7K | +287 | 75 | 19 days ago |
| aquasecurity/trivy | 39.2K | +240 | 75 | 5 days ago |
| agentgateway/agentgateway | 6.1K | +187 | 75 | 14 days ago |
| k3s-io/k3s | 34.3K | — | 65 | 2 days ago |
| Category median | 39.2K | +287 | 75 | — |
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