Option comparison · Managed Kubernetes

Managed, virtual or self-hosted: your choice

All three get you a working Kubernetes cluster. They differ in who carries the day-2 operations afterwards and what is included. The comparison below helps you decide, and shows which worker node size fits your workload.

Compare Talk to an expert Price Calculator

NKE from CHF 305.30 per month vCluster without base cluster fee In Switzerland

Which One When? Comparison Worker Nodes FAQ

Which one when?

Three ways to your Kubernetes cluster

Managed Kubernetes (NKE)

“Our SaaS product needs to ship faster.”

For production workloads
We run the control plane, upgrades and Backup & Restore
Optional services such as Argo CD or Grafana, operated by us
Managed Kubernetes →

vCluster

“Every team wants its own cluster, but the budget won’t stretch.”

For development, testing and CI
Virtual control plane on NKE, dedicated worker nodes, full cluster-admin
No base cluster fee, API ready in under two minutes
One vCluster per project
vCluster →

Self-hosted

“We have the Kubernetes expertise and the time for platform operations.”

For teams with dedicated Kubernetes expertise
You run the cluster on your own or rented infrastructure
Upgrades, observability, security and backups are up to you

Comparison

Who runs your cluster?

All three run standard Kubernetes. The difference lies in who takes care of the control plane, upgrades, backups and add-ons afterwards, not in the underlying technology.

	Managed Kubernetes (NKE)	vCluster	Self-hosted
Suited for	Production workloads	Development, testing and CI	Teams with dedicated Kubernetes expertise and time for platform operations
Control plane	Dedicated, scalable high-availability control plane, run by us	Virtualised single-instance control plane on NKE	Set up and run by you
Upgrades	Control plane and worker nodes, done by us in the maintenance window	Upgraded by you, one minor version at a time. New versions often arrive before NKE	Coordinated by you, several times a year
Worker nodes	Dedicated, NKE machine types	Dedicated, NKE machine types	Your own or rented infrastructure
Backup & Restore	Included: nightly, kept for 30 days	No automatic backups	Up to you
Optional services (Argo CD, Grafana, Loki and more)	Added in Cockpit, operated by us	Argo CD integration, no managed cluster add-ons	Installed and run by you
cluster-admin	Restricted, no CRDs or ClusterRoleBindings	Full cluster-admin	Full
SLA	Available as an option	Not available	–
Creation time	A few minutes	API in under two minutes	Depends on your setup
Starting price	CHF 305.30/month (full cluster incl. one nine-standard-1 worker node)	From CHF 36.70/month (one nine-standard-1 worker node plus a fixed charge for the virtual control plane), no base cluster fee	Infrastructure only, operations time comes on top

Feature comparison NKE and vCluster in our documentation. Self-hosted also means choosing a Kubernetes distribution, a CNI plugin and an ingress controller upfront. More on this in our blog post Managed Kubernetes in Switzerland: an honest comparison.

Worker nodes

Which worker node size fits your workload?

Full cluster, starting at CHF 305.30

nine-standard-1: 1 vCPU, 4 GiB RAM CHF 31.70

nine-standard-2: 2 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM CHF 60.20

nine-standard-4: 4 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM CHF 117.20

All prices per month. The full cluster includes the control plane and one nine-standard-1 worker node, billed per minute based on actual usage. Worker nodes are the same for NKE and vCluster. A vCluster has no base cluster fee, you pay a fixed charge for the virtual control plane (estimated CHF 5.– per month). Also available: nine-highmem-2/4 (2/4 vCPU, 16/32 GiB RAM, CHF 104.20/CHF 205.20), nine-highcpu-2/4/8 (2/4/8 vCPU, 4/8/16 GiB RAM, CHF 38.20/CHF 73.20/CHF 143.20) and custom machine types. You can combine node pools with different machine types in one cluster. Full price overview in the Price Calculator.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about the Managed Kubernetes options

What does “managed” mean for NKE?

We run the control plane, upgrade the control plane and worker nodes in the maintenance window and back up your cluster every night. Optional services such as Argo CD, the Metrics Agent, Grafana, Loki or the External Secrets Operator you add in Cockpit and configure to fit your needs, we operate them. Metrics, logs and alerts in detail: Monitoring.

What does self-hosted Kubernetes mean?

You run the cluster on your own or rented infrastructure and take on day-2 operations yourself: upgrades, observability, security patches, backups and the upfront choice of Kubernetes distribution, CNI plugin and ingress controller. It makes sense if your team has deep Kubernetes expertise and time for platform operations.

When is a vCluster the better choice?

For non-production workloads such as development, testing and CI, or when you need full cluster-admin, for example to install CRDs and operators. A vCluster has no base cluster fee and its API is ready in under two minutes, but it comes without SLA, automatic backups and managed cluster add-ons. For production, a standard NKE cluster is the better fit.

Which Kubernetes distribution and CNI does NKE use?

NKE runs on RKE2, a CNCF-certified Kubernetes distribution, with Cilium as networking provider. Details in the security concepts.

Can I mix different worker node sizes in one cluster?

Yes. You group nodes in node pools, each with its own machine type. If you set a minimum and maximum per node pool, nodes follow your load. Event-driven workload autoscaling with KEDA is available as an optional service. See autoscaling.

Is there an SLA?

For NKE, the SLA isn’t included in the base price, you can add it as an option. Details on our SLA page. For vCluster, there is no SLA.

Can I migrate an existing cluster to Managed Kubernetes?

Yes. Teams running standard Kubernetes without proprietary cloud provider dependencies can usually move their workloads with manageable effort. We advise you on the migration.

How do quotas work?

Quotas limit how many resources your organisation can create, for example Kubernetes clusters, so you don’t accidentally create a large number of costly resources. You can see your quotas in Cockpit and request an increase. Details in our documentation.

What stops someone from accidentally deleting a critical namespace?

Deletion protection is enabled by default on every NKE cluster. With the annotation nine.ch/deletion-protection on a namespace or PersistentVolumeClaim, the resource can’t be deleted until you remove the annotation. See deletion protection.

How quickly is a cluster ready?

An NKE cluster is ready in a few minutes, the API of a vCluster in under two minutes. You create both in Cockpit or with nctl.

Do you also offer Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)?

Not for new customers. We continue to support existing GKE customers. For new Kubernetes projects, we recommend Managed Kubernetes on our own Swiss infrastructure.

Is Kubernetes overkill for my project?

Possibly. If you just want to deploy an application without managing containers or clusters yourself, Deploio may be the simpler fit. Our free Kubernetes webinar covers the basics and helps you decide.

Technical details in our documentation.

From the docs

Go deeper on docs.nine.ch

All Managed Kubernetes docs

NKE overview →Locations, node pools, machine types and prices. vCluster →What a vCluster is and the feature comparison with NKE. Security concepts →RKE2, Cilium and what restricted cluster-admin means. Autoscaling →Node pool limits, CPU requests and HPA setup.

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. Grow from one layer to the next without switching providers.

One Swiss teamGrow without switching providers

Services

Databases Key-Value Store 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