Bare-Metal Support
Bare-Metal support for worker nodes to improve latency and performance
Free Cluster Management
Free production-grade cluster management with a 99.9% SLA
Great Value
Great value prices for worker nodes, the same as for our VMs and Bare Metal servers
Compare Gcore’s prices for high-availability clusters with SLA
Gcore offers competitive instance pricing for worker nodes with free, production-grade cluster management and egress traffic.
| Gcore | Digital Ocean | AWS | Google Cloud | Azure | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frankfurt | All over the world | Frankfurt | Frankfurt | Germany West Central | |
| High-availability production cluster management fee | FREE** | €37.74 | €68.87 | €68.87 | €68.87 |
| Egress traffic | FREE** | €0.009 per GiB | €0.047–0.085 per GiB | €0.066–0.075 per GiB | €0.066–0.075 per GiB |
| 2 vCPU / 4 GB RAM / 25 GB SSD / 4 TB egress traffic + cluster management | €35.29 | €77.36 | €485.69 | €472.16 | €443.42 |
| 4 vCPU / 8 GB RAM / 50 GB SSD / 8 TB egress traffic + cluster management | €68.02 | €147.1 | €902.5 | €875.45 | €826.51 |
| 8 vCPU / 16 GB RAM / 75 GB SSD / 16 TB egress traffic + cluster management | €131.18 | €294.19 | €1704.92 | €1561.37 | €1493.7 |
| 16 vCPU / 32 GB RAM / 100 GB SSD / 24 TB egress traffic + cluster management | €254.84 | €520.53 | €2631.28 | €2348.83 | €2266.66 |
| 32 vCPU / 64 GB RAM / 125 GB SSD / 32 TB egress traffic + cluster management | €499.88 | €895.93 | €3824.85 | €3416.69 | €3303.17 |
*All prices listed are per month. Prices are shown at the exchange rate €1 = $1.06.
**For worker node types based on Virtual Instances.
**For worker node types based on Virtual Instances.
Managed Kubernetes Calculator
Locations with
Managed Kubernetes
Advantages of Gcore Managed
Kubernetes
One-click provisioning
Provision your worker nodes in 'one-click' using a single command in the Gcore self-service portal, API, or via Terraform.
GPU worker nodes support
Gcore Managed Kubernetes clusters support GPU worker nodes, allowing you to run GPU-intensive workloads like machine learning, video processing, and gaming.
Latest versions
Support at least four latest versions of Kubernetes
Automated control
The service continuously monitors the health of your nodes, updating and restarting them automatically if necessary.
Automated scaling
Within your cluster, the number of nodes in your pool can dynamically scale up or down automatically.
High availability
Each cluster dashboard is duplicated to ensure that the cluster is always available.
Secure connections
All connections between the master node and the nodes within a cluster are automatically encrypted.
DDoS protection
Your projects are protected from DDoS attacks at the network and transport layers by default.
24/7 technical support
Quick real-time assistance and quality technical service around the clock.
How it works
See documentation
Get performance tailored to your needs
Virtual Machines as worker nodes
Deploying a Kubernetes cluster on Virtual Machines (VMs), comes with an additional layer of infrastructure—a hypervisor, which orchestrates VMs. A hypervisor consumes a portion of a physical server’s resources, most commonly CPU and RAM, meaning that it takes up a portion of the compute capacity.
VMs are a good choice for most web applications that don’t require very high levels of performance and aren’t sensitive to latency. VMs provide a good balance of scalability, performance, security, and cost.
Benefits of running a Kubernetes cluster on VMs:
- Faster node provisioning - Faster cluster scalability - Easier OS updates and backups
VMs are a good choice for most web applications that don’t require very high levels of performance and aren’t sensitive to latency. VMs provide a good balance of scalability, performance, security, and cost.
Benefits of running a Kubernetes cluster on VMs:
- Faster node provisioning - Faster cluster scalability - Easier OS updates and backups
Bare Metal servers as worker nodes
When you deploy a Kubernetes cluster on Bare Metal, you don’t have a hypervisor and guest operating system. Therefore, your containerized applications use the physical server resources directly and fully.
Bare Metal is the superior choice for compute-intensive web applications that need high performance and lower latency, but don’t require the fastest provisioning for new worker nodes.
Benefits of running a Kubernetes cluster on Bare Metal:
- Better compute performance - Lower network latency - No problems with noisy neighbors
Bare Metal is the superior choice for compute-intensive web applications that need high performance and lower latency, but don’t require the fastest provisioning for new worker nodes.
Benefits of running a Kubernetes cluster on Bare Metal:
- Better compute performance - Lower network latency - No problems with noisy neighbors
Frequently Asked Questions
Managed Kubernetes is a service that offers a hosted Kubernetes environment. This means that the managed Kubernetes provider handles the underlying infrastructure, such as provisioning and managing nodes, managing the Kubernetes control plane, and updating Kubernetes itself. This allows customers to focus on building and deploying applications on top of Kubernetes, saving you from worrying about managing the control plane and maintaining the underlying infrastructure.
