K9s vs Kubernetes

Overview

Kubernetes

Stacks61.2K

Followers52.8K

Votes685

K9s

Stacks75

Followers103

Votes2

GitHub Stars31.7K

Forks2.0K

K9s vs Kubernetes: What are the differences?

K9s and Kubernetes are both tools used in the management of containerized applications, but they have key differences that set them apart.

Compatibility and Scope: K9s is a graphical user interface (GUI) tool designed specifically for Kubernetes, allowing users to interact with their clusters through an intuitive visual interface. On the other hand, Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform that enables the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
Functionality: K9s provides various features to optimize the Kubernetes experience, including real-time monitoring, logs, pod management, resource utilization analysis, and terminal-like interactivity. In contrast, Kubernetes offers a comprehensive set of tools and APIs for cluster management, workload deployment, and scaling operations, enabling users to manage and coordinate containerized applications at scale.
User Interface: K9s offers a graphical user interface with an intuitive layout and visual representation of Kubernetes resources, making it easier for users to navigate and interact with their clusters. Kubernetes, on the other hand, primarily utilizes a command-line interface (CLI) with text-based commands for cluster management, allowing for more flexibility and automation through scripts and configuration files.
Ease of Use: K9s simplifies the management of Kubernetes by providing a more user-friendly and accessible interface, reducing the learning curve and making it easier for beginners to interact with their clusters. Kubernetes, although more complex, offers greater control and flexibility for advanced users, allowing them to carry out highly customized operations and configurations.
Integration and Extensibility: K9s supports integration with various Kubernetes plugins, allowing users to extend its functionality and customize their experience according to their specific needs. Kubernetes, being a highly extensible platform itself, provides an extensive ecosystem of plugins, extensions, and integrations, enabling users to enhance and extend its capabilities to fit their requirements.
Deployment and Scalability: K9s primarily focuses on providing a user-friendly interface for managing existing Kubernetes clusters. It does not directly deal with the deployment or scaling of clusters. On the other hand, Kubernetes provides a complete solution for managing the deployment, scaling, and orchestration of containerized applications across clusters, allowing for horizontal scalability and automated scaling based on resource utilization.

In summary, K9s is a user-friendly GUI tool that enhances the Kubernetes experience by providing visual representation and simplified management, while Kubernetes is a comprehensive platform for container orchestration, offering a wide range of tools and APIs for managing containerized applications at scale.

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Advice on Kubernetes, K9s

Simon

Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH

Apr 27, 2020

Decidedon

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Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:

@{GitHub}|tool:27| (incl. @{GitHub Pages}|tool:683|/@{Markdown}|tool:1147| for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
Respectively @{Git}|tool:1046| as revision control system
@{SourceTree}|tool:1599| as @{Git}|tool:1046| GUI
@{Visual Studio Code}|tool:4202| as IDE
@{CircleCI}|tool:190| for continuous integration (automatize development process)
@{Prettier}|tool:7035| / @{TSLint}|tool:5561| / @{ESLint}|tool:3337| as code linter
@{SonarQube}|tool:2638| as quality gate
@{Docker}|tool:586| as container management (incl. @{Docker Compose}|tool:3136| for multi-container application management)
@{VirtualBox}|tool:774| for operating system simulation tests
@{Kubernetes}|tool:1885| as cluster management for docker containers
@{Heroku}|tool:133| for deploying in test environments
@{nginx}|tool:1052| as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
@{SSLMate}|tool:2752| (using @{OpenSSL}|tool:3091|) for certificate management
@{Amazon EC2}|tool:18| (incl. @{Amazon S3}|tool:25|) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
@{PostgreSQL}|tool:1028| as preferred database system
@{Redis}|tool:1031| as preferred in-memory database/store (great for caching)

The main reason we have chosen Kubernetes over Docker Swarm is related to the following artifacts:

Key features: Easy and flexible installation, Clear dashboard, Great scaling operations, Monitoring is an integral part, Great load balancing concepts, Monitors the condition and ensures compensation in the event of failure.
Applications: An application can be deployed using a combination of pods, deployments, and services (or micro-services).
Functionality: Kubernetes as a complex installation and setup process, but it not as limited as Docker Swarm.
Monitoring: It supports multiple versions of logging and monitoring when the services are deployed within the cluster (Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK), Heapster/Grafana, Sysdig cloud integration).
Scalability: All-in-one framework for distributed systems.
Other Benefits: Kubernetes is backed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), huge community among container orchestration tools, it is an open source and modular tool that works with any OS.

