Managed Kubernetes vs. Self-Hosted: The Honest Comparison
Managed Kubernetes vs. Self-Hosted: The Honest Comparison
"Kubernetes is open source — why should I pay for it?" This question comes up in almost every conversation with DevOps teams. And it is a fair one. Kubernetes really is free. What is not free: operating it.
This article compares Managed Kubernetes with self-hosted. Honestly, with realistic numbers and without sales rhetoric. By the end, you will know which approach is right for your team.
What "Self-Hosted" Actually Means
When we talk about self-hosted Kubernetes, we mean: you operate the complete stack yourself. That includes:
- Infrastructure: Bare-metal servers or VMs that you rent and manage
- Control plane: API server, etcd, controller manager, scheduler — installation, configuration, updates, backups
- Worker nodes: Operating system, container runtime, kubelet, kube-proxy
- Networking: CNI plugin (Calico, Cilium, Flannel), ingress controller, load balancer, DNS
- Storage: CSI drivers, StorageClasses, backup strategy for PersistentVolumes
- Security: RBAC, network policies, Pod Security Standards, image scanning, certificate management
- Monitoring & logging: Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, or comparable stacks
- Updates: Kubernetes minor and patch upgrades, OS updates, security patches
No accusation — simply a list of what reality looks like. Each of these items requires expertise, time, and ongoing attention.
The Hidden Costs of Self-Hosted Kubernetes
Personnel Costs: The Biggest Item
Kubernetes expertise is expensive. An experienced Kubernetes administrator in Germany earns between 70,000 and 95,000 EUR gross per year. For reliable operations, you need at least two people (vacation, illness, resignation).
Let us calculate conservatively:
| Item | Yearly Costs |
|---|---|
| 2x K8s admin (50% allocation) | 75,000 EUR |
| Training & certifications | 5,000 EUR |
| On-call allowances | 8,000 EUR |
| Personnel subtotal | 88,000 EUR |
88,000 EUR per year, just for personnel costs. And that is at a conservative 50% allocation. In reality, the share is often higher, especially in the early phase.
Infrastructure Costs: Hetzner as an Example
Hetzner is the popular choice for self-hosted Kubernetes in Germany — for good reason. The prices are low, the hardware is solid, the data centers are located in Germany. A typical setup:
| Component | Monthly Costs |
|---|---|
| 3x control plane (CX32) | 3 x 15.90 EUR = 47.70 EUR |
| 3x worker nodes (CX42) | 3 x 28.90 EUR = 86.70 EUR |
| Load balancer | 5.90 EUR |
| Volumes (200 GB) | 9.20 EUR |
| Backups | ~15 EUR |
| Infrastructure subtotal | ~165 EUR/month |
165 EUR per month — sounds unbeatable. For the raw infrastructure, it is.
Tooling and Services: What Comes on Top
| Component | Monthly Costs |
|---|---|
| Monitoring (Grafana Cloud or similar) | 50-200 EUR |
| Log management | 50-150 EUR |
| Container registry | 20-100 EUR |
| Backup solution (Velero + storage) | 30-80 EUR |
| Certificate management | 0-50 EUR |
| Tooling subtotal | 150-580 EUR/month |
Total Self-Hosted Costs: The Honest Calculation
| Item | Monthly Costs |
|---|---|
| Infrastructure (Hetzner) | 165 EUR |
| Tooling & services | 350 EUR (average) |
| Personnel (pro rata) | 7,333 EUR |
| Total costs | ~7,850 EUR/month |
Yes, you read that right. The infrastructure accounts for less than 3% of the total costs. The rest is personnel and tooling. The 165 EUR Hetzner server is a rounding error.
What "Managed Kubernetes" Covers
With a Managed Kubernetes provider, the provider operates the cluster for you. The scope, however, varies considerably — it pays to look closely.
Managed Control Plane (e.g., IONOS, OVHcloud)
These providers manage the control plane. You are still responsible for:
- Worker node configuration and updates
- CNI plugin and network policies
- Monitoring and logging
- Storage configuration
- Security hardening
- Backup strategy
That reduces the effort but does not eliminate it. Kubernetes know-how remains mandatory on your team.
Typical costs:
- IONOS: Managed Kubernetes from 0 EUR for the control plane, worker nodes from ~25 EUR/node + storage extra (0.044 EUR/GB/month)
- OVHcloud: Control plane free of charge, worker nodes from ~25 EUR/node + additional storage costs
Sounds cheap, but: PVC storage, load balancers, and backups come on top. A realistic setup with 200 GB of storage and three worker nodes lands at 120-200 EUR/month — plus still significant effort on your side.
Fully Managed (e.g., focusnet)
A fully managed provider takes over the entire stack:
- Control plane and worker nodes
- CNI (Cilium), ingress, load balancing
- Monitoring and alerting
- PVC storage included
- Container registry (Harbor)
- Security hardening and updates
- Backup and disaster recovery
The difference: you deploy your applications, and the provider takes care of everything underneath. No etcd debugging on a Saturday.
focusnet costs:
- Namespace (shared cluster): from 79 EUR/month incl. 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 20 GB storage
- Dedicated cluster: from 299 EUR/month incl. 6 vCPU, 24 GB RAM, 100 GB storage
PVC storage, monitoring, Harbor registry, and backups are included in the price. No egress costs, no hidden fees.
