Helm Charts Are Not the Answer to Everything
Helm is the de facto package manager for Kubernetes. It's powerful, widely adopted, and the first tool most teams reach for.
It's also overused, over-complicated, and sometimes the wrong tool entirely.
When Helm Shines
Complex, Reusable Applications
Installing Prometheus, NGINX Ingress, or cert-manager? Helm is perfect. These are complex systems with many resources and sensible defaults. Helm's templating and values system lets you customise without understanding every YAML file.
Third-Party Software
When you're installing something you didn't build, Helm charts maintained by the vendor or community are the easiest path.
Consistent Multi-Environment Deployment
One chart, different values per environment. values-dev.yaml, values-prod.yaml. This works well for applications that are identical except for configuration.
When Helm Is the Wrong Choice
Simple Applications
If your app is a Deployment, Service, and Ingress, you don't need Helm. Plain YAML with Kustomize overlays is simpler, more readable, and easier to debug.
Helm for 3 YAML files is like using a crane to hang a picture frame.
When You Need Logic
Helm templates are Go templates. Writing complex logic in Go templates is painful:
{{- if and .Values.ingress.enabled (not .Values.ingress.className) }}
{{- if semverCompare ">=1.18-0" .Capabilities.KubeVersion.GitVersion }}
{{- if not (hasKey .Values.ingress.annotations "kubernetes.io/ingress.class") }}
If your chart has more conditionals than resources, you've outgrown Helm. Consider Pulumi, cdk8s, or a custom operator.
When Teams Can't Read Templates
I've seen teams afraid to touch their own Helm charts because the templating got too complex. If your deployment tool is a black box to the team deploying with it, that's a problem.
The Alternatives
| Tool | Best For | Learning Curve |
|---|---|---|
| Kustomize | Simple overlays, built into kubectl | Low |
| Helm | Complex third-party installations | Medium |
| cdk8s | Programmatic K8s manifests (TypeScript/Python) | Medium-High |
| Pulumi | Full infrastructure + K8s from real programming languages | High |
| Jsonnet | Data-templating with logic | High |
My Rule of Thumb
- Installing third-party software → Helm
- Your own simple app → Kustomize
- Your own complex platform → cdk8s or Pulumi
- Everything needs some customisation → Kustomize with Helm for the complex parts
The best tool is the one your team can understand and maintain. Complexity in the deployment layer is a tax you pay on every change.
What's your go-to for Kubernetes deployments? Let me know on LinkedIn.