kubernetes
62 articles on kubernetes — what drives the cost, how it is priced, and where the savings actually are.
AKS node pool cost optimization: paying less for Kubernetes
Azure Kubernetes Service is free for the control plane, but node pools (the VMs running your workloads) are where the cost lives. Right-sizing pools, using spot and autoscaling, and separating workload types cut the bill substantially. Here is how.
GKE Autopilot vs Standard cost: which Kubernetes mode is cheaper
GKE Standard bills for the nodes you provision; GKE Autopilot bills for the pod resources you request. Autopilot removes node management and idle waste but charges a premium per resource. Here is how the two pricing models compare and when each wins.
Service mesh cost: the price of sidecars and control plane
A service mesh (Istio, Linkerd, and others) adds a control plane plus per-pod sidecar proxies that consume CPU and memory, so the cost is that overhead across your fleet. Lightweight meshes and sidecar-less modes cut it. Here is the model.
Managed Kubernetes cost compared: EKS vs AKS vs GKE
EKS, AKS, and GKE all charge for the worker nodes; the difference is the control-plane fee (EKS and GKE charge per cluster-hour, AKS's standard tier is free) and autopilot-style options. This compares them and where the real cost lives.
Kubernetes cost monitoring: from cluster bill to per-workload cost
A Kubernetes cluster bill is one number; the hard part is attributing it to namespaces, teams, and workloads. This is how cost monitoring works, what it needs (requests, labels, allocation), and how it complements pre-deploy estimation.
Kubernetes requests and limits: how they set your cluster cost
Requests, not usage, decide how many nodes you pay for, the scheduler packs pods by requests. Set them too high and you buy idle nodes; too low and you risk throttling and OOM kills. Here is how to size them for cost and stability.
Kubernetes cost allocation: turning a node bill into per-team cost
The cloud bills nodes; teams consume pods. Here's how to allocate cluster cost by requests or usage, handle shared and idle costs, and where OpenCost/Kubecost and pre-deploy estimation each fit.
GKE Autopilot cost optimization: you pay for requests, not usage
Autopilot bills pod resource requests (~$0.0445/vCPU-hour), not nodes, so oversized requests are the overspend. Here's how to right-size requests, use Spot Pods, and pick compute classes.
AWS EKS full cost breakdown: the control plane is the small line
EKS cost is control plane ($73/mo) + worker nodes (the bulk) + EBS + load balancers + NAT + cross-AZ transfer. Here's the full breakdown and where the real savings are, almost all in the nodes.
Azure Container Apps vs AKS cost: serverless or a managed cluster?
Container Apps bills per resource-second and scales to zero; AKS bills node VMs 24/7 and gives full Kubernetes. Here's the crossover and when each is the cheaper, simpler choice.
AKS cost optimization: the control plane is free, the nodes are not
The AKS control plane is free (or ~$73/month for the SLA tier), but worker node VMs are the real bill. Here's how to cut AKS cost with the autoscaler, Spot node pools, right-sizing, reservations, and scale-to-zero.
Cloud Run vs GKE cost: when serverless beats a node pool
Cloud Run bills per request-second and scales to zero; GKE bills for nodes 24/7. The cheaper option comes down to utilization. Here's the crossover, the min-instances trap, and where Autopilot fits.
GKE Standard vs Autopilot: which mode for your workload
Autopilot bills per-pod (vCPU, memory, ephemeral storage). Standard bills per-node. The break-even is around 50-55% node utilization. Here's the actual pricing math with n2-standard-4 nodes, when each mode wins, and how to migrate without surprises.
EKS vs ECS: total cost comparison
The honest cost comparison between EKS and ECS, including control plane fees, Fargate vs EC2 trade-offs, and when each platform makes financial sense. With concrete numbers from a 10-service production fleet.