# Amazon EKS vs DigitalOcean Kubernetes

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/amazon-eks-vs-digitalocean-kubernetes/

Every value below is read from Amazon EKS's and DigitalOcean Kubernetes's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Amazon EKS | DigitalOcean Kubernetes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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. | Nothing for the control plane. Nodes start at $12/month each on the Basic tier, so the smallest real cluster is the node bill and nothing else. |
| 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. | Nodes only, with the control plane free and high availability for it sold as a $40/month upgrade. Inbound transfer is free and outbound starts at 2,000 GiB a month. |
| Autoscaling | Supported | Supported |
| Uptime SLA | 99.95% monthly for the Kubernetes endpoint of a Standard Control Plane cluster, measured in five-minute intervals. | None published for Kubernetes: /sla/kubernetes and /sla/kubernetes-service both soft-404. The docs describe the control plane as highly available, which is a description of the service rather than a commitment about it. |

## Where they differ

### Free tier

- Amazon EKS: No ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/eks/pricing/))
- DigitalOcean Kubernetes: Yes ([source](https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/kubernetes))

### 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. ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/eks/pricing/))
- DigitalOcean Kubernetes: Nothing for the control plane. Nodes start at $12/month each on the Basic tier, so the smallest real cluster is the node bill and nothing else. ([source](https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/kubernetes))

### 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. ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/eks/pricing/))
- DigitalOcean Kubernetes: Nodes only, with the control plane free and high availability for it sold as a $40/month upgrade. Inbound transfer is free and outbound starts at 2,000 GiB a month. ([source](https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/kubernetes))

### Uptime SLA

- Amazon EKS: 99.95% monthly for the Kubernetes endpoint of a Standard Control Plane cluster, measured in five-minute intervals. ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/eks/sla/))
- DigitalOcean Kubernetes: None published for Kubernetes: /sla/kubernetes and /sla/kubernetes-service both soft-404. The docs describe the control plane as highly available, which is a description of the service rather than a commitment about it. ([source](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/details/limits/))

## Which should you choose?

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 DigitalOcean Kubernetes if The node bill and nothing else. The control plane is free at any size, inbound transfer is free, and the smallest real cluster is one $12 node — no per-cluster fee to amortise across workloads.

Consider something else: 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.

Consider something else: DigitalOcean Kubernetes — You need a commitment in writing. DigitalOcean publishes no Kubernetes SLA — both SLA URLs soft-404 — and high availability for the control plane is a $40/month upgrade rather than the default, which is more than the control plane costs anywhere else.

## Documented by only one

- Included bandwidth: DigitalOcean Kubernetes: Free inbound transfer, and free outbound from 2,000 GiB a month upward on the Basic tier.
- Containers: Amazon EKS: Supported
- Dedicated infrastructure: DigitalOcean Kubernetes: High availability for the control plane is an explicit $40/month upgrade rather than the default, so a cluster is single-control-plane until you pay for it not to be.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: Amazon EKS or DigitalOcean Kubernetes?**

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.
DigitalOcean Kubernetes: Nothing for the control plane. Nodes start at $12/month each on the Basic tier, so the smallest real cluster is the node bill and nothing else.

**Free tier: Amazon EKS or DigitalOcean Kubernetes?**

Amazon EKS: No
DigitalOcean Kubernetes: Yes

**Should I choose Amazon EKS or DigitalOcean Kubernetes?**

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 DigitalOcean Kubernetes if The node bill and nothing else. The control plane is free at any size, inbound transfer is free, and the smallest real cluster is one $12 node — no per-cluster fee to amortise across workloads.