Amazon EKS vs Azure AKS: pricing
On the control plane, Azure AKS has a free control plane while Amazon EKS charges for it. Amazon EKS charges $0.10/hr (~$73/mo) and Azure AKS charges Free (Free). Their cheapest worker nodes are about $30/mo and $30/mo. For an illustrative 3-node cluster with one load balancer, Azure AKS is the cheaper of the two (~$102/mo vs ~$175/mo). Snapshot captured June 2026 — verify before buying.
Data as of June 2026.
Amazon EKS vs Azure AKS side by side
| Cost factor | Amazon EKS | Azure AKS |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Microsoft Azure |
| Control plane | $0.10/hr | Free |
| Est. control-plane / month | ~$73/mo | Free |
| Free control plane? | No | Yes |
| Cheapest node / month | $30 | $30 |
| Load balancer | AWS Network/Application Load Balancer billed separately (from ~$16–$22/month plus LCU usage). | Azure Standard Load Balancer billed separately. |
| Egress | Standard AWS data-transfer egress applies (first 100 GB/month free, then ~$0.09/GB). | Standard Azure bandwidth egress applies (first 100 GB/month free). |
| Free tier | No free control plane. AWS Free Tier covers some EC2/EBS for 12 months but not the EKS control-plane fee. | Free tier control plane at $0 (best-effort 99.5% availability, no SLA). You still pay for VM nodes, storage and networking. |
| Regions | 30+ AWS regions worldwide. | 60+ Azure regions worldwide. |
Sources: Amazon Web Services pricing · Microsoft Azure pricing.
Sample monthly cost
A rough monthly total for a small cluster (3 nodes at each provider's cheapest node price + one $12/mo load balancer + the control-plane fee). This ignores egress, storage, support and node-size differences, so treat it as a starting point only:
| Component | Amazon EKS | Azure AKS |
|---|---|---|
| Control plane | ~$73/mo | Free |
| 3 × cheapest node | $90 | $90 |
| 1 × load balancer | $12 | $12 |
| Estimated total / month | $175 | $102 |
Verdict
On cost alone, Azure AKS is the cheaper pick for this small-cluster example. But the right choice depends on more than price: Amazon EKS (deep aws integration (iam, vpc, alb, fargate)) versus Azure AKS (free control-plane tier for dev/test). Read each provider's full breakdown — Amazon EKS and Azure AKS — and model your own node plan in the calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Is Amazon EKS or Azure AKS cheaper?
On the control plane, Azure AKS has a free control plane while Amazon EKS charges for it. For a sample 3-node cluster with one load balancer (using each provider's cheapest node and a $12/mo load balancer), Azure AKS comes out lower — about $102/mo vs $175/mo. This is illustrative; your real cost depends on node size, count, egress and region. snapshot captured June 2026.
What is the control-plane fee for Amazon EKS vs Azure AKS?
Amazon EKS: $0.10 per cluster/hour for standard Kubernetes support (~$73/month). Extended support for older versions is $0.60/cluster/hour. Azure AKS: Free tier control plane is $0/cluster/hour (no financially-backed SLA). The Standard tier adds an Uptime SLA for $0.10/cluster/hour (~$73/month); the Premium tier (with long-term support) is $0.60/cluster/hour. snapshot captured June 2026 — verify on each vendor's pricing page.
Which has the cheaper worker nodes, Amazon EKS or Azure AKS?
Amazon EKS has the cheaper representative node: $30/mo vs $30/mo. Amazon EKS: EC2 t3.medium on-demand ~ $0.0416/hour (~$30/month) per node; you pay normal EC2 rates, or use EKS Auto Mode (adds a $0.02–$0.07/hr management fee per instance) or Fargate. Azure AKS: You pay normal Azure VM rates for node pools (e.g. Standard_B2s ~ $0.0416/hour, ~$30/month per node).
Amazon EKS or Azure AKS — which should a small team pick?
If a free control plane and predictable pricing matter most, lean to whichever of Amazon EKS/Azure AKS is free and simpler. If you need deep cloud integration or the widest region coverage, the larger vendor usually wins despite higher fees. Run your real node plan through the calculator before deciding.
More comparisons
Last updated: 2026-06-20