EKS vs GKE vs AKS

Amazon EKS, Google GKE, and Azure AKS are the managed Kubernetes offerings from the three major cloud providers. GKE is widely considered the most polished, reflecting Google's role as the creator of Kubernetes. EKS offers the deepest AWS integration. AKS provides strong Azure and Windows container support.

GKE — The Kubernetes Leader

Google created Kubernetes, and GKE reflects that heritage. GKE Autopilot fully manages nodes — you only define pods, and Google handles provisioning, scaling, security patching, and upgrades. The standard tier's control plane is free. GKE's Dataplane V2 uses eBPF for networking, providing superior performance and observability. Upgrades are smoother, and the overall experience is the most polished.

EKS — AWS Integration

EKS is the most complex to set up but offers the deepest AWS integration. IAM Roles for Service Accounts (IRSA) provides fine-grained IAM permissions for pods. Karpenter (an AWS-created open-source project) is the most advanced node auto-provisioner, replacing the Cluster Autoscaler with just-in-time, right-sized node provisioning. EKS on Fargate enables serverless pod execution.

AKS — Azure Ecosystem

AKS is free for the control plane and offers strong integration with Azure Active Directory, Azure Monitor, and Azure DevOps. AKS has the best Windows container support among the three, reflecting Microsoft's focus on Windows workloads. Virtual nodes powered by Azure Container Instances provide serverless pod bursting.

Cost Comparison

GKE Standard tier has a free control plane. AKS has a free control plane. EKS charges $73/month per cluster. For organizations running many clusters, this difference adds up. Node/pod compute costs are determined by each cloud's VM pricing.

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