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DigitalOcean Kubernetes (DOKS)

Fully managed Kubernetes with free control plane, simple pricing, and integrated developer experience.

Free control plane; worker nodes from $12/mo (2 vCPU, 4GB); HA included

DigitalOcean Kubernetes (DOKS) is a fully managed Kubernetes service that eliminates control plane management overhead. You get a high-availability control plane at no extra cost, automatic version upgrades, and native integration with the rest of the DigitalOcean ecosystem.

Key Services

  • Free HA control plane — no per-cluster management fee (unlike EKS)
  • Automatic updates — managed patching across supported Kubernetes versions
  • Integrated load balancers — native LBaaS with TLS termination
  • CNI options — Cilium and the default DigitalOcean CNI
  • Cluster autoscaling — node groups scale on demand
  • Private networking — private clusters with VPC support
  • 1-click apps — curated Helm charts for common workloads

Best For

Teams that want Kubernetes without the operational burden of managing masters. Transparent worker-node pricing ($12/mo for 2 vCPU / 4GB) keeps cost predictable. Compare alternatives: DOKS vs GKE Autopilot, DOKS vs EKS, DOKS vs AKS. See our buying guide: Best Managed Kubernetes Services.

  • Best for: Cloud Platforms
  • Pricing: Free control plane; worker nodes from $12/mo (2 vCPU, 4GB); HA included

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Visit DigitalOcean Kubernetes (DOKS)

DigitalOcean Kubernetes (DOKS) Hub

Features

✗

Compute (VMs / Instances)

Virtual machines and compute instances for general-purpose workloads

Kubernetes-native, not VM-based

✓

Container Registry

Managed Docker/OCI container image registry

Via DO Container Registry integration

✗

Free Tier

Generous free tier for getting started without upfront costs

K8s-specific offering, uses DO credits

✓

Global CDN

Content delivery network for low-latency global content distribution

Via DO Spaces CDN

✓

Managed Databases

Managed relational and NoSQL database services

Via DO Managed Databases integration

✓

Managed Kubernetes

Managed Kubernetes cluster service for container orchestration

Fully managed Kubernetes, free control plane

✓

Multi-Region Deployment

Deploy workloads across multiple geographic regions worldwide

Available in all 15 DO regions

✓

Object Storage

S3-compatible or similar object storage for unstructured data

Via DO Spaces integration

✗

Serverless Functions

Event-driven serverless compute (FaaS) for running code without provisioning servers

Not available on Kubernetes nodes directly

✓

VPC / Private Networking

Virtual private cloud with private networking, subnets, and firewalls

VPC with private node networking

Best For

Find the right DevOps tools for your specific needs. DigitalOcean Kubernetes (DOKS) is featured in these buying guides:

Best CI/CD Platforms Best for Startups Best for Enterprise Best Free Options Best Open Source Best Security

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