5
DevOps
Kubernetes vs Docker Compose for a 3-service product on a single VM
Scalability ↔ Simplicity
Context
Choose the deployment model for an early-stage product.
Three services (API, worker, web) plus Postgres and Redis. Under 50 req/s. A contractor proposed EKS "so we're ready to scale". Monthly cost would go from ~$80 to ~$400 before any workload.
Is there a middle ground (ECS, Fly.io, Nomad, k3s) or is Compose on a VM with a good backup story genuinely fine at this stage?
Constraints
- Team
- 3 engineers
- Traffic
- < 50 req/s
- Budget
- $300/month
KubernetesvsDocker Compose
Community verdict
Kubernetes 22%Docker Compose 78%
9 engineers · 3 opinions
With these constraints, what would you choose?
One choice per engineer. You can change it any time.
Kubernetes
Docker Compose
Simplicity →
Trade-offs
Dimensions
KubernetesDocker Composeout of 5
- Scalability
- 5Kubernetes scores 5 of 52Docker Compose scores 2 of 5
- Simplicity
- 1Kubernetes scores 1 of 55Docker Compose scores 5 of 5
- Self-healing
- 5Kubernetes scores 5 of 5
Community discussion
3 comments
Have you made this decision in production? Share your reasoning.
Sign in to commentIf anyone on the team already knows Kubernetes, a managed control plane is less scary than it looks — and you get rolling deploys and health checks for free. But EKS at $400/month for 50 rps is hard to justify.
ECS Fargate is the honest middle ground on AWS. Rolling deploys and health checks without running a cluster.
Compose + systemd + automated backups + a second VM for blue/green will carry you to real product-market fit. Re-evaluate when you need more than one machine for the workload, not for the resume.