EKS vs AKS vs GKE
Managed Kubernetes on AWS, Azure, and GCP — pick for your cloud and team.
| Aspect | ☸️ Kubernetes | ☁️ AWS (EKS) | 🔷 Azure (AKS) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Control plane cost | ~$0.10/hr per cluster | Free tier / per-cluster fee varies | Free tier then per-cluster fee |
| IAM integration | IRSA (OIDC) | Azure AD + workload identity | Workload Identity (GSA ↔ KSA) |
| Registry | ECR | ACR | Artifact Registry |
| CLI setup | aws eks update-kubeconfig | az aks get-credentials | gcloud container clusters get-credentials |
| Add-ons | EKS add-ons, wide marketplace | Azure Monitor, Defender | GKE Autopilot, Anthos options |
| Best when | Already on AWS | Microsoft stack / Azure AD | GCP data/ML workloads |
When to use which
AWS (EKS)
Your infra and data already live in AWS — IRSA and ECR are first-class.
Azure (AKS)
Enterprise Azure AD, .NET workloads, or Azure DevOps pipelines.
GCP (GKE)
GCP-native services, GKE Autopilot, or strong Kubernetes engineering culture.