Updated October 25, 2026
· ~2 min read
All three run upstream Kubernetes and charge about the same for a control plane. The differences that matter are in what happens when you fall behind on versions, how much of the node layer each will run for you, and how well each fits the cloud around it.
If you are already committed to a cloud, use its Kubernetes. This comparison is for teams choosing a cloud partly for Kubernetes, or running on more than one.
Identity is where the clouds differ most in daily use. EKS Pod Identity maps service accounts to IAM roles; GKE Workload Identity Federation maps them to Google service accounts; AKS workload identity maps them to Entra ID. Each is good on its own cloud and awkward on the others. Networking follows the same pattern. EKS gives pods VPC IP addresses by default, which makes them first-class on the network and makes IP exhaustion a planning item. GKE uses VPC-native alias ranges. AKS offers Azure CNI in several modes, including overlay to save address space. For managed GitOps and add-ons, EKS Capabilities now runs Argo CD, ACK and kro for you, GKE offers Config Sync and Fleet management, and AKS offers Flux-based GitOps as an extension.
Question 1 of 2
Where is the rest of your stack?
**EKS:** your workloads and data are on AWS. Auto Mode closes most of the gap with Autopilot, and the AWS integrations (IAM roles for pods, VPC networking, Karpenter) are deep. Watch the version calendar: extended support costs six times standard. **GKE:** Kubernetes is the center of your platform and you want the most managed experience. Google built Kubernetes, Autopilot bills per pod, and the free tier covers one cluster. **AKS:** you are a Microsoft shop. Entra ID, Azure networking and a free control plane tier for development are the draw, and the Premium tier buys two years of support per version. The control plane fee is never the deciding cost. Nodes, data transfer and the time your team spends on upgrades are.
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As of October 25, 2026. Provided as is, for general information, and accurate to the best of our knowledge on the date shown. Not legal, compliance, tax, financial or other professional advice. Prices, limits and vendor services change; check current vendor documentation before relying on anything here. Terms of use.