Performance and reliability when using multiple Docker containers VS standard Node cluster
From my experience I feel options C or D are most maintainable, and assuming you had the resources available on the server D would likely be the most performant.
That said, have you looked into Kubernetes at all? I found there’s a slight learning curve, but it’s a great resource that allows for dynamic scaling, load balancing, and offers much smoother deployment options than Docker Compose. The biggest is hosting a Kubernetes cluster is more expensive than a single server.