The Honest Cost Comparison
For a mid-sized setup (approx. 6 vCPU, 24 GB RAM, 100 GB storage):
| Provider | Monthly Costs | Your Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Hetzner (self-hosted) | ~165 EUR infra + 7,500 EUR personnel | High: everything yourself |
| IONOS Managed K8s | ~150 EUR + storage + personnel | Medium: nodes, security, monitoring |
| OVHcloud Managed K8s | ~130 EUR + storage + personnel | Medium: nodes, security, monitoring |
| focusnet Dedicated S | 299 EUR all-inclusive | Low: deployments only |
| AWS EKS (eu-central-1) | ~350-500 EUR + egress + personnel | Medium: nodes, security, monitoring |
The table shows: Managed Kubernetes only becomes expensive once you ignore the personnel costs. And that is exactly the mistake many people make.
When Self-Hosted Makes Sense
Self-hosted Kubernetes is the right choice if:
1. You have a dedicated platform engineering team If you already have 3+ Kubernetes experts on the team who are responsible for operations anyway, the personnel costs are sunk costs. In that case, you maximize the value of that team with full control.
2. You have very specific requirements Bare-metal performance, GPU workloads, special kernel modules, non-standard CNI configurations — if your use case deviates from the standard, you need full control over the stack.
3. You operate Kubernetes as a product If you offer a Kubernetes-based product yourself (e.g., a PaaS), you need to understand and control the stack down to the last detail. Outsourcing would undermine your competitive advantage.
4. Compliance requires physical control Certain regulations (e.g., in the banking sector) may require you to control the physical infrastructure yourself. Managed cannot help you there either.
When Managed Kubernetes Is the Better Choice
Managed Kubernetes is the right choice if:
1. Kubernetes is a means to an end, not your core business If your team builds software and Kubernetes is just the platform that software runs on, you should not burn engineering capacity on cluster operations. Every hour your DevOps engineer spends debugging etcd is an hour missing from product development.
2. You have a small to mid-sized team Teams with 2-10 developers can rarely afford a dedicated Kubernetes admin. Managed Kubernetes gives these teams enterprise quality without the enterprise ops team.
3. You need cost predictability Self-hosted costs are variable: a major outage, a difficult upgrade, or a security incident can triple a month's costs. Managed Kubernetes offers a fixed monthly price. No surprises in accounting.
4. You need to be productive fast A self-hosted cluster is set up in 2-3 days. Production-ready — with monitoring, backups, security hardening, and disaster recovery — takes 2-4 weeks. With a managed provider, you have a production-ready cluster in 30 minutes. A coffee break is enough.
focusnet vs. Hetzner: The Direct Comparison
Hetzner is the most popular option for self-hosted Kubernetes in Germany. Here is the direct comparison:
| Criterion | Hetzner Self-Hosted | focusnet Managed |
|---|---|---|
| Cluster setup | 2-4 weeks (production-ready) | 30 minutes |
| Control plane | Self-managed | Managed by focusnet |
| Kubernetes updates | Perform yourself | Handled by focusnet |
| CNI | Install/configure yourself | KubeOVN preconfigured |
| Monitoring | Set up yourself | Included |
| Container registry | Operate yourself | Harbor included |
| PVC storage | Hetzner Volumes (extra) | Included per tier |
| Backup | Implement yourself | Included |
| Support | Community / Hetzner basic | German support incl. |
| Security hardening | Implement yourself | CIS benchmark out of the box |
| Costs (comparable) | ~114 EUR + personnel | 259 EUR all-inclusive |
The infrastructure costs at Hetzner are lower. But if you calculate honestly — including personnel, tooling, and the value of your time — Managed Kubernetes is cheaper in most cases. You can find the complete side-by-side comparison, including a total cost of ownership calculation, on our focusnet vs. Hetzner comparison page.
The Decision Guide
Three questions that settle everything:
- Do we have at least two people with deep Kubernetes know-how? If not: managed.
- Is operating Kubernetes part of our core competency? If not: managed.
- Can we afford a cluster problem causing 4-8 hours of unplanned work? If not: managed.
If you answered all three with "yes," self-hosted may be the better choice. In all other cases, Managed Kubernetes saves you time, money, and nerves.
Conclusion: The Honest Answer
There is no universally correct answer. But there is a common misjudgment: self-hosted Kubernetes almost always ends up more expensive than expected because the personnel costs are underestimated. The Hetzner bill of ~114 EUR per month looks attractive — until the first etcd cluster gets corrupted and your senior engineer sacrifices a Saturday.
Managed Kubernetes is not a luxury. It is a make-or-buy decision like any other. And for most teams, "buy" is the economically sounder option.
Further reading: focusnet Managed Kubernetes in detail · side-by-side comparison against AWS EKS · complete price list.
Want to test Managed Kubernetes without compromises? Start with the Free Tier from 0 EUR/month, Flex from 69 EUR, or Business from 169 EUR. 14 days free, cancel anytime, no fine print. [Start your free trial →]
