AWS EKS Hybrid Pricing: Outposts vs. Local Zones vs. Wavelength

For years, “AWS Pricing” meant “Region Pricing.” You picked us-east-1, you paid standard rates.

But modern applications are pushing Kubernetes to the edge. Whether it’s for data residency (GDPR), ultra-low latency (gaming/trading), or on-premise integration, you now have four distinct ways to run EKS outside of a standard region.

Each has a radically different pricing model. Choosing the wrong one can bankrupt your project.

The Hybrid Pricing Matrix

Deployment Model	Control Plane Cost	Node Cost Model	Connectivity Cost	Best For
Standard Region	$0.10/hr	Pay-as-you-go (Spot/OD)	Standard Egress	99% of workloads
Local Zones	$0.10/hr	Premium Hourly (+20%)	Zone <-> Region Fees	Latency-sensitive apps in metro areas
Wavelength	$0.10/hr	Premium Hourly (+30%)	Carrier Fees	5G/Mobile Edge applications
Outposts	$0.10/hr	Prepaid Hardware (3-year term)	Direct Connect	On-prem data residency
EKS Anywhere	Free (or Subscription)	Your Hardware	VPN / Direct Connect	Disconnected / Air-gapped sites

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1. AWS Local Zones: The “Metro” Premium

Local Zones are extensions of an AWS Region into a specific city (e.g., Los Angeles, Miami, Lagos). They look and feel like another Availability Zone, but they are physically closer to your users.

The Cost Trap

• Compute Premium: EC2 instances in Local Zones cost 10-20% more than the parent region.
• Data Transfer: Traffic between the Local Zone and the Parent Region is NOT free. It is billed as cross-region traffic.
• Feature Parity: You often cannot use Spot Instances or specific instance families (like Graviton) in Local Zones.

Verdict: Use only for the specific pods that need <10ms latency. Keep your database and batch jobs in the parent region to save money.

2. AWS Outposts: The “Rent-a-Rack” Model

Outposts brings actual AWS hardware to your datacenter. It is the ultimate hybrid experience, but it requires a massive upfront commitment.

The Pricing Model

• Hardware: You don’t pay hourly. You buy the rack (or server) for a 3-year term.
  • Example: A 42U rack might cost $200,000+ upfront (or monthly installments).
• Capacity: You own the capacity. If you run 1 pod or 1000 pods, the price is the same. This incentivizes high utilization.
• Hidden Cost: You must provide power, cooling, and networking.

Verdict: Only for massive scale or strict data residency laws where data cannot leave the building.

3. EKS Anywhere: The “BYO Hardware” Model

EKS Anywhere allows you to run the EKS distro on your own vSphere or Bare Metal clusters.

The Pricing Model

• Open Source: Free to download and run.
• Enterprise Subscription: ~$24,000 per cluster/year (optional).
  • Includes support and the EKS Console connector.

Verdict: The cheapest option for hardware you already own, but the “Human Cost” of managing the OS and upgrades is high.

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Breakeven Analysis: When to move to the Edge?

Let’s say you have a latency-sensitive application.

Scenario A: Local Zones

• Cost: $1,200/month for 5 nodes.
• Latency: 5ms to users in LA.
• Ops Effort: Low (Managed by AWS).

Scenario B: EKS Anywhere (On-Prem in LA Colo)

• Cost: $400/month (Colo fees) + $0 (Hardware you own).
• Latency: 2ms to users in LA.
• Ops Effort: High (Patching OS, upgrading K8s).

The Decision: Unless you have a dedicated platform team to manage EKS Anywhere, the Local Zone premium is usually worth it for the reduction in operational overhead.

Summary

Hybrid EKS is a powerful tool, but it breaks the standard “pay for what you use” cloud model.

1. Local Zones: Pay a premium for convenience and latency.
2. Outposts: Pay upfront for residency and sovereignty.
3. EKS Anywhere: Pay with engineering time for maximum control.

[!TIP] Need to model these costs? Our Kubernetes Cost Estimator now supports custom node pricing, allowing you to input your specific Local Zone or Outposts amortized rates.