What is Amazon EKS? Kubernetes on AWS — Architecture, Pricing, and EKS vs ECS

Amazon EKS (Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service) is a managed service from AWS that runs Kubernetes for you. AWS looks after the “brain” of the cluster, and your team focuses on deploying and running applications in containers. In short, EKS gives you standard Kubernetes on AWS without the job of building and patching the control servers yourself.

If you have been asking what is Amazon EKS and whether your company needs it, this guide explains it in plain language. You will learn how EKS works, what it costs in 2026, how it compares with Amazon ECS, and how to get started.

What Is Amazon EKS?

Amazon EKS is a service that lets you run Kubernetes on AWS while AWS handles the hardest parts of keeping it running. Kubernetes is free, open-source software that starts, stops, scales, and repairs containers across a group of servers. Google first built it, and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) now looks after it.

Kubernetes is powerful, and it is also a lot of work to run on your own. Someone has to set up the management servers, keep them patched, back up the database that stores cluster settings, and fix things at 2 a.m. when they break. Amazon EKS takes that work away. AWS sets up the management layer, spreads it across several data centers, and keeps it healthy.

Because EKS runs standard Kubernetes, the tools your developers already know will work as normal. That includes kubectl, Helm, and Argo CD. An app that runs on Kubernetes somewhere else will run on EKS with little or no change.

Kubernetes has become the normal way to run containers. The CNCF Annual Cloud Native Survey published in January 2026 found that 82% of container users run Kubernetes in production. For companies already on AWS, EKS is usually the easiest way to join them.

Read more: The Comparison of AWS ECS vs Kubernetes

How Does Amazon EKS Work?

An EKS cluster has two parts. The control plane makes decisions, such as where each container should run. The data plane is the set of servers where your containers actually run. AWS owns the first part, and you own the second, unless you hand it to AWS too.

The Control Plane (Managed by AWS)

The control plane holds the Kubernetes API server, the scheduler, and a database called etcd that remembers the state of everything in the cluster. EKS runs these across three Availability Zones, which are separate data centers in the same AWS region. If one data center has a problem, the cluster keeps working. AWS also scales and patches the control plane, so you never size or update those servers.

Worker Nodes (Where Your Apps Run)

Worker nodes are usually Amazon EC2 servers that join your cluster. You pick the server type that suits the job. Small general-purpose servers work well for websites and APIs. GPU servers suit AI training. These nodes live inside your own Amazon VPC, which is your private network on AWS.

Networking

EKS uses the Amazon VPC CNI plugin, which gives each container group (called a pod) its own IP address in your VPC. Pods can reach your databases and internal systems the same way any other AWS server can. One thing to plan for early: every pod uses an IP address, so give your subnets plenty of room.

Access and Security

EKS works with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). Your engineers log in to the cluster with their normal AWS accounts. For apps, EKS Pod Identity gives each pod its own set of permissions. Your payment service can read one storage bucket, and your reporting service can read a different one, with no passwords stored in the cluster.

Storage and Traffic

Apps that need to save data can use Amazon EBS for storage tied to one pod, or Amazon EFS for shared storage that many pods can use at once. To let users reach your apps, the AWS Load Balancer Controller creates Elastic Load Balancing resources for you. Application Load Balancers handle web traffic, and Network Load Balancers handle high-volume network traffic.

>>> Read more: Driving Financial Innovation: A Leading Bank’s Adoption of AWS Landing Zone and EKS

What Are the Compute Options on Amazon EKS?

You can run your containers on EKS in five main ways. The choice affects your monthly bill and how much server work your team takes on. Here is a side-by-side view.

EKS Auto Mode is the easiest place to start for most teams. It uses Karpenter, an open-source tool, to add servers when your apps need more room and remove them when they sit idle. It also keeps the server operating system (Bottlerocket) up to date and replaces every server at least once every 21 days, so old, unpatched machines do not pile up. You can still mix Auto Mode servers with your own in the same cluster. The AWS guide to EKS Auto Mode covers when it fits.

How Much Does Amazon EKS Cost?

Amazon EKS costs $0.10 per cluster per hour, which is about $73 a month, plus whatever you spend on servers, storage, and networking. The cluster fee is small. The servers are where most of your money goes. 

Prices below are for US regions and come from the official Amazon EKS pricing.

The Cluster Fee and Why Upgrades Matter

Every Kubernetes version gets 14 months of standard support on EKS. During that time you pay $0.10 per hour per cluster. After 14 months, the cluster moves into extended support for up to 12 more months, and the fee rises to $0.60 per hour. That is about $438 a month, six times the normal price, and it happens automatically. AWS gives worked examples in its extended support pricing blog, and you can check version dates on the EKS Kubernetes versions page.

Very large clusters with heavy traffic to the Kubernetes API can pay for reserved control plane capacity. These Provisioned Control Plane tiers start at $1.65 per hour for XL and go up to $13.90 per hour for 8XL. Most companies never need them.

The EKS Auto Mode Fee

If you turn on Auto Mode, AWS adds a small charge for each server it manages, on top of the normal EC2 price. It is billed by the second. An analysis by FactualMinds estimates the extra cost at around 12% of your EC2 spend. For many teams, that costs less than the engineering time needed to manage servers by hand.

Servers, Storage, and Networking

You pay normal AWS prices for EC2 servers, Fargate usage, EBS storage, load balancers, NAT gateways, and data moving between data centers. Storing container images in Amazon ECR also has a small cost, though pulling images inside the same region is free.

