Docker Compose vs Kubernetes for Home and Small Servers

1# A complete stack in one simple file
2services: 
3  app: 
4    image: myapp:1.0
5    ports: 
6      - "8080:80"
7    restart: unless-stopped
8
9  db: 
10    image: postgres:15
11    volumes: 
12      - db_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
13    restart: unless-stopped
14
15volumes: 
16  db_data: 
17
18# Deploy with: docker compose up -d
19# That's it. No cluster, no control plane, no complexity.

1# Same app in Kubernetes - much more verbose
2apiVersion: apps/v1
3kind: Deployment
4metadata: 
5  name: myapp
6spec: 
7  replicas: 3
8  selector: 
9    matchLabels: 
10      app: myapp
11  template: 
12    metadata: 
13      labels: 
14        app: myapp
15    spec: 
16      containers: 
17      - name: myapp
18        image: myapp:1.0
19        ports: 
20        - containerPort: 80
21---
22apiVersion: v1
23kind: Service
24metadata: 
25  name: myapp
26spec: 
27  selector: 
28    app: myapp
29  ports: 
30  - port: 80
31    targetPort: 80

1# Initialize Swarm on the first node
2docker swarm init
3
4# Join other nodes
5docker swarm join --token <token> <manager-ip>:2377
6
7# Deploy a stack (uses compose file syntax)
8docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml mystack