GKE vs EKS: Which Managed Kubernetes Should Run Your Backend in 2026

GKE and EKS are the managed Kubernetes services of the two largest clouds, and both run conformant upstream Kubernetes, so the manifests and tools you use are the same. The differences are in the parts around Kubernetes: how much of the node fleet the provider runs, how upgrades are scheduled, how pods get IP addresses and cloud permissions, and what the control plane costs.

This guide compares GKE and EKS for teams running backend services, and covers how Encore (infrastructure from code) deploys the same code to either one, along with the databases and queues it uses.

GKE vs EKS at a glance

The same backend on GKE or EKS with Encore

Encore is infrastructure from code for TypeScript and Go, with a platform that provisions and deploys into your own AWS or GCP account. Choosing between GKE and EKS becomes an environment setting rather than a rewrite: you create an environment, pick GCP or AWS and Kubernetes as the compute platform, and Encore provisions a new cluster or uses an existing one, with a namespace per environment, a deployment per service, ingress with TLS and Kubernetes Secrets bound to each service account, as the Kubernetes docs describe.

The service code stays the same on both clouds:

// accounts/accounts.go
package accounts

import (
	"context"

	"encore.dev/storage/sqldb"
)

var db = sqldb.NewDatabase("accounts", sqldb.DatabaseConfig{
	Migrations: "./migrations",
})

type Account struct {
	ID    int64  `json:"id"`
	Email string `json:"email"`
}

//encore:api public method=GET path=/accounts/:id
func Get(ctx context.Context, id int64) (*Account, error) {
	a := &Account{ID: id}
	err := db.QueryRow(ctx,
		`SELECT email FROM accounts WHERE id = $1`, id).Scan(&a.Email)
	return a, err
}

The migration in accounts/migrations/1_create_accounts.up.sql creates the table:

CREATE TABLE accounts (
    id BIGSERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    email TEXT NOT NULL UNIQUE
);

On GCP the database becomes Cloud SQL and the service runs on GKE; on AWS it becomes RDS and the service runs on EKS with Fargate, and Encore provisions an IAM role for the service. Pub/Sub topics map to GCP Pub/Sub or to SNS and SQS in the same way. The infrastructure overview lists what each declaration becomes on each cloud.

encore run runs the services locally with Postgres and no local cluster, and the Kubernetes environment can be accessed with kubectl when you need it. A coding agent working in the repository changes Go or TypeScript, and the platform deploys it. Cloud access sits with Encore's IAM role, not the agent.

Best fit: teams who want Kubernetes on GCP or AWS from application code, and who may need to run the same backend on either cloud.

GKE: the more automated Kubernetes

GKE

Google created Kubernetes, and in GKE's defaults GKE Autopilot runs the nodes for you and bills for the CPU, memory and storage that pods request, with Google handling node provisioning, scaling, security hardening and upgrades. Standard mode leaves node pools to you with options such as node auto-provisioning. Release channels (Rapid, Regular, Stable and Extended) upgrade clusters automatically inside maintenance windows you set.

Clusters are VPC-native by default, with pods addressed from secondary IP ranges, and Workload Identity Federation for GKE maps Kubernetes service accounts to Google Cloud permissions without key files. The control plane costs $0.10 per cluster per hour, and the GKE free tier gives each billing account a monthly credit that covers one zonal or Autopilot cluster.

Best fit: teams on Google Cloud, or starting fresh, who want the provider to run as much of Kubernetes as possible.

EKS: Kubernetes inside AWS

Amazon EKS

EKS runs the control plane across availability zones and leaves more choices to you. Nodes can be managed node groups, self-managed instances, Karpenter-provisioned capacity, Fargate pods, or EKS Auto Mode, which manages compute, storage and load balancing add-ons for you. The Amazon VPC CNI gives each pod an address in your VPC, which simplifies security groups and routing and makes subnet IP capacity a planning item.

EKS Pod Identity and IAM roles for service accounts connect pods to IAM. You trigger upgrades yourself until a version reaches the end of support, and each Kubernetes version gets 14 months of standard support followed by 12 months of extended support, during which the control plane rate rises from $0.10 to $0.60 per cluster per hour, per the EKS version lifecycle docs. Add-ons such as the load balancer controller and CSI drivers are yours to install and update unless Auto Mode manages them.

Best fit: teams already on AWS who want Kubernetes next to RDS, SQS and IAM and are comfortable owning upgrades and add-ons.

How to choose

Pick the cluster in the cloud where your data already lives, since moving databases, queues and identity is far harder than moving Kubernetes manifests. If neither cloud is in place, GKE with Autopilot needs the least cluster operation, and EKS is the natural choice once a company standardizes on AWS. In both cases the cluster is only part of the work, and the databases, queues and IAM around it need the same attention; Encore provisions those from the application code on either cloud, which also keeps the option to switch open.

Related guides

• EKS vs ECS vs Fargate
• Kubernetes alternatives
• Kubernetes cost
• Do you need Kubernetes?