kubernetes

Vultr Kubernetes Cost Calculator

Calculate the monthly cost of a self-managed Kubernetes cluster on Vultr Cloud. Compare Cloud Compute (vc2), High Frequency (vhf), and Optimized (voc) instance types with verified pricing.

Vultr for Self-Hosted Kubernetes

Vultr is a global cloud provider with 32 data center locations — significantly more than Hetzner's 5. This makes it appealing for teams needing US-West, Asia-Pacific, or South America presence.

Vultr Instance Types for Kubernetes

Type	CPU	Best for
vc2 (Cloud Compute)	Shared Intel	General workers, dev clusters
vhf (High Frequency)	Shared, NVMe	etcd nodes, I/O-heavy workloads
voc (Optimized)	Dedicated AMD	Production workers, CPU-intensive

Cost vs Hetzner

Config	Vultr (vc2)	Hetzner (cx)	Difference
4 vCPU / 8 GB	$40/mo	€6.49/mo	Hetzner ~5× cheaper
6 vCPU / 16 GB	$80/mo	€11.99/mo	Hetzner ~5× cheaper
8 vCPU / 32 GB	$160/mo	€22.49/mo	Hetzner ~5× cheaper

Included Traffic

Vultr includes 1–5 TB outbound per month depending on instance size. Hetzner includes 20 TB on all instances. High-traffic clusters should factor in bandwidth costs.

Recommended Use Cases for Vultr

›US-West, LatAm, or APAC presence required
›Multi-region active-active deployment
›GPU workloads (Vultr has A100 GPU instances, Hetzner does not)

Key Terms

Full glossary →

kubeadm

A tool for bootstrapping Kubernetes clusters. It automates the setup of control plane components and joining worker nodes, following Kubernetes best practices.

etcd

A distributed key-value store used by Kubernetes to store all cluster state and configuration. etcd is the single source of truth for the entire cluster.

cert-manager

A Kubernetes controller for automating TLS certificate management. cert-manager can issue certificates from Let's Encrypt, Vault, or internal CAs, and automatically renews them.

Helm

A package manager for Kubernetes. Helm charts bundle Kubernetes manifests into reusable packages with configurable values, versioned and published to chart repositories.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a Kubernetes cluster on Vultr cost?

A standard 3 control plane + 3 worker cluster on Vultr using vc2-4c-8gb control planes ($40/mo) and vc2-6c-16gb workers ($80/mo) costs approximately $350/month — 4–5× more expensive than the equivalent on Hetzner Cloud.

What is the difference between Vultr vc2, vhf, and voc?

vc2 (Cloud Compute) is the standard shared vCPU tier — good for most workloads. vhf (High Frequency) uses NVMe SSDs and newer CPUs at a 20% premium — ideal for etcd and I/O-heavy control planes. voc (Optimized Cloud) provides dedicated AMD vCPUs — best for CPU-intensive worker nodes.

Does Vultr have managed Kubernetes?

No. Vultr does not offer a managed Kubernetes service (no equivalent to AWS EKS or DOKS). You manage the full control plane, upgrades, and etcd backups yourself. This is why Vultr is priced lower than DigitalOcean (which includes DOKS management).

Is Vultr or Hetzner better for Kubernetes?

Hetzner is 3–5× cheaper for equivalent specs and includes 20TB outbound traffic. Vultr has 32 global locations vs Hetzner's 5, making it better for low-latency requirements in US-West or Asia-Pacific. See the full comparison at /compare/hetzner-vs-vultr.

Related Tools

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Calculate the right number and size of Kubernetes worker nodes for your workloads. Supports Hetzner Cloud and Vultr with verified pricing.

Hetzner K8s Cost

Calculate the exact monthly cost of a Kubernetes cluster on Hetzner Cloud using verified server pricing — cx23, cx33, cx43, cax21, cax31, ccx23.

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