Do not run Kubernetes for a client project that fits on one server, has no autoscaling requirement, and is maintained by fewer than three people who touch infrastructure. A single Docker Compose host running behind a reverse proxy handles the majority of small agency workloads, and it costs you exactly two things: minutes of downtime during reboots, and a manual path back from hardware failure. Kubernetes does not remove those costs, it converts them into a control plane you now have to keep alive. Pick the failure mode you can actually staff.
TL;DR by reader profile:
Agency running 12 client sites on one provider (WordPress, Node APIs, a few static builds): one Compose host per client tier, because per client blast radius matters more to you than scheduling, and your real risk is a botched deploy, not capacity.
Two person team with one revenue critical app (SaaS, single Postgres, 24/7 traffic): Compose plus a warm standby and tested restores, because a second machine you can promote beats a cluster nobody on the team can debug at 3am.
Team of six with a genuine multi service platform (8 or more services, several deploys a day): Kubernetes starts paying for itself here, because rolling deploys, health gating and per service resource limits stop being manual work.
