<p>I need to deploy NGINX to a Kubernetes cluster, for which I can either use a Helm chart or a Docker image. But I am not clear of the benefits of using a Helm chart. I guess my question is not specific to NGINX but in general.</p>

<p>Helm Charts: making it simple to package and deploy common applications on Kubernetes [1]. Helm brings three major benefits to your service deployments [2]: </p>

<ul>
<li>Deployment speed</li>
<li>Helm chart on Kubernetes for application configuration templates</li>
<li>Application testing </li>
</ul>

<p>Use of Helm charts is recommended, because they are maintained and typically kept up to date by the Kubernetes community [3].</p>

<p>[1] <a href="https://kubernetes.io/blog/2016/10/helm-charts-making-it-simple-to-package-and-deploy-apps-on-kubernetes/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://kubernetes.io/blog/2016/10/helm-charts-making-it-simple-to-package-and-deploy-apps-on-kubernetes/</a></p>

<p>[2] <a href="https://www.nebulaworks.com/blog/2019/10/30/three-benefits-to-using-a-helm-chart-on-kubernetes/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.nebulaworks.com/blog/2019/10/30/three-benefits-to-using-a-helm-chart-on-kubernetes/</a></p>

<p>[3] <a href="https://cloud.google.com/community/tutorials/nginx-ingress-gke" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://cloud.google.com/community/tutorials/nginx-ingress-gke</a></p>