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Detailed Comparison

Kubernetes	K9s
Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.	K9s provides a curses based terminal UI to interact with your Kubernetes clusters. The aim of this project is to make it easier to navigate, observe and manage your applications in the wild. K9s continually watches Kubernetes for changes and offers subsequent commands to interact with observed resources.
Lightweight, simple and accessible;Built for a multi-cloud world, public, private or hybrid;Highly modular, designed so that all of its components are easily swappable	-
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 31.7K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 2.0K
Stacks 61.2K	Stacks 75
Followers 52.8K	Followers 103
Votes 685	Votes 2
Pros & Cons
Pros 166 Leading docker container management solution 130 Simple and powerful 108 Open source 76 Backed by google 58 The right abstractions Cons 16 Steep learning curve 15 Poor workflow for development 8 Orchestrates only infrastructure 4 High resource requirements for on-prem clusters 2 Too heavy for simple systems	Pros 2 Nice UI and fast way to manage my kubernetes clusters
Integrations
Vagrant Docker Rackspace Cloud Servers Microsoft Azure Google Compute Engine Ansible Google Kubernetes Engine	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Kubernetes, K9s?

Rancher

Rancher is an open source container management platform that includes full distributions of Kubernetes, Apache Mesos and Docker Swarm, and makes it simple to operate container clusters on any cloud or infrastructure platform.

Docker Compose

With Compose, you define a multi-container application in a single file, then spin your application up in a single command which does everything that needs to be done to get it running.

Docker Swarm

Swarm serves the standard Docker API, so any tool which already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to transparently scale to multiple hosts: Dokku, Compose, Krane, Deis, DockerUI, Shipyard, Drone, Jenkins... and, of course, the Docker client itself.

Tutum

Tutum lets developers easily manage and run lightweight, portable, self-sufficient containers from any application. AWS-like control, Heroku-like ease. The same container that a developer builds and tests on a laptop can run at scale in Tutum.

Portainer

It is a universal container management tool. It works with Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Swarm and Azure ACI. It allows you to manage containers without needing to know platform-specific code.

Codefresh

Automate and parallelize testing. Codefresh allows teams to spin up on-demand compositions to run unit and integration tests as part of the continuous integration process. Jenkins integration allows more complex pipelines.

CAST.AI

It is an AI-driven cloud optimization platform for Kubernetes. Instantly cut your cloud bill, prevent downtime, and 10X the power of DevOps.

k3s

Certified Kubernetes distribution designed for production workloads in unattended, resource-constrained, remote locations or inside IoT appliances. Supports something as small as a Raspberry Pi or as large as an AWS a1.4xlarge 32GiB server.

Flocker

Flocker is a data volume manager and multi-host Docker cluster management tool. With it you can control your data using the same tools you use for your stateless applications. This means that you can run your databases, queues and key-value stores in Docker and move them around as easily as the rest of your app.

Kitematic

Simple Docker App management for Mac OS X

Related Comparisons

K9s vs Kubernetes: What are the differences?

K9s and Kubernetes are both tools used in the management of containerized applications, but they have key differences that set them apart.

Compatibility and Scope: K9s is a graphical user interface (GUI) tool designed specifically for Kubernetes, allowing users to interact with their clusters through an intuitive visual interface. On the other hand, Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform that enables the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
Functionality: K9s provides various features to optimize the Kubernetes experience, including real-time monitoring, logs, pod management, resource utilization analysis, and terminal-like interactivity. In contrast, Kubernetes offers a comprehensive set of tools and APIs for cluster management, workload deployment, and scaling operations, enabling users to manage and coordinate containerized applications at scale.
User Interface: K9s offers a graphical user interface with an intuitive layout and visual representation of Kubernetes resources, making it easier for users to navigate and interact with their clusters. Kubernetes, on the other hand, primarily utilizes a command-line interface (CLI) with text-based commands for cluster management, allowing for more flexibility and automation through scripts and configuration files.
Ease of Use: K9s simplifies the management of Kubernetes by providing a more user-friendly and accessible interface, reducing the learning curve and making it easier for beginners to interact with their clusters. Kubernetes, although more complex, offers greater control and flexibility for advanced users, allowing them to carry out highly customized operations and configurations.
Integration and Extensibility: K9s supports integration with various Kubernetes plugins, allowing users to extend its functionality and customize their experience according to their specific needs. Kubernetes, being a highly extensible platform itself, provides an extensive ecosystem of plugins, extensions, and integrations, enabling users to enhance and extend its capabilities to fit their requirements.
Deployment and Scalability: K9s primarily focuses on providing a user-friendly interface for managing existing Kubernetes clusters. It does not directly deal with the deployment or scaling of clusters. On the other hand, Kubernetes provides a complete solution for managing the deployment, scaling, and orchestration of containerized applications across clusters, allowing for horizontal scalability and automated scaling based on resource utilization.

K9s vs Kubernetes

Overview