I was surprised not to find any recent discussions on recommended managed Kubernetes clusters for 2025. I'm already familiar with the usual providers like AWS, GCP, and Digital Ocean. Are there any other options worth considering? I'm an intermediate-to-advanced Kubernetes user who prefers outsourcing the management and maintenance of clusters rather than managing my own K3s setup on Hetzner machines. I'm eager to hear your recommendations!
5 Answers
If you're looking for cost-effective alternatives, check out Cloudfleet with Hetzner. They provide a managed service that might align with your budget and requirements. I've used them before and had a good experience!
GKE is a classic choice; it's one of the oldest and most feature-rich managed Kubernetes services. Google really uses this internally, which speaks volumes about its reliability. EKS is decent, but some features, particularly around networking and IAM, could be better. As for AKS, I don't have much experience, but I've heard mixed reviews due to Azure's performance issues in other areas.
I think AKS is pretty solid myself! Azure has some good points.
If you're on a budget, Linode offers a managed Kubernetes option with a free control plane. It works perfectly for my needs! If you’ve got a bit more to spend, AWS is also reliable.
74 USD for EKS control plane fits within budget for most!
For me, AWS EKS with automode has been fantastic! It's the best managed Kubernetes solution I've operated with so far.
But I found automode could sometimes increase latency. Had to switch to a managed node group to resolve it.
Which platforms did you compare it against?
If you're okay with a more hands-on approach, there's vitobotta's Hetzner K3s project. If you're looking to avoid the operational burden, though, you might want to steer clear.
I've tried it, and it works great! But, I too prefer having someone manage the operational side.
Awesome project, by the way! I pay only 14 EUR per month for hosting, so it's pretty affordable.
Haha, I love the dog food analogy!