Managed Kubernetes comparison · Prices checked July 2026
DOKS vs EKS vs AKS vs GKE: control-plane cost
DigitalOcean is the only provider of the four with a free control plane on every cluster. AWS EKS and Google GKE both charge $0.10/cluster/hour (~$73/month), Azure AKS offers a free tier but reserves its uptime SLA for the ~$73/month Standard tier, and GKE's free-tier credit covers exactly one zonal or Autopilot cluster. Worker nodes, storage, and egress are billed separately everywhere — this page compares only the flat per-cluster management fee.
Control-plane fees side by side
| Service | Control plane / month | Free option | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean DOKS | $0 | Free by default (every cluster) | Optional high-availability control plane is a flat +$40/mo (99.95% uptime SLA). |
| AWS EKS | $73 | None | $0.10/cluster/hour on Kubernetes versions under standard support; versions in extended support cost $0.60/cluster/hour. |
| Azure AKS | $0 or $73 | Free tier (no uptime SLA, dev/small clusters) | Standard tier is $0.10/cluster/hour with a 99.95% API-server SLA; Premium (long-term support) is $0.60/cluster/hour. |
| GCP GKE | $73 | One free zonal or Autopilot cluster ($74.40/mo credit per billing account) | $0.10/cluster/hour management fee on all clusters; the free-tier credit does not apply to regional Standard clusters. |
When the control-plane fee actually matters
For a single production cluster, the fee is background noise — worker nodes and egress dominate. It becomes real money in two situations: many small clusters (a cluster-per-team or cluster-per-environment setup: 20 clusters is ~$1,460/month on EKS or GKE, $0 on DOKS) and dev/test environments, where a $73/month flat fee can exceed the cost of the nodes themselves.
Also compare like with like on availability: DOKS's free control plane is single-instance — its 99.95%-SLA highly-available option costs $40/month, which is still cheaper than EKS/GKE's ~$73/month standard fee and matches what AKS Standard charges for the same SLA. Worker nodes are where the comparison really diverges: DOKS nodes are billed at Droplet prices, while EKS/AKS/GKE nodes are billed at each cloud's regular VM rates.
Frequently asked questions
Which managed Kubernetes service has the cheapest control plane?
DigitalOcean Kubernetes (DOKS) — the control plane is free on every cluster, with an optional highly-available control plane at a flat $40/month. Azure AKS also offers a $0 Free tier, but without an uptime SLA. AWS EKS and Google GKE both charge $0.10 per cluster per hour (about $73/month), though GKE's free tier credit covers one zonal or Autopilot cluster per billing account.
How much does the EKS control plane cost per month?
Amazon EKS charges $0.10 per cluster per hour for Kubernetes versions under standard support, which is about $73 per month at 730 hours. Clusters running a Kubernetes version in extended support are billed at $0.60 per cluster per hour (about $438/month), so staying on supported versions matters for cost.
Is the AKS control plane really free?
Azure AKS has a genuinely free control-plane tier, but it carries no financially-backed uptime SLA and is not recommended beyond small or dev/test clusters. Production workloads typically use the Standard tier at $0.10 per cluster per hour (about $73/month), which adds a 99.95% API-server availability SLA. A Premium tier with long-term support costs $0.60 per cluster per hour.
Does GKE have a free control plane?
Partially. GKE charges a $0.10 per cluster per hour management fee on every cluster, but Google grants a $74.40 monthly free-tier credit per billing account — enough to fully offset the fee for one zonal or Autopilot cluster. Additional clusters, and regional Standard clusters, pay the full fee (about $73/month each).
Is the control-plane fee the biggest cost in a Kubernetes cluster?
Usually not. Worker nodes, storage, load balancers, and egress typically dwarf the flat control-plane fee once a cluster runs real workloads. The control-plane fee matters most for fleets of many small clusters — 20 clusters is ~$1,460/month on EKS or GKE versus $0 on DOKS — and for dev/test environments where nodes are small.
Prices checked July 2026 against the official pricing pages: AWS EKS pricing, Azure AKS pricing tiers, Google GKE pricing, and DigitalOcean Kubernetes pricing. Control-plane/management fees only — worker nodes, storage, load balancers, and egress are billed separately on all four services. See our methodology for pricing sources, update cadence, and mapping rules.
Model your full cluster, not just the control plane
The control-plane fee is one line item. Use the free SpendArk calculator to compare AWS, Azure, GCP, and DigitalOcean across your whole architecture — Kubernetes nodes, databases, storage, and networking together.
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For a deeper dive on the hyperscaler side of managed Kubernetes pricing, read our EKS vs AKS vs GKE pricing guide.