Advantage of Helm

Here are the key advantages of using Helm over raw Kubernetes manifests for your homelab setup:

1. Templating & Parameterization

# values.yaml (Helm)
service:
  type: NodePort
  port: 9000
  nodePort: 30777

# vs hardcoded manifest
spec:
  type: NodePort
  ports:
    - port: 9000
      nodePort: 30777

Benefit: Change settings without modifying manifests
Use Case: Easily switch between NodePort/LoadBalancer for different services

2. Version Management

# Track releases
helm list -n portainer
NAME      NAMESPACE   REVISION    STATUS      CHART           APP VERSION
portainer portainer   1           deployed    portainer-2.0   2.16.0

# Rollback
helm rollback portainer 1 -n portainer

Benefit: Atomic upgrades/rollbacks
Use Case: Safely update Nextcloud without downtime

3. Dependency Management

# Chart.yaml
dependencies:
  - name: postgresql
    version: 11.6.12
    repository: https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami

Benefit: Auto-install required databases/caches
Use Case: Paperless-ngx with automatic PostgreSQL deployment

4. Code Reuse

# Reusable across clusters
helm install paperless ./paperless-chart \
  --set persistence.size=20Gi \
  --set ingress.enabled=true

Benefit: Same chart works for dev/staging/prod
Use Case: Deploy Vaultwarden to multiple clusters

5. Community Charts

# One-command installs
helm install redis bitnami/redis \
  --set architecture=standalone \
  --set auth.password=secret

Benefit: 10,000+ pre-configured apps
Use Case: Quickly add Redis cache for Nextcloud

6. Configuration Validation

# Test template rendering
helm template ./chart --values values.yaml --debug

# Lint charts
helm lint ./chart

Benefit: Catch errors before deployment
Use Case: Validate Bookstack configuration pre-deployment

7. Release Hooks

annotations:
  "helm.sh/hook": pre-install

Benefit: Run jobs before/after install
Use Case:
1. Backup database pre-upgrade
2. Run migrations post-install

Homelab-Specific Advantages

Feature	Benefit for You	Example
Single Source	Manage all apps in one place	Portainer + Apps in 1 chart
DRY Principle	Reduce YAML duplication	Shared ingress configuration
Secret Management	Integrate with Vault/SealedSecrets	Secure Vaultwarden secrets
Lifecycle Mgmt	Unified install/upgrade process	Update all apps consistently

When to Use Raw Manifests

Simple single-resource deployments
Learning Kubernetes fundamentals
Edge cases requiring custom CRDs
Temporary debugging environments

For your stack (Nextcloud, Vaultwarden, Paperless-ngx), Helm provides:

Nextcloud: Easy MariaDB/Redis dependency management
Vaultwarden: Simple secret injection
Paperless-ngx: Pre-configured OCR/Redis setup

Would you like me to show a Helm vs raw manifest comparison for one of your specific applications?

vaultwarden-deployment.yaml