Do you want to scale your applications and website, but the thought of putting in extra effort scares you? Well, we can totally relate!
We have selected and reviewed the most reliable cheap Kubernetes hosting providers so you can choose the one that meets your needs the most.
While you want your applications to work extremely well, deploying, managing, and scaling them all manually can get overwhelming and frustrating. Being the developers of the applications and websites, you have all the rights to enjoy the benefits of immutable infrastructure.
Let us give you the good news: Kubernetes web hosting is here for the rescue! From automating many of your manual tasks to scaling your containerized applications, this web hosting service does it all like a walk in the park!
If you want to know about the Kubernetes server and the web hosting services it has in store for you, look no more as we have got all the necessary information collected for you along with the fifteen best Kubernetes hosts for you to choose from.
What is Kubernetes?
Having a large and instantly growing ecosystem, Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform that allows automating most of the manual tasks that are involved in scaling, deploying, and managing containerized applications.
It is a portable and extensible platform that is used for managing containerized workloads and services and facilitates automation and configuration both. Kubernetes is a system designed specifically for managing containerized applications (containers), a lightweight virtual machine.
If explained in simpler words, you need to build various containers to build your application and hand over the job of managing those containers on Kubernetes while you sit back and relax.
Kubernetes Features
The main features of Kubernetes include:
- Load balancing.
- Service discovery.
- Self-healing.
- Secret and configuration management.
- Automatic Bin-packing.
- Storage orchestration.
- Horizontal scaling.
- Batch execution.
- Automatic rollbacks and rollouts.
Pros and Cons of Kubernetes
Pros
- Kubernetes has a self-healing ability to ensure reliability.
- It allows developers to deploy workloads on the entire cluster.
- It can single-handedly monitor and manage various simultaneously running containers.
- The server can run any application that a container can run.
- It enables workload portability.
- It requires fewer computing resources to operate.
- You are allowed to set maximum and minimum CPU and memory resources for your containers.
Cons
- It may come as complex for a local development environment.
- Kubernetes can be confusing for new users because of its continuous development and innovation.
- Due to the complexity requires you to have an expert with in-depth knowledge of Kubernetes to run it.
7 Best Cheap Kubernetes Hosting Providers and Platforms
1. Kamatera – Best Kubernetes Hosting at Affordable Prices
If you’re looking for perfectly optimized and well-balanced Kubernetes servers in terms of price-to-performance ratio, then Kamatera is what you should choose without hesitation. Let’s find out Why? Because they operate a cutting-edge cloud-based infrastructure that is built with advanced hardware and modern backend technologies. Kamatera provides cloud servers, block storage, private cloud networks, load balancers, cloud firewalls, and managed cloud hosting along with hundreds of applications.
As you know, one of the primary purposes of Kubernetes is scaling and automating application developments, so going with Kamatera would be an ideal choice for Kubernetes hosting – because of the cloud infrastructure. That said, you can scale up or down whenever needed hence can reduce expenses. Kamatera equips Kubernetes servers with two versions; both are backed by Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 18.04.
Now the best part is you can deploy a Kubernetes environment without any hassle as the company offers deployment with a few clicks. All you will need to do is choose a plan with the required system specification, input your details, and you’re good to go. It is as simple as it should be, thanks to Kamatera’s intuitive and easy-to-use console panel.
Kamatera has a global coverage of up to 22 data centers located on four continents; all are built with SSDs, powerful 300% faster latest generation Intel CPUs, 40 Gbit/sec networking, redundant RAM availability, and 100+ OS image options. You can scale up servers with as many as 104 vCPUs and 512GB RAM per instance for ultimate processing as per your project requirements. Plus, each instance comes with a highly isolated environment to ensure dedicated resource allocation.
Besides utilizing your servers for K8s (aka Kubernetes), you can set up a VPS for VPN, database hosting, applications, web hosting, ERP, Email, WordPress hosting, RDP server, CRM hosting, backup, VoIP, and IoT purposes. In a nutshell, Kamatera allows multiple usages of their servers according to user’s needs with a 99.99% uptime guarantee (We’ve tested it). The company also offers highly affordable unmanaged VPS hosting starting at the same price as its cloud instances.
When it comes to pricing, you can choose between 16 different configurations. The entry Kubernetes plan costs as low as $6 per month with 2GB of RAM, 20GB of SSD space, 1 vCPU, and 5TB bandwidth. Alternatively, they also have a customized option that allows you to configure a custom server by selecting each aspect of the instance as per your requirements. Each package includes a free public IP address as well.
