StatefulSets manage stateful applications requiring stable identities and persistent storage. Unlike Deployments, StatefulSets provide ordered Pod creation (pod-0, pod-1, pod-2) and stable network identifiers. Each Pod gets a predictable hostname via a headless Service. volumeClaimTemplates create a unique PersistentVolumeClaim for each replica. Pods maintain their identity across rescheduling—pod-0 always reattaches to the same volume. Ordered deployment and scaling ensure pod-0 starts before pod-1. podManagementPolicy: Parallel allows simultaneous startup when ordering is unnecessary. StatefulSets are essential for databases, message queues, and distributed systems like Kafka, Elasticsearch, and ZooKeeper. Update strategies support RollingUpdate with partition for canary rollouts.