Amazon EKS vs Oracle OKE: pricing
On the control plane, Oracle OKE has a free control plane while Amazon EKS charges for it. Amazon EKS charges $0.10/hr (~$73/mo) and Oracle OKE charges Free (Free). Their cheapest worker nodes are about $30/mo and $30/mo. For an illustrative 3-node cluster with one load balancer, Oracle OKE 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 Oracle OKE side by side
| Cost factor | Amazon EKS | Oracle OKE |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Oracle Cloud |
| 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). | OCI Load Balancer billed separately (a small flexible shape is in the Always Free tier). |
| Egress | Standard AWS data-transfer egress applies (first 100 GB/month free, then ~$0.09/GB). | Generous 10 TB/month free egress, then low per-GB rates. |
| Free tier | No free control plane. AWS Free Tier covers some EC2/EBS for 12 months but not the EKS control-plane fee. | Basic clusters are free; OCI Always Free tier can run a small OKE cluster at no cost. |
| Regions | 30+ AWS regions worldwide. | 40+ OCI regions worldwide. |
Sources: Amazon Web Services pricing · Oracle Cloud 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 | Oracle OKE |
|---|---|---|
| Control plane | ~$73/mo | Free |
| 3 × cheapest node | $90 | $90 |
| 1 × load balancer | $12 | $12 |
| Estimated total / month | $175 | $102 |
Verdict
On cost alone, Oracle OKE 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 Oracle OKE (free basic clusters and a usable always free tier). Read each provider's full breakdown — Amazon EKS and Oracle OKE — and model your own node plan in the calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Is Amazon EKS or Oracle OKE cheaper?
On the control plane, Oracle OKE 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), Oracle OKE 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 Oracle OKE?
Amazon EKS: $0.10 per cluster/hour for standard Kubernetes support (~$73/month). Extended support for older versions is $0.60/cluster/hour. Oracle OKE: Basic clusters are free (no control-plane fee). Enhanced clusters (with a 99.95% SLA and add-on support) cost $0.10/cluster/hour (~$73/month). snapshot captured June 2026 — verify on each vendor's pricing page.
Which has the cheaper worker nodes, Amazon EKS or Oracle OKE?
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. Oracle OKE: You pay normal OCI compute rates for worker nodes; virtual nodes add $0.015/node/hour. OCI's Always Free tier includes some Ampere ARM compute.
Amazon EKS or Oracle OKE — which should a small team pick?
If a free control plane and predictable pricing matter most, lean to whichever of Amazon EKS/Oracle OKE 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