alt Hacker NewsSome people like that Helm:
- Makes it possible to go from zero to fully running k8s integrated components in 5 seconds by just running 'helm install --repo https://example.com/charts/ mynginx nginx' (very useful: https://artifacthub.io/)
- Gives the ability to transactionally apply k8s configs, and un-apply them if there is a failure along the way (atomic rollbacks)
- Stores copies/versions/etc of each installation in the server so you have metadata for troubleshooting/operations/etc without having to keep it in some external system in a custom way.
- Allows a user who doesn't know anything about K8s to provide some simple variables to customize the installation of a bunch of K8s resources.
- Is composeable, has templates, etc.
So basically Helm has a lot of features, while Kustomize has... one. Very different purposes I think. You can also use both at the same time.
Personally I think Helm's atomic deployment feature is well worth it. I also love how easy it is to install charts. It feels a bit like magic.
Replies
What do you mean by atomic deployment? There are no transactions in the Kubernetes API. Helm has to make one request for each object it creates or modifies, like any other client.
> zero to fully running (...) in 5 seconds by just running helm install
Realistically, a plain helm install without any values rarely if ever gives you the deployment you need, so you have to study the chart anyways.
> rollback on failure
This is hardly unique to helm.
> history metadata without (...) some external system
In 2025 you should probably be using gitops anyways, in which case the git repo is your history.