I was in the same place as you a few years ago - I liked swarm, and was a bit intimidated by kubernetes - so I'd encourage you to take a stab at kubernetes. Everything you like about swam kubernetes does better, and tools like k3s make it super simple to get set up. There _is& a learning curve, but I'd say it's worth it. Swarm is more or less a dead end tech at this point, and there are a lot more resources about kubernetes out there.