--- title: WebAssembly on Kubernetes • Nicolas Frankel • YOW! 2025 description: A conference talk exploring how to run WebAssembly workloads on Kubernetes, covering the evolution of WebAssembly from browser-only to server-side use cases.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/webassembly-on-kubernetes-nicolas-frankel-yow-2025-qebbajmy2 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: WebAssembly on Kubernetes • Nicolas Frankel • YOW! 2025 | daily.dev og:description: A conference talk exploring how to run WebAssembly workloads on Kubernetes, covering the evolution of WebAssembly from browser-only to server-side use cases.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/webassembly-on-kubernetes-nicolas-frankel-yow-2025-qebbajmy2 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/qeBBajmY2.png og:image:alt: WebAssembly on Kubernetes • Nicolas Frankel • YOW! 2025 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # WebAssembly on Kubernetes • Nicolas Frankel • YOW! 2025 **[GOTO Conferences](https://daily.dev/sources/goto)** · 36 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A conference talk exploring how to run WebAssembly workloads on Kubernetes, covering the evolution of WebAssembly from browser-only to server-side use cases. The speaker demonstrates building an HTTP server in Rust using Axum, compiled to three container variants: native (~12MB), WebAssembly with embedded runtime (~8MB), and a scratch container with only the .wasm file (~2MB). The talk explains how Kubernetes delegates container execution through containerd → shim → runc, and how replacing runc with a WasmEdge shim enables running bare .wasm containers. Live demos show all three variants running in Kubernetes. The speaker candidly notes WasmEdge's maintenance concerns and the ecosystem's rapid, sometimes breaking changes, recommending the approach for startups seeking competitive advantage but cautioning traditional software shops about stability risks. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How small can a WebAssembly container image be compared to a native Rust binary for the same HTTP server? A WebAssembly-only container built from scratch can be as small as 2MB, compared to 12MB for a native Rust binary and 8MB for a WebAssembly binary running on an embedded WasmEdge runtime base image. All three were built from the exact same Rust source code using an Axum-based HTTP server, with the difference baked in at compile time via a Rust config flag. _Anyone weighing container size trade-offs for Rust services can track real-world WebAssembly experiments like this on daily.dev._ ### How do you configure Kubernetes to run WebAssembly containers using WasmEdge? Kubernetes delegates container execution through containerd to a shim, which normally calls runc; to run WebAssembly workloads, you add a WasmEdge shim entry to the containerd runtime configuration file inside the node (accessible via SSH, e.g. on a minikube profile) so that containers tagged as wasmedge get routed to the WasmEdge binary instead of runc. WasmEdge itself must be compiled from source using Rust and Cargo since no prebuilt binary is distributed. _Engineers setting up alternative container runtimes on Kubernetes can follow WebAssembly tooling changes on daily.dev._ ### Is WasmEdge a stable, well-maintained WebAssembly runtime for production Kubernetes use? No, WasmEdge's maintenance has stalled, with the last code commit in March 2024, and the runtime component is in even worse shape. A working demo built six months earlier broke without explanation and required downgrading the Tokio version to run again, despite no changes to the demo code itself, illustrating high instability in the WebAssembly-on-Kubernetes ecosystem. _Teams deciding whether to bet on WasmEdge or another runtime can weigh reliability reports like this via daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The 7 Walls JavaScript Hits — and How WebAssembly Gets Past Them](https://daily.dev/posts/the-7-walls-javascript-hits-and-how-webassembly-gets-past-them-isxmm7isd) · DEV · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [WebAssembly: an introduction](https://daily.dev/posts/webassembly-an-introduction-1iycvposp) · Flavio Copes · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [WebAssembly is now outperforming containers at the edge](https://daily.dev/posts/webassembly-is-now-outperforming-containers-at-the-edge-nsdmbgtjw) · The New Stack · 3 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#kubernetes](https://daily.dev/tags/kubernetes), [#rust](https://daily.dev/tags/rust), [#containers](https://daily.dev/tags/containers), [#webassembly](https://daily.dev/tags/webassembly) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/webassembly-on-kubernetes-nicolas-frankel-yow-2025-qebbajmy2) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"WebAssembly on Kubernetes • Nicolas Frankel • YOW! 2025","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/webassembly-on-kubernetes-nicolas-frankel-yow-2025-qebbajmy2","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/webassembly-on-kubernetes-nicolas-frankel-yow-2025-qebbajmy2"},"datePublished":"2026-07-21T12:19:44.451Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T06:52:25.997Z","description":"A conference talk exploring how to run WebAssembly workloads on Kubernetes, covering the evolution of WebAssembly from browser-only to server-side use cases....","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gyGupmI1wvk/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gyGupmI1wvk/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"GOTO Conferences","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"GOTO Conferences","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--rax7fnoD--/f_auto/v1704628081/logos/goto.jpg","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/goto"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/webassembly-on-kubernetes-nicolas-frankel-yow-2025-qebbajmy2","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"kubernetes,rust,containers,webassembly","timeRequired":"PT36M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"WebAssembly on Kubernetes • Nicolas Frankel • YOW! 2025","description":"A conference talk exploring how to run WebAssembly workloads on Kubernetes, covering the evolution of WebAssembly from browser-only to server-side use cases....","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gyGupmI1wvk/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-07-21T12:19:44.451Z","duration":"PT36M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/qeBBajmY2","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/gyGupmI1wvk"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"GOTO Conferences","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/goto"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"WebAssembly on Kubernetes • Nicolas Frankel • YOW! 2025"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/webassembly-on-kubernetes-nicolas-frankel-yow-2025-qebbajmy2#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How small can a WebAssembly container image be compared to a native Rust binary for the same HTTP server?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"A WebAssembly-only container built from scratch can be as small as 2MB, compared to 12MB for a native Rust binary and 8MB for a WebAssembly binary running on an embedded WasmEdge runtime base image. 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