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DigitalOcean Kubernetes

iScore75–90 · #1/4
www.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes · Managed Kubernetes
SEPT 2026 audit

Managed Kubernetes with no charge for the control plane, billed only for the nodes and an optional high-availability upgrade.

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Entry paid planNothing 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 tierYes
CategoryManaged Kubernetes

Updated 7 criteria comparedSources last checked

01.Evaluation guide

Who it suits

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 if…

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.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Each value below links to the page it was read from, with the sentence it came from. Criteria DigitalOcean Kubernetes does not publish are not listed.

Pricing
3 criteria
Free tierYes
Sources (1) →
Entry paid planNothing 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.
Sources (1) →
Pricing modelNodes 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.
Sources (1) →
  • Kubernetes Pricing — DigitalOcean ↗

    “Run your Kubernetes clusters on the powerful DOKS control plane and add the High Availability to the control plane for only $ 40 /month.”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing

Limits
1 criteria
Included bandwidthFree inbound transfer, and free outbound from 2,000 GiB a month upward on the Basic tier.
Sources (1) →
  • Kubernetes Pricing — DigitalOcean ↗

    “Basic Starting at $12 /month/node Variable workloads Free inbound data transfer Free outbound data transfer starting at 2,000 GiB/month”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing

Infrastructure
2 criteria
AutoscalingSupported
Sources (1) →
Uptime SLANone 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.
Sources (1) →
Compliance
1 criteria
Dedicated infrastructureHigh 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.
Sources (1) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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Every page here is sourced and dated.