A computer implemented method and related system determine a current load result of a software container executing on a compute node in a container system. In response to determining that the current load result exceeds a predetermined scale-up threshold for the software container, the method adds a first plurality of replicas of the software container to the compute node, where a quantity of the first plurality of replicas is related to the current load result. In response to determining that the current load result is less than a predetermined scale-down threshold for the software container, the method deletes a second plurality of replicas of the software container from the compute node, where a quantity of the second plurality of replicas is related to the current load result.