Managed Kubernetes with a free control plane
9 of the providers we track offer a free control plane: Akamai LKE, Azure AKS, Civo Kubernetes, DigitalOcean DOKS, Hetzner (self-managed), Oracle OKE, OVHcloud MKS, Scaleway Kapsule, Vultr VKE. With these you pay $0 for the Kubernetes control plane and only for worker nodes, load balancers and egress. By contrast, AWS EKS and Google GKE charge $0.10/cluster/hour (~$73/month) — though GKE's free credit covers one cluster. Azure AKS is free on its base tier but charges $0.10/hr for a financially-backed uptime SLA.
Data as of June 2026.
Providers with a free control plane
| Provider | Vendor | Cheapest node/mo | Control-plane note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Akamai LKE | Akamai (Linode) | $12/mo | Standard control plane is free. A high-availability control plane is $60/cluster/month. LKE-Enterprise (dedicated HA control plane) is $300/cluster/month. |
| Azure AKS | Microsoft Azure | $30/mo | 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. |
| Civo Kubernetes | Civo | $10/mo | Control plane is free. You pay a flat price only for worker nodes (no per-cluster fee). |
| DigitalOcean DOKS | DigitalOcean | $12/mo | Standard control plane is free. A high-availability (HA) control plane with a 99.95% SLA is $40/cluster/month. |
| Hetzner (self-managed) | Hetzner Cloud | $4/mo | Hetzner has no managed Kubernetes product — you run Kubernetes yourself (e.g. k3s/kubeadm) on cheap cloud servers, so there is no control-plane fee, but you operate the control plane. |
| Oracle OKE | Oracle Cloud | $30/mo | 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). |
| OVHcloud MKS | OVHcloud | $20/mo | Managed Kubernetes Service control plane is free. You pay only for worker nodes and resources. |
| Scaleway Kapsule | Scaleway | $7/mo | Kapsule's managed (shared) control plane is free, with HA up to 4 GB of control-plane RAM. An optional dedicated control plane starts at about €80/month for the 4 GB tier. |
| Vultr VKE | Vultr | $10/mo | Vultr Kubernetes Engine control plane is free. You pay only for worker nodes and associated resources. |
Source: Provider pricing pages. Data as of June 2026.
Snapshot captured June 2026. Verify on each vendor's pricing page.
Providers that charge for the control plane
For reference, these providers charge a control-plane fee on the production tier:
- Amazon EKS — $0.10/hr ($0.10 per cluster/hour for standard Kubernetes support (~$73/month). Extended support for older versions is $0.60/cluster/hour.)
- Google GKE — $0.10/hr ($0.10 per cluster/hour cluster-management fee (~$73/month) on both Autopilot and Standard. A monthly free-tier credit (~$74.40) effectively covers one zonal/Autopilot cluster.)
- IBM Cloud Kubernetes — Varies (IBM manages the control plane (managed masters). A small single-zone cluster has a low free/credit allowance; otherwise you pay for the managed masters plus worker nodes.)
Frequently asked questions
Which managed Kubernetes providers have a free control plane?
As of this snapshot, Akamai LKE, Azure AKS, Civo Kubernetes, DigitalOcean DOKS, Hetzner (self-managed), Oracle OKE, OVHcloud MKS, Scaleway Kapsule, Vultr VKE offer a free standard/basic control plane — you pay only for worker nodes and resources. Note Azure AKS is free on its base tier (no SLA); a financially-backed SLA costs $0.10/cluster/hour. snapshot captured June 2026.
Do AWS EKS and Google GKE have a free control plane?
No. AWS EKS charges $0.10/cluster/hour (~$73/month). Google GKE also charges $0.10/cluster/hour, but a monthly free-tier credit (~$74.40) effectively covers one zonal or Autopilot cluster. Extra GKE clusters are billed.
Is a free control plane actually cheaper overall?
Often, but not always. The control-plane fee is usually small next to node costs, so a provider with a free control plane but pricier nodes or egress can end up costing more. Always model the full bill (control plane + nodes + load balancer + egress) for your workload.
What's the catch with a free control plane?
Usually fewer features or no financially-backed SLA on the free tier (e.g. Azure AKS free tier, Oracle basic clusters). For production you may want the paid tier with an uptime SLA. You also still pay for nodes, load balancers, storage and egress.
Keep exploring
Last updated: 2026-06-20