To learn more about managed services, read our article “[What Are Managed Services?](https://gcore.com/learning/how-managed-services-drive-business-growth)” For learning more about Kubernetes, read the article “[What Is a Kubernetes Cluster?](https://gcore.com/learning/what-is-kubernetes-cluster)”
To learn more about managed services, read our article “[What Are Managed Services?](https://gcore.com/learning/how-managed-services-drive-business-growth)” For learning more about Kubernetes, read the article “[What Is a Kubernetes Cluster?](https://gcore.com/learning/what-is-kubernetes-cluster)”
For most organizations, managed Kubernetes is a better choice than self-managed Kubernetes. Running self-managed Kubernetes clusters means you have to do everything yourself:
- Deploy the underlying infrastructure - Manage the control plane - Provision and manage nodes - Ensure security and resiliency - Have a team of highly skilled engineers - Deal with a large operational overhead as a result of all of the above
A managed Kubernetes provider takes care of all these aspects. However, if you want more control over your Kubernetes clusters, self-managed Kubernetes may be right for you. Your choice of how to run Kubernetes depends on your organization’s specific needs and requirements.
- Deploy the underlying infrastructure - Manage the control plane - Provision and manage nodes - Ensure security and resiliency - Have a team of highly skilled engineers - Deal with a large operational overhead as a result of all of the above
A managed Kubernetes provider takes care of all these aspects. However, if you want more control over your Kubernetes clusters, self-managed Kubernetes may be right for you. Your choice of how to run Kubernetes depends on your organization’s specific needs and requirements.
There are four key advantages to running a Kubernetes cluster on Bare Metal:
**Performance**. Clusters running on Bare Metal have no hypervisor overhead, so they can provide better performance than clusters running on virtual machines. This is especially important for applications that require low latency and high throughput.
**Control**. Bare Metal gives you complete control of the underlying infrastructure. This means you can choose the hardware that best suits your needs and configure it accordingly.
**Latency**. When you run a Kubernetes cluster on Bare Metal, you don’t have an extra virtual networking layer. Applications communicate directly over physical network interfaces. As a result, you get lower network latency.
**Security**. Utilizing Kubernetes on Bare Metal offers more protection than VMs because there is no shared infrastructure with other users. You have full control over security measures and can apply customized security protocols.
Read more about this topic in our [article](https://gcore.com/blog/bare-metal-vs-vm-based-kubernetes).
**Performance**. Clusters running on Bare Metal have no hypervisor overhead, so they can provide better performance than clusters running on virtual machines. This is especially important for applications that require low latency and high throughput.
**Control**. Bare Metal gives you complete control of the underlying infrastructure. This means you can choose the hardware that best suits your needs and configure it accordingly.
**Latency**. When you run a Kubernetes cluster on Bare Metal, you don’t have an extra virtual networking layer. Applications communicate directly over physical network interfaces. As a result, you get lower network latency.
**Security**. Utilizing Kubernetes on Bare Metal offers more protection than VMs because there is no shared infrastructure with other users. You have full control over security measures and can apply customized security protocols.
Read more about this topic in our [article](https://gcore.com/blog/bare-metal-vs-vm-based-kubernetes).
No, you can only manage worker nodes. Gcore takes care of the control plane management. One of the benefits of having a managed Kubernetes service is a reduced operational overhead, because you don't have to support master nodes yourself. This also ensures the reliability and security of your Kubernetes clusters.
Yes, you can. To learn more about installing nginx Ingress Controller, see [our documentation](https://gcore.com/docs/cloud/kubernetes/networking/install-and-set-up-the-nginx-ingress-controller) and read the [tutorial](https://gcore.com/blog/bare-metal-vs-vm-based-kubernetes) on installing nginx using Gcore Managed Kubernetes and Helm.
Yes, we do. You can select GPU instances to run your worker nodes during the cluster creation.
We provide a 99.9% SLA. This means that Gcore Managed Kubernetes is suitable for running your production clusters with applications that require high availability.
Gcore Managed Kubernetes supports Ubuntu for VM and Bare Metal worker nodes.
There are no Gcore restrictions for applications and tools already running in Kubernetes, including open-source options. However, there may be restrictions for tools that are managed services that only work with a specific vendor. For example, if you have been using another managed Kubernetes service along with built-in managed logging to collect logs from your clusters, that managed logging may not work with your clusters running in Gcore Managed Kubernetes. Check which of your existing tools have potential limitations for integrating with other managed Kubernetes services.
No. You are only charged for instances ordered as worker nodes. You can also buy additional services and options, such as a floating IP.
We don’t charge for egress traffic when you use VM worker nodes. However, egress traffic using Bare Metal worker nodes is charged.
Suppose you run your cluster on two VM worker nodes with a basic configuration of 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 25 GB SSD, and 4 TB of egress traffic. Such a worker node costs $37.41 per month with traffic included and no control plane management fee. So your cluster will cost you $74.82 per month. You can estimate your cost using our [Cloud Calculator](https://gcore.com/pricing/cloud?tab=id_kubernetes).
You will be charged for the number of nodes you use hourly when [autoscaling is in effect](https://gcore.com/docs/cloud/kubernetes/clusters/autoscaling/about-autoscaling). You can configure the limits beyond which your cluster won’t scale.