We recommend Kamatera if your priority concerns are high uptime, lightning-fast speed, and an easy-to-use control panel. Luckily, you can try Kamatera services FREE for 30 days.
Key Features
- Instant launch within 60 seconds.
- Entire SSD-backed cloud platform.
- K8s optimized servers.
- Easy scalability on the fly.
- Simple management and API access.
- Professional customer support.
- 22 Data centers worldwide.
- Redundant resource availability.
Pros
- 100+ OS images.
- One fit for all purposes solutions.
- Suitable for production and development projects.
- They have pretty low prices with good specs.
- 99.99% Uptime SLA.
- No single point of failure.
- Load balancers and firewalls.
Cons
- No PayPal for purchasing, only cards.
2. Vultr – Cheapest Kubernetes Hosting Plans
Vultr offers an elegant and modern dashboard that is not only user-friendly but also makes sure that you don’t have to spend much time managing clusters and, therefore, has come up with a fully managed Kubernetes service to do the job for you.
All the hard work of managing your applications is taken care of by Vultr, allowing you to operate easily and scale without putting in much effort and time. The K8s Engine by Vultr is certified by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, so you can easily move your network to Vultr as it meets the portability standards.
You can enjoy various Kubernetes tools on Vultr, including Vultr Cloud Control Manager, which allows you to combine Vultr features into your cluster. The Vultr Container Storage Interface tool is specially introduced to connect your Kubernetes clusters with Vultr’s high-speed block storage. Condor is a self-managed solution that gives you the flexibility to control the control plane and other components as needed.
Some of the famous integrations of Vultr Kubernetes include Helm charts, external DNS, cert-manager, cluster auto-scaler, and cluster API. Helm charts let you streamline Vultr CSI and CCM installation, while external DNS is excellent for synchronizing exposed Kubernetes services and ingressing them with Vultr’s DNS.
The cert manager is great for automating the process of issuing TLS certificates from various sources, and the cluster auto-scaler lets you adjust the size of your K8s cluster. The cluster API integration is yet to launch, which will simplify the provisioning, operating, and upgrading of various clusters.
Unlike big tech clouds known for charging around 70 USD per month for providing control planes in their Kubernetes services, the Vultr platform stands out as the Kubernetes Engine lets you enjoy a control plane free of cost. What makes it our top favorite is the fact that using the Vultr K8s engine, you only get to pay for associate resources (like block storage or load balancers) and underlying worker nodes.
Key Features
- Container orchestration.
- Free control plane.
- 32 Global cloud data centers
- Scalability to scale applications as workload increases.
- Resilience for automatic health checking and failover.
- Immutable infrastructure.
- Resource-efficient.
Pros
- The control panel of Vultr is feature-rich
- Wide choices of data centers.
- Hosting services are reliable.
- Very user-friendly design and interface.
- Account activation is quick.
Cons
- No phone support or live chat option.
3. Akamai (Linode) – Cheap Kubernetes Hosting with Great Uptime
Akamai offers a fully managed container orchestration engine you can get to enjoy easy and fast Kubernetes cluster deployments. The Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE) is a fully managed solution that lets you manage and deploy containerized applications and workloads. Not only is this easy to use, but the pricing is also very simple, along with providing infrastructure efficiency.
LKE gives you the privilege of managing, configuring, and provisioning your clusters in just a few steps, and you just have to click a button and deploy instantly. 99.99% uptime is guaranteed, along with providing additional replicas, all thanks to the high availability control plane.
Through Akamai, you can enjoy maximum efficiency out of your resources, and for that, you are allowed to distribute your containers across the clusters. The Horizontal Cluster Autoscaling lets you destroy or create resources in real-time and automatically scale clusters to meet your demands. Using the helm charts, controllers, and operators, you are allowed to deploy popular apps.
LKE is great because it supports integration with almost all the popular K8s tools like helm, ranchers, operators, and more. The platform is quite developer-friendly and portable since it allows you to integrate Kubernetes management with your own infrastructure, along with giving you the chance to create and manage your LKE cluster directly using the Linode API.
What makes it the user’s favorite is the fact that there are no management fees. This means you don’t have to pay anything for the managed Kubernetes control plane, unlike other cloud services. All you need to pay for is the node balancers, compute instances, and block storage volumes.
As compared to AKS (Amazon AWS) and GKE (Google Cloud), this platform charges absolutely nothing for providing the feature of cluster management. The named platforms charge around 0.1 USD per hour, which makes a total of around $72 per month.