Simple ways to keep your EKS bill under control:

• Upgrade Kubernetes before the 14-month standard support window ends. A set schedule, such as every quarter, makes this easy.
• Use EC2 Spot Instances for work that can handle interruptions. They can cost up to 90% less.
• Try AWS Graviton servers, which usually give more performance for the price.
• Cover your steady, always-on usage with Savings Plans.
• Set CPU and memory requests on every pod so Karpenter can fit apps onto fewer servers.
• Combine small test clusters, since each cluster pays its own fee.

>>> Read more: A CIO’s Guide to Cost-Efficient Cloud Management

What Is the Difference Between EKS and ECS?

The main difference is the engine underneath. Amazon EKS uses Kubernetes, which is open source and runs almost anywhere. Amazon ECS (Elastic Container Service) uses AWS’s own, simpler system that only runs on AWS. Both can run your containers, restart ones that fail, and grow or shrink with demand.

Choose Amazon ECS If…

Your apps will stay on AWS, your team is small, and you want to launch fast. ECS has no cluster fee and takes less time to learn. Logging, permissions, and load balancers work with very little setup. A small product team shipping a web app and a few background jobs will often go live sooner on ECS with Fargate.

Choose Amazon EKS If…

You want the option to run on other clouds or in your own data center, your team already knows Kubernetes, or you need open-source tools that only work with Kubernetes. EKS also suits companies with many development teams sharing one platform, and companies running AI or big data jobs, because tools like Kubeflow, Ray, and Spark are built with Kubernetes in mind.

>>> Read more: EKS vs. ECS: Orchestrating Containers on AWS

When Should You Use Amazon EKS?

Amazon EKS is a good fit when you run many services, need to scale quickly, or want the freedom that comes with open-source Kubernetes. These are the situations where we see it used most.

Apps Made of Many Small Services

Many companies split a big app into small services that each update on their own schedule. EKS keeps all of them running, restarts any that crash, and rolls out new versions a little at a time so a bad update can be reversed quickly.

AI, Machine Learning, and Data Work

EKS can add GPU servers for a training job and remove them when the job finishes, so you only pay while the work runs. Renova Cloud’s RenoCube solution uses this setup for heavy data workloads, pairing EKS with Karpenter and a 40/60 mix of Spot and On-Demand servers.

Fast-Growing Products in Demanding Industries

In a case study on the AWS Partner Network blog, Renova Cloud helped an electric vehicle maker rebuild its driver assistance system on Amazon EKS. The company cut infrastructure costs by 90% and brought data processing time down from days to 2.5 hours. Banks use EKS for similar reasons, along with its strong access controls and audit logs.

Hybrid and On-Site Setups

With EKS Anywhere and EKS Hybrid Nodes, companies can use the same Kubernetes tools in their own data centers or factories. This helps when rules say data has to stay on-site, or when machines need very fast responses.

How Do You Get Started with Amazon EKS?

You can have a basic EKS cluster running in under an hour. Getting it ready for real customers takes more planning. A typical path looks like this:

1. Design your VPC with private subnets across at least two Availability Zones, sized for pod IP addresses.
2. Create the cluster with Terraform, eksctl, or the AWS console, and pick a Kubernetes version with most of its standard support window remaining.
3. Choose a compute model. Start with Auto Mode if your team is new to Kubernetes.
4. Set up IAM access entries for engineers and Pod Identity for applications.
5. Install observability with Amazon CloudWatch Container Insights or Prometheus and Grafana.
6. Connect a CI/CD pipeline or a GitOps tool such as Argo CD so deployments come from version control.
7. Put a version upgrade calendar in place before launch day.

Teams forget step seven more than any other. A cluster can run perfectly for a year and then slip into extended support without anyone noticing, which multiplies the cluster fee by six.

>>> Read more: The End of VMs, the Rise of Serverless Containers

FAQs 

Is Amazon EKS free?

No. Each cluster costs $0.10 per hour in standard support, about $73 a month. You also pay for the servers, storage, and networking your apps use. New AWS accounts may get credits that cover some of these costs.

Is Amazon EKS the same as Kubernetes?

EKS runs standard, certified Kubernetes. The difference is that AWS manages the control plane for you and connects Kubernetes to AWS services like IAM, VPC, and load balancers.

Is EKS cheaper than ECS?

ECS has no cluster fee, so it is usually cheaper for small setups. For large workloads, the server costs are the same on both, and the $73 monthly EKS fee makes little difference.

What is EKS Auto Mode?

EKS Auto Mode is an option where AWS also manages your worker servers. It adds and removes servers automatically, applies security updates, and handles load balancers and storage drivers, for a small extra fee per server.

Can I run Amazon EKS outside AWS?

Yes. EKS Anywhere runs EKS on your own hardware, and EKS Hybrid Nodes lets you connect on-site servers to a cluster managed in AWS.

How long does AWS support each Kubernetes version on EKS?

Each version gets 14 months of standard support, followed by up to 12 months of extended support at a higher price. After that, AWS upgrades the cluster automatically.

Get Expert Help with Amazon EKS from Renova Cloud

Renova Cloud is an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner and the first local partner in Vietnam to earn the AWS DevOps Competency. 

We also hold the AWS Migration Competency and were named AWS Partner of the Year for Vietnam in 2023, 2024, and 2026. Our DevOps engineers plan, build, and run Amazon EKS platforms for banks, electric vehicle makers, and data-driven companies across Southeast Asia. 

We set up autoscaling, automated deployments, and cost controls from the start, so your cluster stays fast and affordable as you grow. 

If you are launching your first cluster, moving from ECS, or trying to lower a rising Kubernetes bill, we can help you get it right. 

Contact Renova Cloud’s AWS experts today.