k0s

What k0s is

k0s is a free, self-hosted Kubernetes distribution for deploying workloads across public and private clouds, on-premises systems, bare metal, edge locations and IoT environments. It is delivered as one binary and depends on the host kernel rather than additional operating-system components. The project describes it as CNCF-certified Kubernetes and documents support for x86-64, ARM64, ARMv7 and RISC-V. Installation methods include single-node, multi-node, air-gapped and Docker setups. For cluster lifecycle work, k0sctl supports upgrades and backup and restore. K0s uses Kube-Router by default, while also supporting custom CNI plugins and listing Calico as a preconfigured option. Datastores include etcd, SQLite, MySQL and PostgreSQL. Listed security features include kube-bench, RBAC, network policies, control plane isolation and OpenID provider support. Minimum requirements are 1 vCPU and 1 GB RAM. The project aims to keep its Kubernetes base lean on bundled add-ons such as ingress, service meshes and storage.