Key Features
- Etcd Backups
- Self-service version upgrades
- Automated recovery
- Persistent storage
- DNS management
- Load balancing
- Aggregation layer and metrics pipeline
Pros
- Comes with great monitoring tools
- Provides you with an operating support system
- SLA uptime is great
- The platform is quite simple to use
- Moving large data across websites is faster through Linode
Cons
- There is no live chat support for customers
4. DigitalOcean – Best Kubernetes Hosting for Developers
DigitalOcean offers managed Kubernetes service that doesn’t let you go through the complexities of handling the control plane and containerized infrastructure and allows you to deploy Kubernetes clusters in minutes. To help grow your business like no other, the managed service by DigitalOcean has some amazing features in store for you to benefit from. With their free control plane and inexpensive bandwidth, you are going to save your money and scale up quite quickly.
You are allowed to enjoy the launching of your website or application faster using DigitalOcean Kubernetes. It also lets you go from deploying once a month to almost multiple times a day. With a free, quick-to-spin-up and scale and a high-availability control panel, you can easily remove even a single point of failure. This maximizes the reliability that is offered by this platform compared to the competitors.
Additionally, the smart and automated adjustments to the number of nodes in your clusters let you scale automatically and ensure controlled costs and high performance. You can easily focus on building great apps while DigitalOcean manages everything else through their managed Kubernetes.
DigitalOcean also provides the control panel for free, unlike various other cloud companies that charge more than $70 per month. The pricing for Kubernetes depends completely on resources required by your clusters, such as load balancers and block storage.
The managed Kubernetes hosting starts at $10 per month, which is simple, and along with including the free control plane, it also scales automatically and increases availability. You can also add the high availability feature of $40 per month, and overages above pooled transfer will be charged at $0.01 per GB.
Key Features
- High availability control plane
- Deploy K8s server in minutes
- Full Kubernetes compatible API
- Auto-scaling
- Auto upgrades
- Simplified Day-2 OPS
- Open API
- Global availability
Pros
- Let’s schedule automatic upgrades
- Allows vertical and horizontal scaling of both
- The managed services let you focus completely on building your app
- Just a few clicks are required to deploy
- Doesn’t have a single point of failure
Cons
- It can prove to be a little hard for beginners
- No live support is available
5. Virtuozzo
No wonder that managed Kubernetes web hosting, along with multi-cloud availability, is a dream come true for developers, and Virtuozzo provides you with exactly that. This platform has a pre-packaged cluster solution that is available specifically for automated installation.
The production-ready environment on Virtuozzo is suitable for easily containerizing applications and running hyper-scalable micro-services to keep them resilient to failures. It also makes sure to implement CI or CD automation for development at higher speeds in shorter release cycles.
The elastic containers allow you to have extra savings for providing better and more efficient resource utilization, while provision purpose-driven clusters allow you full ownership to make sure there are no conflicts between the development teams.
Virtuozzo simplifies the management in such a way that there is no need for customer involvement whatsoever. It provides integrated billing, automated installation, scaling, and updates to simplify the whole experience of the users.
With minimal time and effort, you can easily satisfy your clients with their requirements for scalable Kubernetes clusters for their projects. The Multiple cloud availability means you will have your clusters available on multiple clouds with no vendor lock-in and full interoperability. Through this, you can easily achieve high availability across various data centers and automatically scale your clusters vertically and horizontally.
Virtuozzo makes sure to give you cost efficiency by charging pay-per-use for Kubernetes pricing. The automatic scaling takes place based completely on real consumption of the resources and not on the server size, which is definitely great.
You won’t ever have to over-allocate beyond your needs since the platform allows you to get the required number of resources, including CPU and RAM, without having the need to reserve them in advance. The platform fully manages all the tasks while remaining within the stated confines, and you do not need to pay extra, especially during idle times or low use.
Key Features
- Hyper scalability
- Multi-cloud availability
- Easy start with automated installation
- Simplified management
- Cost efficiency
- Flexible automation
Pros
- Automatic scaling of clusters either horizontally or vertically
- No manual intervention is needed, and automatic installation is available within a few clicks
- Allows you to mix and match cloud options according to your project’s needs
- Built-in web SSH and intuitive UI give a single point of management
- You have to pay only for consumed resources
Cons
- SSH is tricky to use
- No free trial is available
6. OVHcloud
Are you looking for managed Kubernetes to orchestrate your containers, but putting in extra money scares you? Well, OVHcloud is here for the rescue! The platform stands out among competitors as it provides you with free managed Kubernetes, which is basically the most popular tool for container orchestration available in the market these days.
