Installation on Zwindler's Reflection

101 ways to deploy Kubernetes: a brand new UI to explore 118+ solutions

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 18:00:00 +0200

From Google Sheet to a real web application

You might remember my previous posts about this project: first a simple Google Sheet with 93 methods, then a GitHub repository with over 100 entries.

Today, I can present the latest iteration of this project: a real web interface to explore all these solutions!

👉 101-ways-to-deploy-kubernetes

Why a UI?

The Markdown table on GitHub was already better than the Google Sheet for collaboration, but barely. Hard to parse, hard to add columns without it becoming a mess (it already was, haha), and above all, incredibly UGLY.

I therefore decided to turn all of this into a modern and intuitive interface, with the help of an LLM.

Tech stack: Astro + Tailwind

For this project, I chose a simple but effective stack:

Astro: a modern framework that generates ultra-fast static sites
Tailwind CSS: for hassle-free responsive design

The result? A lightweight, fairly fast site that works on both desktop and mobile (though the desktop experience remains more comfortable given the amount of data).

Features

Cards for each solution

No more spreadsheet-style table worthy of a backend dev (no, worse, a kube engineer…)! Each tool now has its own animated “card” with:

The project logo
The license type (OSS or proprietary)
The GitHub star count
Direct links to the project and third-party resources (independent blogs, experience reports, tutorials…)

Powerful filters

Looking only for open source solutions? Tools for local development? Management platforms?

Category filters make navigation easy:

Desktop (local development)
Managed (cloud offerings)
Self-hosted (on-premise automation)
Infra As Code
Kubernetes OS (specialized operating systems)
Management Platform
Kubernetes in Kubernetes

You can also filter by status (active, abandoned) or show only open source or production ready solutions.

A search bar

Know what you’re looking for? Just type the name in the search bar to find the solution instantly.

Tags for refinement

Beyond categories, tags help quickly identify underlying technologies (kubeadm, k3s, k0s…).

Did you know? At least 18 tools use kubeadm!

While compiling all this data, I discovered something fascinating: at least 18 tools use kubeadm as a backend to deploy Kubernetes! 🤯

And that’s not even counting the managed Kubernetes offerings from cloud providers!

This is exactly the kind of information you can now visualize instantly thanks to this new interface.

A collaborative project

The project remains 100% open source and collaborative. The data is still stored in the GitHub repository, and the UI is automatically generated from that data (I even added PR previews).

Is a tool or provider missing? Spotted a bug? Feel free to open an issue or submit a Pull Request!

The project now lists 118 solutions (and I know there are certainly more missing), each with:

Up-to-date links
Project status
External references (tutorials, experience reports…)

Head over to zwindler.github.io/101-ways-to-deploy-kubernetes to explore all these solutions!

OK, this is a shameless “call to action” like you see on every social network. Fair enough.

However, I can’t know if this is useful (or not) if you don’t tell me. I can leave it as is (it’s not a big deal, I have plenty of other projects waiting for my spare time) or keep it alive, if you like it / find it useful.

And if you do find this project useful, please:

Star the project on GitHub
Share it with your colleagues in the Cloud Native community
Contribute by adding missing tools or fixing errors

Thanks in advance! 🙏

101 ways to deploy Kubernetes v2

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 10:00:00 +0200

A new version, a new home

A few months ago, I created a spreadsheet cataloging 93 different ways to deploy Kubernetes, hosted on Google Sheets.

Following a remark from a frenchie from the Cloud Native community (Ludovic Piot) who would have liked to contribute one or two missing tools, I took some (well, a lot, actually) time during these holidays to migrate everything to Github: 101-ways-to-deploy-kubernetes

Why on a git repository rather than on a Google Sheet like at the beginning? Because it allows me to easily make this project truly collaborative, especially through PRs (and more importantly their validation or not).

Google Sheets was fine to start with, when it was a personal tool to help me write my book, but for collaboration, it wasn’t viable.

What’s new in this v2?

Easier contributions

The project now has a CONTRIBUTING.md that explains how to participate.

Do you know a solution that’s not listed? Did you spot an error? A broken link? Just submit a Pull Request!

Many new methods (I haven’t counted but probably a dozen)

The project has grown from 93 to over 100 methods! I’ve continued my explorations and added a dozen new solutions, some of which you suggested to me.

License information

I’ve enriched the table with license details for each project. This is particularly important to quickly identify whether a product is truly open source or if it’s a proprietary or commercial license solution.

I had this debate with Ludovic actually, who wanted to understand why I hadn’t listed “MKE (Mirantis Kubernetes Engine)”. I had responded at the time that it was because I couldn’t access a trial version as a “random from the Internet” without going through a salesperson, but the argument wasn’t very solid.

To find a “unique” rule to indicate in the CONTRIBUTING.md, I therefore reintegrated some of the solutions I had “censored”.

While the heart of the cloud native ecosystem is open source, both open source and closed source (proprietary) tools are accepted in this list. What matters is whether the tool helps deploy Kubernetes clusters, not its licensing model.

Numerous external references

I did significant work on the “external references” section. The idea of the repo, beyond just providing a laundry list, is to reference third-party articles showing how to set up these solutions and benefit from the community’s feedback.

