EKS vs GKE vs AKS
Compare the three major managed Kubernetes services from AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure across pricing, features, networking, and operational ease.
| Criteria | EKS | GKE | AKS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Control Plane Cost | $0.10/hour ($73/month) per cluster. No free tier for the control plane. Add-ons (CoreDNS, kube-proxy) managed separately. | One free zonal cluster. Standard clusters $0.10/hour. Autopilot mode — pay only for pod resources, no node management. | Free control plane. Pay only for worker nodes. Uptime SLA available as a paid add-on ($0.10/hour per cluster). |
| Networking | VPC CNI (pods get VPC IPs). Security groups for pods. AWS Load Balancer Controller for ALB/NLB. VPC peering and Transit Gateway. | VPC-native with alias IPs. GKE Dataplane V2 (Cilium-based). Cloud NAT integration. Superior network policy support. | Azure CNI or kubenet. Azure Network Policies or Calico. Azure Load Balancer integration. Virtual network peering. |
| Autoscaling | Cluster Autoscaler or Karpenter (recommended). Karpenter provides faster, more flexible node provisioning. | Built-in cluster autoscaler. Node Auto-Provisioning (NAP). Autopilot mode handles all node scaling automatically. | Cluster Autoscaler built-in. Virtual nodes with ACI for burst scaling. Node Auto-Provisioning (preview). |
| Upgrades | Manual or managed control plane upgrades. Managed node groups support rolling updates. Add-on management can be complex. | Automatic control plane upgrades. Release channels (rapid, regular, stable). Surge upgrades for nodes. Best upgrade experience. | Auto-upgrade channels available. Node image auto-upgrade. Planned maintenance windows. |
| Observability | CloudWatch Container Insights (paid). AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry. Prometheus managed service (AMP). | Cloud Operations suite built-in. Google Cloud Managed Prometheus. System metrics and logging enabled by default. | Azure Monitor Container Insights. Managed Prometheus and Grafana. Log Analytics integration. |
| Ecosystem Lock-in | Tightly integrated with AWS services (IAM, ALB, EBS, EFS, Secrets Manager). Heavy AWS coupling. | Strong GCP integration (Workload Identity, Cloud SQL, etc.). Anthos for multi-cloud (additional cost). | Deep Azure integration (AAD, Key Vault, Azure Disks). Azure Arc for hybrid/multi-cloud. |
Verdict
Choose GKE for the best managed experience and if you want Autopilot mode. Choose EKS if you are already on AWS and want Karpenter. Choose AKS for the free control plane and tight Azure AD integration.
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