OVHCloud is excellent for deploying your applications, scaling them up, and making them more resilient and can easily be used by companies of almost every size. They are suitable to be used even in multi-cloud or hybrid infrastructures.
You are allowed to host any kind of workload on the managed Kubernetes powered by OVHcloud public cloud instances due to the availability of load balancers and additional disks integrated into it. The teams of this platform are experts in hosting, deploying, monitoring, and maintaining all the internal components of the solution in good condition.
To get the most out of this platform, you only need to follow a few simple steps, including creating your Kubernetes cluster, adding instance-based nodes, and finally connecting to K8s to start deploying your containers. The deployment process on this platform is extremely easy, from development to production, and most of the tasks are handled by the team while you focus on making your app better.
There is good news from this platform regarding billing. Their managed services are absolutely free of cost, and you don’t have to invest anything at all except for your time when needed.
The free-of-charge services include major tasks like Kubernetes hosting, deployment, updates for the cluster’s master components, and operational maintenance for your nodes. The only payment that is required from this platform is for computing resources and storage hosting, while there are no charges for the traffic.
Key Features
- Role-based access control
- Persistent volumes
- Multiple versions and upgrades
- The load balancer and auto-scaling
- Basic interface
- Auto-scaling nodes
- Integration with the vRack
- Guaranteed resources
- Highly scalable object storage solutions
Pros
- Lets you enjoy unlimited on-demand storage through S3 API
- Provides you with fully guaranteed resources that are suitable for a wide range of uses
- The OVH control panel allows you to add, delete or configure your nodes
- You are also allowed to add persistent volume to your worker nodes to ensure durability for your application data
- All your nodes will be monitored by the team
Cons
- Lacks technical, account, and billing support
7. Google Cloud
Google Cloud has introduced Google Kubernetes Engine, which provides quite a simple way to scale, manage and deploy Kubernetes compared to the competitors. What makes it stand out is the fact that it allows new users to use 300 USD in free credits for trying out Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE).
It also lets you start quickly with a single click cluster and then scale up to 15000 nodes. The platform leverages a control plane with high availability that includes regional and multi-zonal clusters both. The industry’s first four-way auto-scaling introduced by this platform helps you eliminate operational overhead.
Google Cloud is excellent when it comes to speeding up the development of your K8s apps without having to compromise on security. You can easily develop a wide variety of apps using this platform with support for server-less, stateful, and application accelerators. You can secure and speed up each stage of deploying and building a life cycle using Kubernetes native CI/CD tooling.
Additionally, you are allowed to choose any channel that fits your business needs. Regular, rapid, and stable release channels are a part of this platform offering support levels and having different cadences of node upgrades.
The GKE offers a free tier that is only applied to zonal and autopilot clusters and provides around 74.4 USD per month of credits in the billing account. When you use only a single autopilot or zonal account, these credits are enough to cover the whole cost of the cluster for a month.
If you are left with unused free tier credits, they can’t be used for any other purpose and can’t be rolled up. Without the two clusters of zonal or autopilot, a cluster management fee is charged, which is around 0.1 USD per cluster per hour and applies to all the rest of GKE clusters irrespective of cluster size, mode of operation, or topology.
Key Features
- Two modes of operation
- Pod and cluster auto-scaling
- Prebuilt Kubernetes applications and templates
- Container native networking and security
- Ease of migrating traditional workloads to GKE containers
- Highly scalable and affordable cloud database solutions
- A broad range of data centers worldwide
- Powered by top-notch infrastructure
Pros
- Allows you to develop a wide variety of apps
- Let’s you choose the channel that fits your business needs
- Google Site Reliability Engineers constantly monitor your clusters and their computing
- Automatic upgrades are available for the control plane and nodes
- It also provides automatic node health repair to avoid failures
Cons
- Only zonal and autopilot clusters are free
- It doesn’t have a government cloud
Conclusion
Automating, managing, deploying, and scaling containerized applications seem like a huge job if you have to take the whole responsibility on your shoulders. However, open-source software like Kubernetes can do the job quite well while you sit back and put your focus completely on your applications to work better.
Using Kubernetes web hosting can save you a lot of trouble since most of the tasks that you would have to handle manually are automated by K8s. While there may be various Kubernetes hosting providers that claim to offer excellent services, you need to choose the best one. Therefore, we have selected the best cheap Kubernetes hosting services for you to choose from, depending on which one meets your demands the most.