rarecloud
UPSTREAM KUBERNETES, OPERATED BY GARDENER

Managed Kubernetes

Pay Only for Worker Nodes.

Production-grade clusters on our own EU cloud, ready in about 15 minutes. Workers are billed exactly like Cloud VM plans, hourly, capped monthly.Hibernate idle clusters and stop paying for the nodes.

Create a Cluster
EXAMPLE CLUSTER COST
3 × General Purpose workers (2 vCPU / 8 GB) = 3 × €14.99 = €44.97/month

Run it part-time and the hourly meter charges less. Volumes €0.05/GB/mo and load balancers billed as cloud resources. All worker sizes on the Cloud VM pricing table.

A REAL CONTROL PLANE, WITHOUT THE OPS

Kubernetes that Runs Itself

Autoscaling, self-healing, managed upgrades, and hibernation for the clusters you only need sometimes.

100% Upstream Kubernetes
Clusters are provisioned by Gardener, the open-source system SAP built to run fleets of upstream Kubernetes. No forks, no lock-in: your YAML works anywhere.
Worker Autoscaling
Set a min/max per worker pool and the cluster scales with your load. Change the range any time from the console or the API.
Hibernate to Save Money
Stop a dev or staging cluster overnight: hibernation scales workers to zero so you stop paying for nodes you're not using, and wakes the cluster on demand.
Managed Upgrades & Self-Healing
Kubernetes version upgrades and unhealthy-node replacement are handled by the platform, you keep deploying, Gardener keeps the cluster honest.
Kubeconfig in One Click
Short-lived admin kubeconfig from the console or the API, pipe it straight into your CI without leaking permanent credentials.
Load Balancers & Volumes Built In
Service type LoadBalancer provisions a real L4 balancer; PersistentVolumeClaims get block storage at €0.05/GB/month.
API, CLI & MCP
Create, scale and delete clusters from the public REST API with scoped tokens, the console is just one client of it.
EU Sovereign
Control planes and nodes run in Europe on hardware we operate. GDPR jurisdiction and real EU VAT invoices, like everything we sell.
CLUSTERS AS CODE

From Zero to kubectl

Create clusters and pull short-lived kubeconfigs from CI, no console required.

curl -X POST https://console.rarecloud.io/api/v1/services/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer rc_pat_YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "category": "cloud-k8s",
    "hostname": "prod-cluster",
    "k8sVersion": "1.31",
    "machineType": "g-2vcpu-8gb",
    "workerMin": 2,
    "workerMax": 5
  }'

Read the API docs →

ANSWERS TO YOUR MOST COMMON QUESTIONS

Frequently Asked Questions

What uptime can I expect?
Cloud services, including managed Kubernetes control planes, are built for 99.9% uptime, with self-healing nodes keeping worker pools at their declared size.
How is Managed Kubernetes billed?
You pay only for the worker nodes, at exactly the same hourly prices as our Cloud VM plans (capped at the monthly price). A 3-node cluster of 2 vCPU / 8 GB workers costs 3 × €14.99 = €44.97/month if it runs all month, less if it doesn't. Load balancers and persistent volumes created by the cluster are billed as the underlying cloud resources.
Is the control plane really included?
Yes, the standard control plane is included, you are not billed separately for it. For production workloads that need extra resilience, you can add a high-availability control plane for €30/month. Either way, you pay for the worker nodes, volumes and load balancers your workloads actually use.
What Kubernetes do you run, is it a fork?
Upstream Kubernetes, provisioned and operated by Gardener (the open-source fleet manager built by SAP). Standard APIs, standard tooling: kubectl, Helm, ArgoCD and friends all work unchanged.
How long does a cluster take to create?
Around 15 minutes for a fresh cluster. Gardener builds a real, production-grade control plane, not a shared namespace.
Can I scale the cluster automatically?
Yes. Each worker pool has a min/max range and scales within it. You can also resize the range from the console or the API at any time.
How do I get credentials into CI/CD?
Request a short-lived admin kubeconfig from the API with a scoped token. Because it expires, leaking a pipeline log doesn't leak permanent cluster access.
Where do clusters run?
In our Bucharest region, on our own OpenStack infrastructure in Europe, with more regions to follow. EU data, EU jurisdiction, EU invoices.
Kubernetes or a plain VPS, which should I pick?
If you run containers across several services and want autoscaling, rolling deploys and self-healing, pick Kubernetes. For a single app or a handful of long-running services, a Cloud VM (or classic KVM VPS) is simpler and cheaper. Both live in the same console and the same credit balance.
Ready to get started?

A Production Cluster for the Price of Three Small VMs

Upstream Kubernetes, EU metal, ~15 minutes from now.

Create Your Cluster