AWS EKS vs NCP NKS — Kubernetes Comparison Guide (2026)

Why Compare These Two?

Korean startups and enterprises frequently debate between AWS EKS and NCP (Naver Cloud Platform) NKS.
There’s plenty of global content on AWS, but practical comparisons from a Korean service perspective are rare.

Core Comparison

Aspect	AWS EKS	NCP NKS
Control Plane cost	$0.10/hr (~₩80,000/mo)	Free
Minimum nodes	2	2
Domestic latency	Seoul region 20–40ms	10–20ms
Domestic compliance	Possible (configuration needed)	Supported out of the box
Global regions	33	5
GPU node options	Wide (g4dn, p4d…)	Limited
Managed add-ons	Rich (ALB, EFS…)	Basic included
Documentation language	English-primary	Korean supported
Billing currency	USD	KRW

Cost Comparison (Real Numbers)

Setup: Kubernetes cluster, 3 worker nodes (4vCPU/16GB), 730 hours/month

AWS EKS

Control Plane: $0.10 × 730h = $73/month
Nodes (m5.xlarge): $0.192 × 3 × 730h = $420/month
NAT Gateway: ~$50/month
Total: ~$543/month = ~₩724,000/month

NCP NKS

Control Plane: Free
Nodes (Standard-g2 16GB): ₩180,000 × 3 = ₩540,000/month
NAT Gateway: ₩30,000/month
Total: ~₩570,000/month

NCP is roughly 20–25% cheaper (based on ₩1,330/USD exchange rate)

When to Choose EKS

Global service: Need US, Europe, Southeast Asia regions
Deep AWS ecosystem: Close integration with RDS, ElastiCache, S3
AI/ML workloads: SageMaker, diverse GPU instance options
Team proficient in AWS: Leverage existing operational experience
Open-source add-ons: EKS-optimized tools like Karpenter, KEDA

When to Choose NCP NKS

Korea-only service: Latency and compliance are paramount
Public sector / Finance: ISMS, Personal Information Protection Act compliance
Cost-first: Free control plane + KRW billing
Korean language support: Technical support and documentation in Korean
Naver Cloud DB integration: Cloud DB for MySQL/Redis

EKS — Create a Cluster

eksctl create cluster \
  --name my-cluster \
  --region ap-northeast-2 \
  --nodegroup-name workers \
  --node-type m5.xlarge \
  --nodes 3 \
  --nodes-min 2 \
  --nodes-max 10 \
  --managed

NKS — Create a Cluster (Terraform)

resource "ncloud_nks_cluster" "cluster" {
  cluster_type         = "SVR.VNKS.STAND.C002.M008.G003"
  name                 = "my-cluster"
  k8s_version          = "1.28"
  login_key_name       = ncloud_login_key.key.key_name
  zone                 = "KR-2"
  vpc_no               = ncloud_vpc.vpc.id
  subnet_no_list       = [ncloud_subnet.subnet.id]
  public_network       = false
}

Decision Matrix

Situation	Recommendation
Korea-only service	NCP NKS
Planning global expansion	AWS EKS
Public sector / Finance	NCP NKS
AI/ML-intensive	AWS EKS
Early-stage startup, cost-sensitive	NCP NKS
Already using AWS	AWS EKS

Both platforms support Kubernetes 1.28+, so workloads themselves are highly portable.
To minimize cloud lock-in, manage configurations with Helm Charts and Kustomize as the standard.