centron vs. Azure AKS: What does a cluster cost on top of the control plane?
Azure Kubernetes Service is Microsoft's managed Kubernetes offering, also available in the Frankfurt region. centron operates Managed Kubernetes as a German company, by default in its own data centre in Hallstadt. With AKS, depending on the tier, VMs, disks, traffic, monitoring and backup come on top of the control plane as separate items. centron charges from €19.02 per month for a node and includes monitoring, logging and backup; outgoing traffic costs €0.005 per GB.
As of: 12 October 2026 · Publisher: centron GmbH
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centron and Azure at a glance
centron is the right fit if you want to run Kubernetes with a German provider, would rather not calculate monitoring and backup separately and want low traffic costs.
Azure is the right fit if your IT already builds on Entra ID and Azure services, your clusters will become very large or you need long-term support for Kubernetes versions.
The comparison covers Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) in the Germany West Central region (Frankfurt) and Managed Kubernetes from centron. A separate table below the overview shows the four AKS tiers.
| Criterion | centron | Azure AKS |
|---|---|---|
| Company | German operator with no foreign parent company, based in Hallstadt. | Microsoft, a group headquartered in the USA. |
| Control plane | Standard variant free of charge, highly available for €34.95 per month per cluster. | Four tiers from €0 according to the pricing page (Free, without SLA) to €385.44 (Premium with LTS) per cluster per month. |
| Node management | centron takes care of patches, monitoring and logs; eight fixed sizes C1 to C8. | With Free, Standard and Premium your team; AKS updates node images weekly. With Automatic, Azure. |
| Traffic | Incoming free of charge, outgoing €0.005 per GB. | The first 100 GB per month free, then €0.0766 per GB outgoing. |
| Monitoring and backup | Included in the node price, cluster backup with 30-day retention. Velero for persistent volumes optional, S3 storage based on usage. | Separate services: Container Insights via Log Analytics, backup €10.56 per namespace per month plus snapshots. |
| Locations | By default in its own data centre in Hallstadt, plus Nuremberg, Frankfurt am Main and Coburg; no location outside Germany. | For the comparison Germany West Central (Frankfurt) with three availability zones, plus regions worldwide. |
| Billing | In euros, by the hour, clusters can be deleted at any time; nodes from €19.02 per month. Excluding VAT. | In US dollars, converted monthly; VMs depending on type, for example D4als_v6 for around €124.61. Excluding VAT. |
What does the AKS control plane cost per tier?
Microsoft offers four tiers for cluster management. They differ in SLA, version support and who manages the nodes. The euro amounts are based on Microsoft's euro prices, extrapolated to 730 hours.
| Tier | Control plane per month | Features and limits |
|---|---|---|
| Free | €0 according to the pricing page; price API since 1 October 2026: €32.12 | No financially backed SLA; Microsoft recommends the tier for clusters with fewer than ten nodes. |
| Standard | €64.24 (€0.088 per hour) | SLA for the API server: 99.95 % with availability zones, 99.9 % without. Up to 5,000 nodes. |
| Premium | €385.44 (€0.528 per hour) | As Standard, plus long-term support: around 24 months of maintenance per Kubernetes version. |
| Automatic | €102.78 plus a surcharge per vCPU, General Purpose around €6.57 | Azure also manages the nodes. An additional SLA applies to pod readiness. |
| Nodes | VM price, for example D4als_v6 for around €124.61 | System pool with at least two VMs of 4 vCPU and 4 GB each; B-series excluded. |
| Billed separately | Egress from €0.0766 per GB after 100 GB, backup €10.56 per namespace | Plus disks, public IP addresses, load balancers and Container Insights. |
Who manages the nodes with AKS?
In the Free, Standard and Premium tiers, Microsoft operates the control plane while the worker nodes remain your responsibility. According to the Microsoft documentation on node OS upgrades, new clusters update the node image automatically every week. You trigger Kubernetes upgrades yourself or define an auto-upgrade channel for them. Node pool capacity and troubleshooting on the VMs remain with your team. Only in the Automatic tier does Azure also take over the nodes, charging a surcharge per vCPU for this.
Monitoring and backup are separate services with AKS as well: Container Insights is billed via Log Analytics, and backup costs €10.56 per namespace per month plus snapshots. With Managed Kubernetes from centron, monitoring, logs and the cluster backup with 30-day retention are part of the node price. Velero for volumes is optional, and you only pay for the S3 storage you use.
Who does what in day-to-day operations?
Where the line between Microsoft and your team runs with AKS:
| Task | centron with Managed Kubernetes | Azure Kubernetes Service |
|---|---|---|
| Operating the control plane | centron, either standard or highly available. | Microsoft, in all four tiers. |
| Node images and Kubernetes version | centron applies patches, upgrades automatically in the maintenance window on request. | Your team; AKS updates node images weekly. With Automatic, Azure. |
| Monitoring | Included in the scope of services, without a separate instance. | Your team sets up Container Insights, billed via Log Analytics. |
| Namespace backup | Cluster backup included, 30 days. Velero for persistent volumes optional, S3 storage based on usage. | Your team with the backup extension and vault, €10.56 per namespace. |
| Deployments and configuration | Your responsibility. | Your responsibility. |
Based on Microsoft Learn, the Azure pricing pages and our service description; only the quote is binding.
