For me also the overhead played a big role, to just get a bare kubernetes cluster you already need 3 nodes + 1-2 load balancers. In case you are using GKE, you

For me also the overhead played a big role, to just get a bare kubernetes cluster you already need 3 nodes + 1-2 load balancers. In case you are using GKE, you actually need two ingresses to support IPv6 + IPv4 This adds up to like 10 times the cost of an single droplet. For personal projects this seems kind of wasteful to me.