Amazon EKS vs Azure Kubernetes Service
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Amazon EKS and Azure Kubernetes Service built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
Choose Amazon EKS if…
A cluster that has to sit inside AWS — IAM on the cluster, VPC networking, EC2 or Fargate nodes — with a 99.95% control-plane SLA measured in five-minute intervals rather than described in prose.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose Azure Kubernetes Service if…
Starting without paying for a control plane at all: the Free tier costs nothing and you pay only for nodes, which is the cheapest way into managed Kubernetes on a hyperscaler.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- Amazon EKS: You run many small clusters. $0.10 an hour is about $73 a year each before a node exists, and it becomes $0.60 an hour the moment you fall behind on Kubernetes versions — DigitalOcean charges nothing for the control plane at all.
- Azure Kubernetes Service: You want to know what production costs. The Free tier has no SLA in Azure's own words, Standard buys one, and the page prints no figure for either — the tier names render and the prices are filled in by an API after load.
4 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Amazon EKS 0
Azure Kubernetes Service 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Amazon EKS | Azure Kubernetes Service |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Entry paid plan | $0.10 per cluster per hour on standard Kubernetes version support — roughly $73 a year before any node runs. Extended version support, for clusters kept on an older Kubernetes release, is $0.60 per cluster per hour. | Not readable. The page names three tiers — Free with no SLA, Standard with one, Premium for long-term version support — and prints no figure against any of them in text, the same way Azure's SLA pages and Amazon's OpenSearch OCU rate do not. |
| Pricing model | Per cluster per hour for the control plane, with the rate rising sixfold if you stay on an unsupported Kubernetes version. Nodes, EKS Auto Mode, add-on capabilities and hybrid nodes are each metered separately on top. | Tiered by what the control plane promises rather than by capacity: Free has no SLA, Standard has one and raises the node limit to 5,000, Premium buys long-term support for older Kubernetes versions. Nodes are billed as ordinary Azure compute underneath. |
| Deployment | ||
| Containers | Supported | Supported |
| Infrastructure | ||
| Autoscaling | Supported | Supported — Standard tier raises the node limit to 5,000; Free does not say |
| Uptime SLA | 99.95% monthly for the Kubernetes endpoint of a Standard Control Plane cluster, measured in five-minute intervals. | None on the Free tier, stated in those words. Standard adds a financially backed API server uptime SLA and a pod readiness SLA; no percentage is printed on the pricing page. |
Where they differ.
Free tier
- Amazon EKS
- No
- Azure Kubernetes Service
- Yes
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon EKS Pricing ↗
“You pay $0.10 per hour for each Amazon EKS cluster that you create.”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- Azure Kubernetes Service pricing ↗
“Start with the Free tier (No SLA) for experimentation and development and pay only for underlying resources.”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
Entry paid plan
- Amazon EKS
- $0.10 per cluster per hour on standard Kubernetes version support — roughly $73 a year before any node runs. Extended version support, for clusters kept on an older Kubernetes release, is $0.60 per cluster per hour.
- Azure Kubernetes Service
- Not readable. The page names three tiers — Free with no SLA, Standard with one, Premium for long-term version support — and prints no figure against any of them in text, the same way Azure's SLA pages and Amazon's OpenSearch OCU rate do not.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon EKS Pricing ↗
“Kubernetes Version Support Tier Pricing Standard Kubernetes version support $0.10 per cluster per hour Extended Kubernetes version support $0.60 per cluster per hour”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- Azure Kubernetes Service pricing ↗
“For production workloads that require a guaranteed SLA, scalable Kubernetes control plane, and a node cluster limit up to 5,000, use Standard tier (SLA).”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
Pricing model
- Amazon EKS
- Per cluster per hour for the control plane, with the rate rising sixfold if you stay on an unsupported Kubernetes version. Nodes, EKS Auto Mode, add-on capabilities and hybrid nodes are each metered separately on top.
- Azure Kubernetes Service
- Tiered by what the control plane promises rather than by capacity: Free has no SLA, Standard has one and raises the node limit to 5,000, Premium buys long-term support for older Kubernetes versions. Nodes are billed as ordinary Azure compute underneath.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon EKS Pricing ↗
“You pay $0.10 per hour for each Amazon EKS cluster that you create. You can use a single EKS cluster to run multi”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- Azure Kubernetes Service pricing ↗
“Long term support can also be purchased for workloads requiring more time to migrate to a new version of Kubernetes (Premium tier).”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
Uptime SLA
- Amazon EKS
- 99.95% monthly for the Kubernetes endpoint of a Standard Control Plane cluster, measured in five-minute intervals.
- Azure Kubernetes Service
- None on the Free tier, stated in those words. Standard adds a financially backed API server uptime SLA and a pod readiness SLA; no percentage is printed on the pricing page.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon EKS Service Level Agreement ↗
“AWS will use commercially reasonable efforts to make the Kubernetes endpoint for an Amazon EKS Cluster with the Standard Control Plane available with a Monthly Uptime Percentage of at least 99.95% during any monthly billing cycle, measured in 5-minute intervals”
Read 2026-09-15 · official site
- Azure Kubernetes Service pricing ↗
“backed API server uptime SLA and pod readiness SLA No SLA (Free tier) Financially backed API server uptime SLA (Standard tier)”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: Amazon EKS or Azure Kubernetes Service?
Amazon EKS: $0.10 per cluster per hour on standard Kubernetes version support — roughly $73 a year before any node runs. Extended version support, for clusters kept on an older Kubernetes release, is $0.60 per cluster per hour.
Azure Kubernetes Service: Not readable. The page names three tiers — Free with no SLA, Standard with one, Premium for long-term version support — and prints no figure against any of them in text, the same way Azure's SLA pages and Amazon's OpenSearch OCU rate do not.
Free tier: Amazon EKS or Azure Kubernetes Service?
Amazon EKS: No
Azure Kubernetes Service: Yes
Should I choose Amazon EKS or Azure Kubernetes Service?
Pick Amazon EKS if A cluster that has to sit inside AWS — IAM on the cluster, VPC networking, EC2 or Fargate nodes — with a 99.95% control-plane SLA measured in five-minute intervals rather than described in prose.
Pick Azure Kubernetes Service if Starting without paying for a control plane at all: the Free tier costs nothing and you pay only for nodes, which is the cheapest way into managed Kubernetes on a hyperscaler.