Managed Kubernetes · Nine Kubernetes Engine (NKE)

Not just a control plane. Upgrades, backups and managed add-ons, run by us.

Nine Kubernetes Engine (NKE) is fully managed Kubernetes in our own data centres in Zurich, ready in a few minutes. We run the control plane, upgrades and backups. Add GitOps, monitoring and logging as optional services in Cockpit. You ship features.

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from CHF 305.30 per month Ready in a few minutes Backup & Restore included Optional add-ons via Cockpit No CLOUD Act No vendor lock-in
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Use Cases Comparison Architecture Getting Started Pricing FAQ
Use cases

Sound familiar?

“We work with sensitive data from finance, healthcare or law.”

How Managed Kubernetes helps

Your data stays in our data centres in Switzerland. Persistent volumes are encrypted at rest (AES-256). Add Audit Logging as an optional service if you need a record of API access.

“We run apps for many customers at once.”

How Managed Kubernetes helps

Separate workloads in their own namespaces with resource quotas, or give each customer its own node pool to isolate them on the node level. Need a fully separate cluster? Run another Managed Kubernetes cluster or a vCluster.

“Our SaaS product needs to ship faster.”

How Managed Kubernetes helps

Add Argo CD for GitOps and Grafana with the Metrics Agent and Loki for monitoring. We operate them, you deploy.

“Our shop can’t go down during traffic peaks.”

How Managed Kubernetes helps

Set a minimum and maximum per node pool and add a Horizontal Pod Autoscaler. Pods scale with load and nodes follow. See autoscaling.

“We want to move off Heroku or another PaaS.”

How Managed Kubernetes helps

Standard Kubernetes on Swiss infrastructure, with kubectl access to your workloads. Want PaaS simplicity instead? Have a look at Deploio.

“We run our own Kubernetes cluster today.”

How Managed Kubernetes helps

Move your workloads to Managed Kubernetes and hand over control plane operations and upgrades to us.

“We want to split our monolith into microservices.”

How Managed Kubernetes helps

Deploy with Helm and kubectl, and keep complex deployments under control with Argo CD as an optional service.

The difference

Managed add-ons instead of DIY tooling

Many managed Kubernetes offerings only run the control plane. Everything around it stays with your team. On Managed Kubernetes, we run the control plane, upgrades and Backup & Restore as standard. GitOps, monitoring, logging, secrets and a registry are optional services: you add them in Cockpit, we operate them.

TaskManaged Kubernetes (NKE)Typical managed Kubernetes
Provisioning Cluster ready in a few minutescontrol plane fast, tooling up to you
Control plane managed by us, three control plane nodesincluded
Upgrades of control plane and worker nodes done by us in the maintenance windowpartly or DIY
Backup & Restore standard: nightly, kept for 30 days, restore a namespace yourself with Veleroyou install and run it yourself
GitOps with Argo CD optional service, deployed via Cockpit, operated by usyou install and run it yourself
Monitoring: Metrics Agent, Grafana, Alertmanager optional services, deployed via Cockpit, operated by usyou install and run it yourself
Logs with Loki optional service, deployed via Cockpit, operated by usyou install and run it yourself
External Secrets Operator optional service, deployed via Cockpit, operated by usyou install and run it yourself
Container (OCI) Registry optional service, deployed via Cockpit, operated by usyou install and run it yourself
Point of contact CKA-certified engineersoften tickets only or an add-on plan

Who covers which task, in detail: Managed Kubernetes in Switzerland: an honest comparison.

Standard and optional

What you get

Fully managed

Control plane, upgrades and security updates handled by our CKA-certified engineers, in the maintenance window. Deletion protection keeps your cluster from being removed by accident.

Backup & Restore as standard

Every cluster is backed up nightly and backups are kept for 30 days. How restore works.

Node pools and autoscaling

Group nodes in node pools with the machine type you need. Set a minimum and maximum per pool and nodes follow your load. Event-driven workload autoscaling with KEDA is available as an optional service. Autoscaling.