When is centron the better choice?
In these three cases, centron pays off compared with AKS.
Your data should be with a German provider.
centron is a German company and operates Managed Kubernetes only in German data centres. With Azure, the Frankfurt region is located in Germany, but the group is headquartered in the USA. US authorities can then invoke the CLOUD Act.
Your cluster sends a lot of data out.
At centron, outgoing traffic costs €0.005 per GB, so €25.60 per month in the 5 TB example. Azure charges €0.0766 per GB for outgoing traffic from the 101st GB, €384.53 in the same example.
You want to use small nodes.
AKS requires at least two VMs with 4 vCPU and 4 GB each in the system pool. At centron, a cluster with three C1 nodes of 1 vCPU and 2 GB each starts at €57.06 per month. For test and small production environments, that is a considerably lower entry point.
When is Azure the better choice?
In three scenarios, AKS is the stronger option.
Your company works with Entra ID and Azure DevOps.
AKS connects Microsoft Entra ID directly for sign-in and roles. Pipelines from Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions deploy straight into the cluster. If you already work in Azure, you save yourself a second platform.
You need 99.95 % for the API server.
With availability zones, Microsoft commits to 99.95 % for the API server in the Standard tier, 99.9 % without zones. Frankfurt offers three zones. There is no separate SLA for centron Managed Kubernetes: the worker nodes are covered by the SLA of the ccloud³ Compute Engine with 99.5 % monthly availability, and centron operates the control plane without a separate availability commitment.
You are planning clusters with thousands of nodes.
In the Standard, Premium and Automatic tiers, AKS supports up to 5,000 nodes per cluster, and up to 1,000 in the Free tier. For very large platforms, that is a reliable framework.
What do three nodes with 4 vCPU cost at AKS and at centron?
The example uses nodes with 4 vCPU and 8 GB RAM, because AKS requires at least 4 vCPU per VM in the system pool. Added to this are a Premium SSD P6 with 64 GB per node, the Standard tier and 5 TB (5,120 GB) of outgoing traffic per month.
centron: €270.79 per month excluding VAT. Three C5 nodes with 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM and 160 GB SSD cost €70.08 each, the highly available control plane €34.95. 5 TB of outgoing traffic adds €25.60 (€0.005 per GB). Monitoring, logging and backup are included. All individual prices are listed in the Managed Kubernetes price list.
For Azure, the total comes to €852.24 per month excluding VAT. Three D4als_v6 VMs cost €373.83, the Standard tier €64.24 and three P6 disks €29.64. The largest single item is traffic: 5,020 GB above the free allowance cost €384.53. The calculation is based on 730 hours and the euro prices of the Retail Prices API (retrieved 12 October 2026).
Even without traffic, a gap remains: computing power alone costs €373.83 at Azure and €210.24 at centron, including storage. With reservations or savings plans, VM prices at Azure drop, but you commit for one or three years. Container Insights and the AKS backup are not yet included in the Azure total. Microsoft bills Azure in US dollars and converts the amount into euros monthly at the London spot rate. The invoice may therefore differ slightly from these euro prices.
How AKS compares with EKS, IONOS and STACKIT is shown in the overview Kubernetes hosting in Germany compared.
Customer voices and success stories
Three companies that have been running their infrastructure at centron for years.
FOC Solutions: from proof of concept to full service
The Hamburg-based EDI service provider with more than 200 customers has been with centron since 2019 and migrated all systems after a proof of concept, with personal support and full-service management.
Read the success story
GIS Consult: from physical servers to virtual environments
The specialist for geographic information systems has been with centron since 2015 and moved step by step from physical servers to virtual environments.
Read the success story
meinBafög: from startup to million-euro business
The Cologne-based BAföG platform has relied on virtual managed servers at centron for around ten years and grew from €80,000 in annual revenue to a million-euro business over this time.
Read the success storyFrequently asked questions
How do centron and Azure Kubernetes Service differ?
Is the AKS Free tier really free of charge?
What alternative to Azure AKS is there in Germany?
Does the CLOUD Act also apply to data in the Frankfurt region?
How long does AKS support a Kubernetes version?
Note: The information on Azure reflects the publicly available status as of 12 October 2026 (Azure Retail Prices API and Microsoft documentation) and makes no claim to completeness. Azure prices in euros according to the Retail Prices API at 730 hours; Microsoft bills in US dollars and converts monthly at the London spot rate, so the invoice may differ. Only the current information of the respective providers is authoritative; the specific quote is binding. All prices exclude VAT. The trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners; no partnerships exist.
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