TL;DR: The number that made our finance lead go quiet was $0. 10 per cluster per hour — that's the EKS control plane fee, and it sounds trivial until you multiply it across three regions, add managed node group overhead, factor in NAT gateway egress between regions, and suddenly you

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What's in this article

The Setup That Started This Comparison

What 'Self-managed Kubernetes' Actually Means in 2026

EKS in 2026: What's Changed and What's Still Annoying

Control Plane: The Biggest Practical Difference

Networking: Where Self-managed Gets Complicated Fast

Storage: EBS CSI, EFS, and the Pain of Getting PVCs Right

Storage: EBS CSI, EKS Add-ons, and the IAM Gotchas Nobody Warns You About

Operational Overhead: The Real Cost Comparison

The Setup That Started This Comparison

The number that made our finance lead go quiet was $0.10 per cluster per hour — that's the EKS control plane fee, and it sounds trivial until you multiply it across three regions, add managed node group overhead,…