Optional services

Argo CD, Metrics Agent, Grafana, Loki, Alertmanager, External Secrets Operator, Sealed Secrets, KEDA, Audit Logging and Container (OCI) Registry. Add them in Cockpit, we operate them.

Networking

Services of type LoadBalancer and network policies out of the box. Add the HAProxy Ingress controller with automatic TLS certificates, Static Egress, and Service Connections to On-Demand databases and Key-Value Store.

No lock-in

Standard, vendor-neutral Kubernetes with no proprietary APIs. Deploy with kubectl and Helm, migrate out at any time.

Extend with Databases, Object Storage and Key-Value Store.

Shared responsibility

You build your application. We run the cluster.

You add optional services in Cockpit and configure them to fit your needs. We take care of operations.

We handle

Control plane, networking and storage of your cluster, run by our CKA-certified engineers
Upgrades and security patches in the maintenance window
Nightly Backup & Restore
Operations of the optional services you add

You decide

Which applications you build and deploy, with kubectl, Helm or Argo CD
Node pools, machine types and autoscaling limits
Which optional services you add, and an SLA with binding response times if you need one
Architecture

How it all fits together

Your cluster on Managed Kubernetes

Databases →

MySQL, PostgreSQL & more for your workloads’ data

Object Storage →

S3-compatible storage for files, uploads & backups

Key-Value Store →

Redis-compatible caching for sessions & fast lookups

OpenSearch →

Full-text, vector & log search

vCluster →

Lower-cost clusters with dedicated worker nodes

How it works

Ready in a few minutes, backups included from day one

  1. 01

    Kickoff

    30 minutes to define your setup.

  2. 02

    Cluster ready

    In a few minutes. Add optional services in Cockpit.

  3. 03

    Integration

    Access and help with your CI/CD setup.

  4. 04

    Deploy

    Push your code. Configured autoscaling handles load peaks.

  5. 05

    Support

    Our Swiss engineering team is there when you need help.

Free webinar

Kubernetes basics, Managed Kubernetes in practice and Deploio as an alternative. One hour, online, with a live demo: Thursday, November 19, 2026, 14:00 - 15:00 · Thursday, January 21, 2027, 14:00 - 15:00

Register
Pricing

What does Managed Kubernetes cost?

Full cluster, starting at CHF 305.30
Worker node nine-standard-1 CHF 31.70
Worker node nine-standard-2 CHF 60.20
Worker node nine-standard-4 CHF 117.20
Custom node, per vCPU CHF 6.50
Custom node, per 1 GiB RAM CHF 5.50
Custom node, per 10 GiB storage CHF 1.60

All prices per month. The full cluster includes the control plane and 1× nine-standard-1 worker node, billed per minute based on actual resource and service usage. Included in the base price: fully managed control plane, node autoscaling, Backup & Restore and a 24/7 emergency service. Optional services are priced separately: External Secrets, Sealed Secrets, KEDA or Image Registry from CHF 4.–, Ingress, Argo CD or Audit Log from CHF 8.–, Static Egress (fixed outbound IP) CHF 16.–. Full, up-to-date price overview including all optional services and the observability stack in the Price Calculator.

