Amazon EKS vs DigitalOcean DOKS: pricing
On the control plane, DigitalOcean DOKS has a free control plane while Amazon EKS charges for it. Amazon EKS charges $0.10/hr (~$73/mo) and DigitalOcean DOKS charges Free (Free). Their cheapest worker nodes are about $30/mo and $12/mo. For an illustrative 3-node cluster with one load balancer, DigitalOcean DOKS is the cheaper of the two (~$48/mo vs ~$175/mo). Snapshot captured June 2026 — verify before buying.
Data as of June 2026.
Amazon EKS vs DigitalOcean DOKS side by side
| Cost factor | Amazon EKS | DigitalOcean DOKS |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | DigitalOcean |
| Control plane | $0.10/hr | Free |
| Est. control-plane / month | ~$73/mo | Free |
| Free control plane? | No | Yes |
| Cheapest node / month | $30 | $12 |
| Load balancer | AWS Network/Application Load Balancer billed separately (from ~$16–$22/month plus LCU usage). | DigitalOcean Load Balancer from $12/month. |
| Egress | Standard AWS data-transfer egress applies (first 100 GB/month free, then ~$0.09/GB). | Generous pooled free egress (e.g. 2,000 GiB/month with the basic node), then ~$0.01/GiB. |
| Free tier | No free control plane. AWS Free Tier covers some EC2/EBS for 12 months but not the EKS control-plane fee. | Free standard control plane (no fee). Pay only for droplet nodes, block storage and load balancers. |
| Regions | 30+ AWS regions worldwide. | 15+ DigitalOcean datacenter regions. |
Sources: Amazon Web Services pricing · DigitalOcean 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 | DigitalOcean DOKS |
|---|---|---|
| Control plane | ~$73/mo | Free |
| 3 × cheapest node | $90 | $36 |
| 1 × load balancer | $12 | $12 |
| Estimated total / month | $175 | $48 |
Verdict
On cost alone, DigitalOcean DOKS 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 DigitalOcean DOKS (free standard control plane). Read each provider's full breakdown — Amazon EKS and DigitalOcean DOKS — and model your own node plan in the calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Is Amazon EKS or DigitalOcean DOKS cheaper?
On the control plane, DigitalOcean DOKS 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), DigitalOcean DOKS comes out lower — about $48/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 DigitalOcean DOKS?
Amazon EKS: $0.10 per cluster/hour for standard Kubernetes support (~$73/month). Extended support for older versions is $0.60/cluster/hour. DigitalOcean DOKS: Standard control plane is free. A high-availability (HA) control plane with a 99.95% SLA is $40/cluster/month. snapshot captured June 2026 — verify on each vendor's pricing page.
Which has the cheaper worker nodes, Amazon EKS or DigitalOcean DOKS?
DigitalOcean DOKS has the cheaper representative node: $12/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. DigitalOcean DOKS: Basic worker droplet from $12/month per node (1 vCPU / 2 GB). You pay only for the droplets, volumes and load balancers you use.
Amazon EKS or DigitalOcean DOKS — which should a small team pick?
If a free control plane and predictable pricing matter most, lean to whichever of Amazon EKS/DigitalOcean DOKS 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