Google Kubernetes Engine vs Amazon EKS
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Google Kubernetes Engine and Amazon EKS.
Quick Verdict
4.1/5
Google Kubernetes Engine
0 reviews
3.9/5
Amazon EKS
0 reviews
Google Kubernetes Engine is rated higher (4.1 vs 3.9). GKE provides hosted Kubernetes clusters on Google Cloud infrastructure. Deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications with built-in monitoring, security, and automatic node management. Managed Kubernetes service that handles cluster operations, patching, and scaling. For teams running containerized workloads who want to reduce Kubernetes infrastructure overhead.
Google Kubernetes Engine Managed Kubernetes on Google Cloud with automated scaling and updates |  Amazon EKS AWS-managed Kubernetes with automatic control plane patching and scaling | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.1 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.9 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | pay-as-you-go | paid |
| Starting price | Free tier available✓ | From $73/mo |
| Best for | Teams standardizing on Kubernetes within Google Cloud: Autopilot for those without platform engineers, Standard for node-level control and well-packed cost-optimized clusters. | Organizations already committed to AWS who need production Kubernetes without managing the control plane infrastructure |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ✓ | |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tiermanaged optionapi accesseu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenterterraform provider | managed optionapi accessus datacentereu datacenterapac datacenterterraform provider |
| Visit Google Kubernetes Engine → | Visit Amazon EKS → | |
Google Kubernetes Engine
Pros
- + Credit-backed, specific SLA: 99.95% regional/Autopilot control plane, 99.9% for multi-zone Autopilot pods
- + Autopilot removes node management and bills per pod request with per-second granularity
- + Kubernetes from Kubernetes' creator — release channels, Workload Identity, native GCP service integration
- + GKE free tier covers one cluster's $74.40 monthly management fee
- + Mature ecosystem: Terraform provider, gcloud, GitOps add-ons, deep hiring and training base
Cons
- - $0.10/cluster-hour fee plus compute, disks, LBs, and egress — expensive for small workloads
- - Oversized pod requests are billed at full rate in Autopilot; billing model has many interacting dimensions
- - SLA covers the control plane only — workload availability is your responsibility
- - Regional clusters' management fee is excluded from the free tier credit; GKE CUDs no longer purchasable for Autopilot
Amazon EKS
Pros
- + AWS-managed control plane across three AZs: no etcd, API server or upgrade operations
- + Upstream-conformant Kubernetes — standard manifests, operators and CNCF tooling work unchanged
- + Public, simple cluster fee ($0.10/hour) with no per-seat charges and no overage premiums on usage
- + Choice of EC2 managed node groups (including GPU and Graviton), Fargate serverless pods or Auto Mode
- + Deep AWS integration: IAM auth, VPC networking, EBS/ECR, Shield Standard DDoS protection, 39 regions
Cons
- - Extended support jumps to $0.60/hour per cluster after 14 months if versions are not upgraded
- - Total cost dominated by compute, storage and inter-AZ data transfer; bills are hard to forecast
- - Real AWS coupling through IAM, CSI drivers and ingress controllers despite Kubernetes conformance
- - Human support requires paid AWS Support plans on top of the platform costs
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