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## The Kubernetes Hype Every tech conference talks about Kubernetes. Every job posting lists it. But for teams under 20 engineers, it's usually overkill. ## When You Don't Need K8s If your app: - Has fewer than 10 services - Doesn't need auto-scaling beyond basic rules - Has a small ops team (or no dedicated ops team) - Deploys less than 50 times per day Then you probably don't need Kubernetes. ## Better Alternatives ### For simple deployments: Railway / Fly.io ```bash # Deploy to Fly.io fly launch fly deploy ``` Zero Kubernetes knowledge needed. Auto-scaling, SSL, and global distribution included. ### For multi-service apps: Docker Compose ```yaml services: web: build: ./web ports: ["3000:3000"] api: build: ./api ports: ["8080:8080"] worker: build: ./worker ``` > **Tip:** Docker Compose with a simple CI/CD pipeline handles 90% of what small teams need from Kubernetes. ## When You DO Need Kubernetes - **Scale**: 50+ services or 100+ deployments/day - **Multi-region**: need pods running globally - **Custom scheduling**: complex resource allocation - **Compliance**: specific infrastructure requirements ## The Middle Ground If you're growing toward Kubernetes, start with managed services: - Google GKE Autopilot - AWS EKS with Fargate - Azure AKS These remove the cluster management overhead while giving you the Kubernetes API.