Container Orchestration Cost Comparison: EKS vs AKS vs GKE vs OKE vs ACK 2025
Managed Kubernetes: What You're Actually Paying For
Managed Kubernetes clusters have two main cost components: the control plane fee (what you pay for Kubernetes management itself) and the worker node cost (the actual compute). These are frequently conflated in estimates.
Control Plane Fees Comparison
| Service | Control Plane Fee | Annual for 5 Clusters |
|---|---|---|
| AWS EKS | $73/cluster/month | $4,380 |
| Azure AKS | FREE | $0 |
| GCP GKE Standard | $73/cluster/month | $4,380 |
| GCP GKE Autopilot | $73/cluster/month (in control plane) | $4,380 |
| Oracle OCI OKE | FREE | $0 |
| Alibaba Cloud ACK | FREE (Pro cluster: $71/month) | $0 |
Worker Node Cost Comparison
Example: 6 nodes × 4 vCPU / 16GB RAM (general-purpose worker nodes)
| Service | Instance Type | Node $/hr | 6-Node Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| EKS | m7i.xlarge | $0.2016 | $882 |
| AKS | D4s v5 | $0.1920 | $839 |
| GKE | n2-standard-4 | $0.1942 | $849 |
| OKE | E4.Flex 2 OCPU | $0.0640 | $280 |
| ACK | ecs.g7.xlarge | $0.2200 | $962 |
Total Cluster Cost (6 nodes, 1 cluster)
| Service | Control Plane | Nodes | Total/Month | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EKS | $73 | $882 | $955 | $11,460 |
| AKS | $0 | $839 | $839 | $10,068 |
| GKE Standard | $73 | $849 | $922 | $11,064 |
| OKE | $0 | $280 | $280 | $3,360 |
| ACK | $0 | $962 | $962 | $11,544 |
GKE Autopilot — The Pod-Level Billing Model
GKE Autopilot charges per pod resource request, not per node. Benefits: no idle node capacity cost, automatic node provisioning, simplified operations. For clusters running at 40% average utilisation, Autopilot typically saves 30-50% vs GKE Standard.
Autopilot pricing: $0.00002108/vCPU/second + $0.00000228/GB/second for memory. For a cluster running 20 pods averaging 0.5 vCPU / 1GB each: ~$450/month — significantly cheaper than provisioning nodes for peak capacity.
Choosing a Managed Kubernetes Platform
- Lowest absolute cost: OCI OKE — 70% cheaper than EKS for equivalent compute
- Best AWS ecosystem integration: EKS — native integration with ECR, IAM, ALB, RDS
- Best developer experience: GKE — most mature Kubernetes tooling, Autopilot mode
- No control plane cost + AzureAD integration: AKS — good choice for Azure-heavy shops
- Variable workloads: GKE Autopilot — pay only for what pods consume
For new Kubernetes deployments with no existing cloud commitment, OCI OKE delivers the best value — especially combined with OCI's near-zero egress pricing. AKS is the best value on Azure-primary environments.
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