centron vs. IONOS Kubernetes: How much of the operations does the provider handle?
centron and IONOS both run Managed Kubernetes in German data centres. What matters is how much of the operations lies with the provider. At IONOS the control plane is free of charge, while monitoring, logging, storage and traffic above 2 TB cost extra. At centron, monitoring, logging, backup and SSD storage are included in the node price, from €19.02 per node per month. Outgoing traffic costs €0.005 per GB, incoming traffic is free of charge.
As of: 12 October 2026 · Publisher: centron GmbH
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centron and IONOS at a glance
centron is the right fit if you use Kubernetes in production and want to hand over patches, monitoring, logging and backup to the provider as a managed service. Your data stays exclusively in Germany.
IONOS is the right fit if you want to size nodes freely or cover monitoring, backup and policies with your own platform team.
The table compares IONOS Managed Kubernetes with centron Managed Kubernetes.
| Criterion | centron | IONOS |
|---|---|---|
| Control plane | Standard free of charge, highly available €34.95 per month per cluster. | Free of charge. |
| Nodes | Fixed sizes from C1 to C8 with vCPU, RAM and SSD storage. | vCPU and RAM freely combinable, dedicated cores as an alternative. Storage is billed separately. |
| Operations | Security patches, monitoring, logging and backup with 30-day retention included, cert-manager pre-installed. | Control plane and updates in the weekly maintenance window. Monitoring and logging at extra cost. |
| Traffic | Incoming free of charge, outgoing €0.005 per GB. At 5 TB that comes to €25.60. | 2 TB per month free, then €0.030 per GB. At 5 TB that comes to €92.16. |
| Example cluster | €148.03 per month for three nodes, a highly available control plane and 5 TB of traffic. Monitoring, logging and backup are included. | €167.34 per month for the same cluster, without monitoring and logging. Own calculation, as of 12 October 2026. |
| Operator and location | German operator with no foreign parent company. Managed Kubernetes runs in our own data centre in Hallstadt. | German provider belonging to the United Internet group. Data centres in Frankfurt am Main and Berlin, others in the UK, Spain, France and the USA. |
| Prices | Nodes from €19.02 per month, SSD storage included. Incoming traffic free of charge, outgoing €0.005 per GB. Billed by the hour, clusters can be deleted at any time. All prices excluding VAT. | Nodes from €0.017 per vCPU (= 2 Kubernetes CPUs) and €0.0025 per GB of RAM per hour, SSD €0.15 per GB, traffic above 2 TB €0.030 per GB. All prices excluding VAT. |
What does IONOS take on when running the cluster?
IONOS runs the control plane and applies updates in a weekly maintenance window. According to the IONOS documentation on maintenance, the nodes are replaced with new ones in the process. Monitoring and logging are separate, paid services of the IONOS Cloud. For teams with their own platform staff, that is a lean approach. IONOS does not name a backup service for Kubernetes clusters. Its documentation describes Velero with volume snapshots, which your team sets up and runs itself.
Not every team has that capacity. Monitoring, log analysis, data backup and policies have to be built up and maintained over time. With Managed Kubernetes, this work lies with our team. You take care of applications and deployments, centron runs the platform underneath.
Who does what in day-to-day operations?
An overview of how tasks are split between the provider and your team.
| Task | centron with Managed Kubernetes | IONOS Managed Kubernetes |
|---|---|---|
| Control plane and Kubernetes updates | Our team, updates automatically in the maintenance window on request. | IONOS, in the weekly maintenance window. The nodes are replaced in the process. |
| Monitoring and logging | Our team, included in the price. | Your team, or an IONOS add-on service at extra cost. |
| Backup and recovery | Cluster backup included, 30-day retention. Velero for persistent volumes optional, S3 storage billed by usage. | Your team, for example with Velero and volume snapshots. |
| Pod security and policies | On request, centron enforces the Pod Security Standards and best practices with Kyverno. | Your team. |
| Applications and deployments | Your team. | Your team. |
Based on the published service descriptions; the individual quote is authoritative.
When is centron the better choice?
In three cases centron is the better fit.
You want to hand over cluster operations.
centron takes on security patches, monitoring, logging and backup with 30-day retention. Your team only looks after applications and deployments. cert-manager is pre-installed. On request, centron enforces the Pod Security Standards and best practices with Kyverno.
Your cluster generates a lot of outgoing traffic.
At centron, outgoing traffic costs €0.005 per GB, around €26 for 5 TB (5,120 GB). IONOS charges €0.030 per GB after 2 TB free per month, around €92 for 5 TB. With little traffic, the gap between the two providers is small.
Total costs should stay low.
In the example calculation, the cluster costs €148.03 per month at centron and €167.34 at IONOS. At centron, SSD storage is included in the fixed node price. IONOS charges extra for storage and for traffic above 2 TB.
When is IONOS the better choice?
Three situations in which IONOS is the obvious choice.
You need freely sized nodes.
IONOS lets you combine vCPU and RAM freely and offers dedicated cores. You can switch between the two variants during operation. centron works with eight fixed node sizes.
Your team handles monitoring and backup itself.
If you build monitoring, backup and policies yourself, you do not need these services from the provider. At IONOS you then pay nothing for the control plane and only for the resources you use.
You already work in the IONOS Cloud.
Data Center Designer, API, private node pools and auto-scaling are then available without a new contractual partner. The cluster can be managed like your other IONOS resources.
What does a Kubernetes cluster cost?
The list prices of both providers are public, but the billing logic differs. An example: three worker nodes, each with 2 vCPUs and 2 GB of RAM, 60 GB of SSD per node, a highly available control plane and 5 TB (5,120 GB) of outgoing traffic per month.
At centron, this cluster costs €148.03 per month excluding VAT. This includes three C2 nodes at €29.16 each with SSD storage, the highly available control plane for €34.95 and €25.60 for 5 TB of outgoing traffic (€0.005 per GB). Monitoring, logging and backup are part of the scope of services. The basis is the Managed Kubernetes price list.
At IONOS, the same cluster costs €167.34 per month excluding VAT according to our own calculation. IONOS counts one provisioned core as two Kubernetes CPUs, so a node with 2 CPUs is billed as 1 vCPU. The nodes therefore cost €48.18, calculated as 3 × (1 × €0.017 + 2 × €0.0025) × 730 hours. On top come €27.00 for 180 GB of SSD Premium and €92.16 for 3,072 GB of traffic above the free allowance. The basis is the IONOS price list dated 15 September 2026.
For pure computing power, IONOS is cheaper. A node with 4 Kubernetes CPUs (2 billed vCPUs) and 8 GB of RAM costs €39.42 per month there without storage, compared with €70.08 at centron with 160 GB of SSD. In return, IONOS charges extra for storage and for traffic above 2 TB, and monitoring and logging are separate services.
For a broader market overview, see 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 IONOS differ for Kubernetes?
Is the control plane at IONOS really free of charge?
Is centron an alternative to IONOS Kubernetes?
What happens in the IONOS maintenance window?
Note: The information on IONOS reflects the publicly available status as of 12 October 2026 and makes no claim to completeness. Features and prices may have changed since then. Only the current information from 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.
Let us talk about your cluster
Send us your current IONOS configuration and we will calculate the same cluster at centron. Prefer to test it yourself first? For your own test there is €200 in starting credit, valid for 60 days from opening a business account.