Managed Kubernetes pricing has two parts that you should always separate: the control-plane fee (a per-cluster charge for the managed Kubernetes API/masters) and the worker-node cost (the VMs that actually run your pods). On top of those sit networking costs — load balancers and data egress.
The control-plane fee is the headline difference
The single biggest pricing divide is whether the provider charges for the control plane. The hyperscalers do; most independents don’t.
| Provider | Control plane | Est. control-plane/month | Free control plane? |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS EKS | $0.10/hr | ~$73 | No |
| Google GKE | $0.10/hr | ~$73 (1 free via credit) | No* |
| Azure AKS | Free (Standard $0.10/hr) | $0 base / ~$73 SLA tier | Yes (base) |
| DigitalOcean DOKS | Free (HA $40/mo) | $0 | Yes |
| Akamai/Linode LKE | Free (HA $60/mo) | $0 | Yes |
| Civo | Free | $0 | Yes |
| Vultr VKE | Free | $0 | Yes |
| Oracle OKE | Free (basic) | $0 | Yes |
*GKE charges $0.10/hr but a ~$74.40 monthly credit covers one cluster. Snapshot captured June 2026 — verify on each vendor’s pricing page.
Worker nodes are where most of the money goes
The control-plane fee is usually small next to compute. Representative cheapest nodes range from about $4/month (self-managed on Hetzner) and $7–$12/month (Scaleway, Vultr, DigitalOcean, Linode, Civo) up to $24–$30/month for a small hyperscaler instance. Because nodes dominate, a “free control plane” doesn’t automatically mean cheapest overall — see the cheapest managed Kubernetes ranking.
Don’t forget networking
Load balancers add roughly $10–$22/month each, and egress can be the silent budget-killer on hyperscalers (~$0.09/GB after a small free tier). Providers like OVHcloud, Civo and Oracle include generous or unlimited egress.
Bottom line
For a small team, a free-control-plane provider plus cheap nodes is the lowest-cost route. For deep cloud integration and the widest regions, EKS or GKE are worth the fee. Estimate your own bill with the cost calculator, and read the full breakdowns on each provider page.