Exoscale Scalable Kubernetes Service (SKS) is a managed service for deploying, scaling, and hosting containerized applications in Europe. Exoscale operates the Kubernetes control plane and provides its upgrades, reducing routine cluster maintenance. Its product page says fully managed clusters can be started in less than one minute. The free Starter Cluster includes a managed control plane, CLI, API, Terraform integration, and automatic control-plane patch upgrades. Pro Cluster is billed hourly, with pricing not shown as a numeric amount; it adds a highly available control plane, etcd backups, a 99.95% SLA, and Karpenter autoscaling. Karpenter can dynamically provision compute resources. SKS integrates Network Load Balancers for ingress and Kubernetes-compatible instance pools, while its CSI driver supports block or object storage for stateful workloads. Clusters have minimal exposure by default, with controls for authentication, network policies, and role-based access. Kubernetes Audit shows user and system actions. SKS is vanilla Kubernetes, so monitoring, GitOps, and security tools are not installed by default. It supports up to three clusters.
Who it is for
SKS may suit European developers and data engineers building cloud-native applications who want a managed Kubernetes control plane. Teams should account for the three-cluster limit and the need to add tools such as monitoring or GitOps themselves.
What is good
- Free Starter Cluster
- Managed control plane and patch upgrades
- Pro includes 99.95% SLA and etcd backups
- Supports block or object storage
- Included ticket support for all customers
What to know first
- Limited to three clusters
- Monitoring, GitOps, and security tools are not installed by default
- Pro Cluster price is not shown numerically
- Starter Cluster has no SLA
Verdict
SKS handles control-plane operations and provides a free Starter Cluster, with additional availability and autoscaling features in Pro. It remains a vanilla Kubernetes service, so teams needing monitoring, GitOps, or security tooling must install those separately.
Get started with Exoscale Scalable Kubernetes Service
- Visit the SKS website.
- Choose the free Starter Cluster or the Pro Cluster.
- Use the CLI, API, or Terraform integration to work with Starter.
- Configure authentication, network policies, and role-based access.
- Add compatible instance pools, Network Load Balancers, or storage as needed.
What the free plan stops at
Starter has no SLA. SKS does not install monitoring, GitOps, or security solutions by default, and the service has a three-cluster limit.
Questions about Exoscale Scalable Kubernetes Service
Is Exoscale SKS free?
Yes. The Starter Cluster is free. SKS is billed per hour where applicable.
How much does Pro Cluster cost?
Pro is billed hourly, but the pricing page shows no numeric amount.
What does Pro include?
Pro includes a 99.95% SLA, a highly available control plane, etcd backups, and Karpenter autoscaling.
Which platforms and tools does SKS support?
SKS is available through web and API. Listed integrations include Kubernetes Cloud Controller Manager, Karpenter, Terraform, Packer, Vault, Pulumi, and Crossplane.
What is the cluster limit?
SKS supports up to three clusters.
Who makes SKS, and where is the company based?
Exoscale makes SKS. It was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Exoscale Scalable Kubernetes Service plans and pricing
All plansCompared on container orchestration software
- Free plan
- Yes
- Deployment model
- managed
- Multi-cluster management
- Yes
- Autoscaling
- Yes
- Policy controls
- Yes
- Cluster limit
- 3 clusters
