EKS vs GKE vs AKS: Which Managed Kubernetes Should You Choose in 2025?

"Just use Kubernetes" they said. "It'll be easy" they said.

What they didn't mention: you first need to choose between AWS EKS, Google GKE, or Azure AKS—and that decision will impact your team for years. I've deployed production clusters on all three, and let me tell you, they're not as similar as the marketing pages suggest.

Here's my no-BS comparison based on real-world experience.

TL;DR - Quick Decision Guide

In a hurry? Here's the short version:

• Choose EKS if you're already on AWS and need enterprise-grade reliability
• Choose GKE if you want the best Kubernetes experience and don't mind Google Cloud
• Choose AKS if you're a Microsoft shop or need Windows container support

Now let's dig into why.

The Quick Comparison Table

Before we dive deep, here's how they stack up:

Control Plane Cost: EKS ($74/mo) | GKE (Free for 1 cluster) | AKS (Free)

Setup Complexity: EKS (Complex) | GKE (Easiest) | AKS (Moderate)

Kubernetes Version Freshness: EKS (Slow updates) | GKE (Fastest) | AKS (Moderate)

Best For: EKS (AWS shops) | GKE (K8s purists) | AKS (Azure/Windows shops)

AWS EKS: The Enterprise Workhorse

Amazon EKS is what happens when AWS takes Kubernetes and wraps it in their signature enterprise-grade (but sometimes frustrating) experience.

What I Like About EKS

• Deep AWS integration — IAM roles for service accounts (IRSA), ALB ingress controller, ECR, CloudWatch. If you're already on AWS, everything just clicks.
• Rock-solid reliability — AWS runs some of the largest EKS deployments in the world. It's battle-tested.
• Fargate support — Run pods without managing nodes. Great for variable workloads.
• Managed node groups — Auto-scaling and updates handled for you.

What Frustrates Me About EKS

• $74/month control plane fee — Per cluster. It adds up if you have multiple environments.
• Setup complexity — VPC, subnets, security groups, IAM roles... there's a lot of AWS-specific plumbing.
• Slow Kubernetes updates — AWS is typically 2-3 months behind the latest K8s versions.
• Add-on management — You'll need to manually manage CoreDNS, kube-proxy, and VPC CNI updates.

💡 EKS Verdict: Best if you're already invested in AWS. The learning curve is steep, but once you're set up, it's incredibly reliable.

Google GKE: The Kubernetes Native Choice

GKE is built by the team that created Kubernetes. It shows. This is the most polished Kubernetes experience you'll find.

What I Like About GKE

• Free control plane — One Autopilot or Standard cluster per project is free. Huge cost saver.
• Autopilot mode — Google manages everything, you just deploy pods. True serverless Kubernetes.
• Fastest K8s updates — Often gets new versions within weeks of upstream release.
• Best-in-class UI — The GCP console for GKE is genuinely pleasant to use.
• Built-in security — Workload Identity, Binary Authorization, Shielded Nodes out of the box.

What Frustrates Me About GKE

• GCP ecosystem lock-in — If you're on AWS for everything else, running K8s on GCP adds complexity.
• Smaller market share — Fewer third-party integrations and community resources compared to AWS.
• Autopilot limitations — Can't use DaemonSets, privileged containers, or certain node configurations.

💡 GKE Verdict: The best pure Kubernetes experience. If you're starting fresh or focused on ML/AI workloads (Google's strength), GKE is hard to beat.

Azure AKS: The Microsoft Ecosystem Play

AKS is Microsoft's answer to managed Kubernetes. It's come a long way and is now a legitimate contender—especially if you're already in the Azure world.

What I Like About AKS

• Free control plane — Like GKE, you only pay for worker nodes.
• Windows container support — Best-in-class. If you need Windows workloads, AKS is the clear winner.
• Azure AD integration — Seamless identity management if you're a Microsoft shop.
• Azure DevOps integration — Great CI/CD story if you're using Azure DevOps.
• Virtual nodes — Run pods on Azure Container Instances for burst capacity.

What Frustrates Me About AKS

• Networking complexity — Azure networking (VNets, NSGs) has a steeper learning curve than it should.
• Slower feature adoption — Usually trails GKE and EKS on new Kubernetes features.
• Occasional stability issues — I've seen more unexpected issues with AKS than EKS or GKE.

💡 AKS Verdict: The obvious choice for Microsoft shops. Great if you need Windows containers or are heavily invested in Azure services.

Real Cost Comparison

Let's compare a typical small production setup (3 worker nodes):

EKS (3x m5.large): $74 (control plane) + ~$210 (nodes) = ~$284/month

GKE (3x e2-medium): $0 (control plane) + ~$150 (nodes) = ~$150/month

AKS (3x D2s_v3): $0 (control plane) + ~$175 (nodes) = ~$175/month

Note: Actual costs vary by region and reserved pricing. These are rough estimates for comparison.

My Decision Framework

Here's how I help clients choose:

Choose EKS If:

• You're already heavily invested in AWS
• You need deep integration with AWS services (RDS, S3, Lambda)
• Enterprise compliance requirements (AWS has the most compliance certs)
• You want Fargate for serverless containers

Choose GKE If:

• You want the smoothest Kubernetes experience
• ML/AI workloads (Google's TPU and AI integration is unmatched)
• You want to minimize ops burden (Autopilot mode)
• Multi-cluster/multi-region deployments (Anthos)

Choose AKS If:

• You're a Microsoft/Azure shop
• You need Windows container support
• Azure AD is your identity provider
• You're using Azure DevOps for CI/CD

My Final Take

If I were starting a greenfield project today with no cloud preference, I'd choose GKE. The developer experience is simply better, Autopilot removes most operational burden, and the free control plane is a nice bonus.

But here's the thing: most teams aren't starting fresh. If you're already on AWS, EKS makes sense. If you're a Microsoft shop, AKS makes sense. The best Kubernetes platform is the one that fits your existing infrastructure.

Don't overthink it. Pick the platform that matches your cloud, learn it well, and optimize from there.

Need Help Choosing or Implementing?

We've deployed production Kubernetes clusters on all three platforms. Whether you're migrating from one provider to another or setting up your first cluster, we can help you avoid the common pitfalls.

Get a free Kubernetes consultation: info@cloudelevate.ai