Trust

What customers say

«Nine supported us optimally with their Managed Kubernetes solution to migrate our client's application to Kubernetes.»
Silvan MühlemannCTO & Co-Founder
«We can highly recommend Nine as an uncomplicated, highly professional provider.»
Dominik EistererManaging Director
«Thanks to collaboration with Nine, we can focus on what we do best: developing software solutions for healthcare.»
Moritz HabeggerCTO
Case studies: mühlemann+popp healthinal Pupil AG ayyah Unifits View All →
Downloads: Whitepaper: Day-2 operations 11-point checklist Product data sheet Whitepaper: containers
Videos: Kubernetes Day 2
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Where is my data hosted?
Managed Kubernetes runs in our own data centres in Zurich: your data stays exclusively in Switzerland, with no CLOUD Act risk. For a detailed look at Managed Kubernetes, self-hosted Kubernetes and the hyperscalers, read Managed Kubernetes in Switzerland: an honest comparison.
How do updates and upgrades work?
We perform security and software updates during defined maintenance windows. Brief service interruptions are possible, even without prior notice.
Do I get kubectl access?
Yes. Managed Kubernetes is standard Kubernetes with no proprietary APIs, and you work with kubectl and Helm as usual. Administrators can manage all namespaces that are not owned by us, but do not get unrestricted cluster-wide cluster-admin rights: for example, creating ClusterRoleBindings or installing CRDs is not possible. Details in the security concepts. Need full cluster-admin? Have a look at vCluster.
Is monitoring included?
24/7 monitoring of your infrastructure by our engineering team is included. The optional observability stack (Metrics Agent, Grafana, Loki, Alertmanager) for your applications is a paid add-on.
How do backups work?
Backup & Restore is enabled by default for all Managed Kubernetes clusters. Backups are taken nightly and kept for 30 days, and you can restore a namespace yourself with Velero. How restore works.
Is there an SLA?
The SLA is not included in the base price. You can add it in the Price Calculator, depending on how critical your workloads are. Depending on the SLA tier, it guarantees availability of up to 99.9% during operating hours and an intervention time of up to 1 hour for critical incidents. Details on response times and service credits on our SLA page.
Can I get static egress IPs?
Yes, static egress IPs are available to allowlist your cluster’s outbound traffic with external services.
What’s the difference between Argo CD, External Secrets and Sealed Secrets?
Argo CD continuously deploys your applications from a Git repository (GitOps). External Secrets syncs secrets from an external secret manager (e.g. AWS Secrets Manager, Vault) into Kubernetes. Sealed Secrets encrypts your Kubernetes secrets so they can be safely committed to Git in the first place.
What kind of support do I get?
24/7 monitoring of your infrastructure and a 24/7 emergency service. Our CKA-certified engineering team supports you with cluster configuration, security audits and GitOps.
Is there a Kubernetes workshop?
For existing customers, we offer a Kubernetes workshop on request, for example if your team wants to go deeper into Kubernetes. Get in touch at support@nine.ch.

Technical questions? You’ll find the details in the documentation.

From the docs

Go deeper on docs.nine.ch

All Managed Kubernetes docs
NKE overview →Locations, node pools, machine types and prices. Security concepts →Permissions on Managed Kubernetes and what restricted cluster-admin means. Backup and Restore →Nightly backups, 30 days retention, restore with Velero. Autoscaling →Node pool limits, CPU requests and HPA setup. Argo CD →GitOps as an optional service. Metrics Agent →Collect application metrics for Grafana. Ingress →HAProxy ingress controller and automatic TLS certificates. Cluster login →Set up kubectl access to your cluster.
One provider

One provider, from rack to app.

From colocation to Root and Managed Products, platforms and services: all with us, in our Swiss data centres. The highlighted layer is this page. Grow from one layer to the next without switching providers.

One Swiss teamGrow without switching providers
Services
Databases OpenSearch SLA Monitoring Managed Services Cloudflare
Platform Products
Deploio vCluster Airlock Microgateway WAF
Managed Products
Managed Dedicated Server Managed Virtual Server Managed GPU Server Managed Kubernetes
Root Products
Root Dedicated Server Root CloudVM Root GPU Server
Storage & Backup
Object Storage
Colocation & Housing
Colocation Server Housing
Not quite right?

This might fit better

Kubernetes too much for you? Deploio →Push your code, done. We build and run the app for you. Need a cluster for dev, test or CI? vCluster →A virtual cluster on Managed Kubernetes with its own dedicated worker nodes and full cluster-admin. No base cluster fee. Classic web hosting is enough? Managed Server →PHP, Node.js or Python on a managed server.

See yourself in one of these use cases?

Start right away in Cockpit, or plan your setup with us in 30 minutes.

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