TL;DR: The number that made our finance lead go quiet was $0. 10 per cluster per hour — that's the EKS control plane fee, and it sounds trivial until you multiply it across three regions, add managed node group overhead, factor in NAT gateway egress between regions, and suddenly you 📖 Reading time: ~43 min What's in this article The Setup That Started This Comparison What 'Self-managed Kubernetes' Actually Means in 2026 EKS in 2026: What's Changed and What's Still Annoying Control Plane: The Biggest Practical Difference Networking: Where Self-managed Gets Complicated Fast Storage: EBS CSI, EFS, and the Pain of Getting PVCs Right Storage: EBS CSI, EKS Add-ons, and the IAM Gotchas Nobody Warns You About Operational Overhead: The Real Cost Comparison The Setup That Started This Comparison The number that made our finance lead go quiet was $0.10 per cluster per hour — that's the EKS control plane fee, and it sounds trivial until you multiply it across three regions, add managed node group overhead, factor in…