I always criticized Bitnami charts for being too complex. Then I wrote my own.
Client project: Laravel app, MongoDB deployed alongside it, Postgres managed. Simple deploy. Wrote a Helm chart from scratch - 30 lines. Works.
Then we needed env variables. Added. Decided to throw in secrets and PVC mounts while I was at it. Then affinity rules. Added. Tried to reuse it for another app - found a hardcoded service name in three places. Added helpers. Annotations. Labels.
About ten iterations total.
Opened the chart. Checked the line count.
Not 500. But not 30 either.
That’s when it clicked.
Bitnami builds for any MongoDB in any cluster with any requirements. That’s why it’s 500 lines.
I built for one project - and still ended up at 220, because reality is always more complex than it looks at the start.
The difference: they anticipated it upfront. I discovered it along the way.
My rule now:
- Need fast and standard → Bitnami
- Need full control → write your own
Universality has a price. The question is whether it’s theirs or yours.