MicroK8s vs Amazon EKS
A detailed comparison to help you choose between MicroK8s and Amazon EKS.
Quick Verdict
4.1/5
MicroK8s
0 reviews
3.9/5
Amazon EKS
0 reviews
MicroK8s is rated higher (4.1 vs 3.9). Single-command Kubernetes distribution that runs on Linux, Mac, and Windows. Installs in seconds with built-in add-ons for DNS, storage, and ingress. Designed for developers and resource-constrained environments. Managed Kubernetes service that handles cluster operations, patching, and scaling. For teams running containerized workloads who want to reduce Kubernetes infrastructure overhead.
MicroK8s Lightweight Kubernetes for development, edge, and IoT devices |  Amazon EKS AWS-managed Kubernetes with automatic control plane patching and scaling | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.1 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.9 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | free | paid |
| Starting price | Free✓ | From $73/mo |
| Best for | Edge and IoT deployments, local development with production parity, CI pipelines spinning disposable clusters, and small single-node production on modest hardware. | 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 tieropen sourceself hostable | managed optionapi accessus datacentereu datacenterapac datacenterterraform provider |
| Visit MicroK8s → | Visit Amazon EKS → | |
MicroK8s
Pros
- + Free, Apache-licensed upstream Kubernetes with CNCF conformance — workloads are portable to any managed cluster
- + Roughly 540MB platform footprint; runs on Raspberry Pi, NUC, and Jetson-class hardware
- + One-command add-ons for DNS, ingress, storage, registry, Prometheus, Istio, and GPU enablement
- + Snap channel versioning with automatic patch updates and explicit minor upgrades
- + Built-in multi-node clustering with dqlite-backed HA and a strict-confinement channel
Cons
- - No hosted or managed control plane option; you operate everything yourself
- - Add-ons do not upgrade with the platform — disable/re-enable is the documented path
- - Large or highly custom multi-node clusters push past its opinionated design
- - Free tier support is community-only; paid Canonical support is priced for organisations
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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