$ k8scalc compare k3s microk8s
k3s vs MicroK8s
k3s vs MicroK8s — two lightweight Kubernetes distributions for edge, IoT, and small clusters. Compare resource usage, addon systems, ARM support, and ease of use.
Featurek3sMicroK8s
Control plane RAM
~512 MB
~600 MB
ARM support
Excellent (Raspberry Pi)
Good
Install method
curl | sh—
snap install microk8s—
Addon system
Helm charts
microk8s enable <addon>
HA support
Embedded etcd—
Dqlite (raft)—
Windows node support
No
Yes
Vendor
Rancher / SUSE—
Canonical—
CNCF certified
Yes—
Yes—
Community size
Larger
Smaller
Single binary
Yes
No (snap package)
Verdict
k3s and MicroK8s are both excellent for lightweight Kubernetes. k3s edges ahead on ARM support (especially Raspberry Pi), community size, and the single-binary install experience. MicroK8s wins with its snap addon system (one command to enable Ingress, storage, DNS) and native Windows support. For Linux-only edge and IoT on ARM, k3s is the default recommendation. For Ubuntu-centric environments or Windows node requirements, MicroK8s is a strong alternative.