• This is a lab env for playing with Docker containers on Kubernetes without installing nothing: https://labs.play-with-k8s.com/
• Minikube: https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube .
• Docker Swarm: https://docs.docker.com/engine/swarm/ is an alternative to kubernetes with less features, but easy to setup. (comparison: https://medium.com/faun/kubernetes-vs-docker-swarm-whos-the-bigger-and-better-53bbe76b9d11)
• Make your own cluster using VirtualBox: https://medium.com/@KevinHoffman/building-a-kubernetes-cluster-in-virtualbox-with-ubuntu-22cd338846dd

Local-machine Solutions

Community Supported Tools

• Minikube is a method for creating a local, single-node Kubernetes cluster for development and testing. Setup is completely automated and doesn’t require a cloud provider account.

• Kubeadm-dind is a multi-node (while minikube is single-node) Kubernetes cluster which only requires a docker daemon. It uses docker-in-docker technique to spawn the Kubernetes cluster.

• Kubernetes IN Docker is a tool for running local Kubernetes clusters using Docker container “nodes”. It is primarily designed for testing Kubernetes 1.11+. You can use it to create multi-node or multi-control-plane Kubernetes clusters.

Ecosystem Tools

• Docker Desktop is an easy-to-install application for your Mac or Windows environment that enables you to start coding and deploying in containers in minutes on a single-node Kubernetes cluster.

• Minishift installs the community version of the Kubernetes enterprise platform OpenShift for local development & testing. It offers an all-in-one VM (minishift start) for Windows, macOS, and Linux. The container start is based on oc cluster up (Linux only). You can also install the included add-ons.

• MicroK8s provides a single command installation of the latest Kubernetes release on a local machine for development and testing. Setup is quick, fast (~30 sec) and supports many plugins including Istio with a single command.

• IBM Cloud Private-CE (Community Edition) can use VirtualBox on your machine to deploy Kubernetes to one or more VMs for development and test scenarios. Scales to full multi-node cluster.

• IBM Cloud Private-CE (Community Edition) on Linux Containers is a Terraform/Packer/BASH based Infrastructure as Code (IaC) scripts to create a seven node (1 Boot, 1 Master, 1 Management, 1 Proxy and 3 Workers) LXD cluster on Linux Host.

• Ubuntu on LXD supports a nine-instance deployment on localhost.

My very opionated answer: you should use k3s by Rancher Labs https://k3s.io/

• If you can run Docker, run Docker's Desktop Kubernetes Cluster.
• You also can run minikube (on a top of docker, or hypervisor, or virtualbox)
• kind - which is docker in docker k8s cluster.