With the idea of making the project more international (it will be just as useful to English speakers as to the little frenchies in my community), I prioritized English links for as many solutions as possible on this list. There are still some without them, but it’s progressing.

Important note: beyond the official documentation (which exists very often for the vast majority of projects), I wanted to catalog:

Quality community tutorials
Detailed blog articles
Concrete feedback and experience reports

A project still under CC BY-SA 4.0

The content remains under CC BY-SA 4.0 (Attribution - Share Alike) license.

This means you are free to:

Share: copy and redistribute the content
Adapt: remix, transform, and build upon the material

Under the following conditions:

Attribution: you must credit the project
Share Alike: if you adapt the content, you must distribute it under the same license

How to contribute?

It’s simple:

Fork the 101-ways-to-deploy-kubernetes repository
Add or modify the content (following the table format)
Submit a Pull Request

Read the CONTRIBUTING.md for more details on the process and best practices.

All contributions are welcome: new entries, corrections, enhancements, suggestions…

What’s next?

The project will continue to evolve with new discoveries and your contributions.

I’m also continuing to explore new solutions and enrich existing information. And who knows, maybe we’ll exceed 150 methods by the end of the year? 😄

This is the moment where I play influencer and ask you not to hesitate to:

Star the project on Github if you find it useful ⭐⭐⭐
Contribute by adding your discoveries
Share around you if you find it useful

See you at github.com/zwindler/101-ways-to-deploy-kubernetes!

93 ways to deploy Kubernetes: I've cataloged (almost) all existing methods

Sun, 02 Nov 2025 18:00:00 +0200

A slightly crazy documentary project

When I started writing my book “Kubernetes: 50 solutions for development workstations and production clusters”, I quickly realized a problem: there are an infinite number of ways to deploy Kubernetes.

Well, not literally infinite, but still… many. Too many?

To structure my book and choose which solutions I would cover, I did what any good nerd would do: I created a spreadsheet.

A very large spreadsheet.

A Google Sheet that currently lists 93 different methods for deploying Kubernetes. Since I don’t like to “waste”, I’m sharing it with you today under CC BY-SA 4.0 (Attribution - Share Alike):

93 ways to deploy Kubernetes

What does this spreadsheet contain?

The spreadsheet is structured with several columns to help you navigate this jungle:

Product name (and publisher when interesting)
Product URL: I tried to restrict to open source products (or public managed services) although there are a few exceptions
Solution type (I’ll come back to this)
“Based on”: this is quite funny… many projects are layers on top of kubeadm, k3s or k0s. Not all of them say it openly, and I realized it by trying them or digging in the code

And maybe a bit less interesting for some of you (maybe it will disappear)

Do I talk about it in my book?
Do I talk about it on my blog?

The different tool categories

To structure first my thinking, and then my book, I tried to classify these methods into categories.

Some are quite obvious (a managed offering, you can immediately see what it’s about), others, a bit more personal (and therefore debatable).

Kubernetes on desktop (Local Development)

Tools for developing locally on your machine. We’re talking about Minikube, kind and other Docker Desktop

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Tools that allow you to describe Kubernetes deployment via code (opentofu, crossplane, pulumi…)

Kubernetes in Kubernetes

Because why make it simple when you can make it… recursive? 🤯. It’s currently limited to vCluster and k3k.

Specialized OSes

Operating systems designed specifically to run Kubernetes. I’m obviously thinking of Talos Linux, but not only ;-P.

Managed Kubernetes (turnkey cloud offerings)

No need to draw a picture, we immediately think of the EKS / AKS / GKE triplet, but also French solutions (OVHcloud Managed Kubernetes, soon Clever Cloud :smirk:)

Cluster management platforms

Here, it’s a somewhat separate category, which will allow us to manage many Kubernetes clusters and even generate new clusters managed by clusters… Often good Rube Goldberg machines like Gardener or worse Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform. We still have some slightly more fun things like Kamaji.

Automation tools for self-hosted

Solutions that automate deployment on your own machines, like kubeadm, k3s and k0s (the triplet, basis of about 50% of other market solutions).

The revelation: everyone copies from their neighbor

While filling in this spreadsheet, I discovered something funny: a large majority of tools don’t reinvent the wheel.

Many projects are actually layers or wrappers around three basic solutions I just mentioned (kubeadm, k3s and k0s). And sometimes, we also have layers on slightly more confidential solutions.

The information isn’t always available, I sometimes discovered it in a blog post, or even by digging into the solution’s internals.

This is typically the kind of interesting column to really realize that beyond the apparent diversity of these deployment solutions, there’s actually a big standard and a few variations.

I hope to manage to find more similar clues to fill this column even more :).

A living document

This spreadsheet is not static. The number of tools evolves regularly (I discover new ones almost every week).

If you know a method that’s not listed, don’t hesitate to comment on social networks.

Note: I remind you that I primarily target open source solutions or public managed services (I just removed Mirantis Kubernetes Engine for this reason).

So, what do I still have to test?

I’ve already teased on reputable social networks, in the list of things I haven’t tested yet but that could motivate me, there are: