--- canonical: https://enum.co/vs-gke locale: en --- **enum vs. Google GKE** # enum vs Google GKE. Sovereign Kubernetes in the EU, with no US CLOUD Act exposure and a transparent bill. enum is a European public cloud offering Managed Kubernetes, compute, and S3-compatible storage from Frankfurt, under German and EU law with no CLOUD Act exposure. enum includes an HA control plane per cluster at no extra charge, bills a small predictable set of line items, and gives you self-service via CLI, API, and Terraform. enum fits teams building in Europe who need sovereignty and pricing they can predict. ### Frequently asked questions **Is Google GKE GDPR-compliant?** enum is a German GmbH operating under German and EU law only, with no US parent and no US subprocessors. There are no transatlantic data flows, and the company holding your data is not subject to the US CLOUD Act or FISA Section 702. All infrastructure runs in Frankfurt. **Is Google GKE subject to the US CLOUD Act?** enum has no US entity in its corporate structure, so it is not subject to the US CLOUD Act or FISA Section 702. The jurisdiction is the company, not the region. A US company's EU region is still under US lawful-access mechanisms. **What does GKE really cost compared to enum?** enum includes the HA control plane per cluster at no extra charge. You pay for compute per hour, block storage per GB, object storage per GB, load balancing at a flat monthly fee, and outgoing traffic at a flat per-GB rate. No per-request fees, no NAT data-processing surcharges, no LCU charges. All prices in euros, excluding VAT. **What is the best European alternative to Google GKE?** enum offers upstream Kubernetes with an HA control plane included, operated in Frankfurt by a German GmbH under EU law only. You get self-service via CLI, API, and Terraform, private-by-default clusters, and a transparent bill in euros. No US dependencies, no CLOUD Act exposure. enum is a self-service public cloud, not a managed service or consulting engagement. **Can I migrate from Google GKE to enum?** Yes. enum runs upstream Kubernetes, so your manifests, Helm charts, and GitOps pipelines work without changes. Object storage is S3-compatible, so existing tools work as-is. Migration support is available if you need help with the cutover. **How does enum Kubernetes Engine differ from GKE Autopilot?** enum gives you explicit control over node shapes and scaling, includes the HA control plane per cluster at no extra charge, and bills compute per hour with optional commitment discounts. You keep full control over workloads, RBAC, Helm, and GitOps. The control plane, upgrades, and HA are operated for you. ### Included vs. Extra What you get with enum out of the box versus what GKE charges for. | Feature | enum | AWS EKS | |---|---|---| | HA Control Plane | Included per cluster, no per-cluster-hour charge | GKE Standard bills per-cluster-hour; Autopilot bills per-pod vCPU and memory | | Corporate Jurisdiction | German GmbH, German and EU law only, no US parent | US company (Alphabet), subject to US CLOUD Act and FISA 702 | | Data Location | Frankfurt, Germany, Tier III+ facility | EU regions available, but the company holding the data is US-headquartered | | Outbound NAT | Host-based NAT included | Cloud NAT billed per hour plus per-GB processing | | Load Balancer | Flat monthly price, includes IPv4 | Per-hour plus per-GB processing plus forwarding-rule charges | | Pricing Currency | Euro, excluding VAT | USD, subject to exchange-rate exposure for EU buyers | enum includes an HA control plane per cluster at no extra charge, provisions clusters private by default, and bills a small predictable set of line items. Google GKE bills the control plane per cluster-hour (Standard) or per-pod resource consumption (Autopilot), with Cloud NAT and Load Balancing adding per-hour and per-GB fees. Both run upstream Kubernetes. The decision is jurisdiction: enum is a German GmbH under EU law; Google is a US company under the CLOUD Act. ### The hidden costs of Google GKE **This is ours.** - Compute - Block Storage - Object Storage - Load Balancer - Traffic ### Sovereignty - **No US CLOUD Act**: Google is a US company (Alphabet). US authorities can compel access to data regardless of region. enum is a German GmbH with no US entity, subject exclusively to German and EU law. - **GDPR-native**: No US subprocessor, no transatlantic data flows, compliant from day one. - **NIS2 and DORA ready**: German company, German data centers, German contracts. Structurally aligned with NIS2 and DORA for regulated workloads. ### The hidden costs of Google GKE **This is a Google Cloud invoice.** - GKE Standard Cluster Hours - GCE Instances - Persistent Disk Storage - Cloud NAT Hours - Cloud NAT Data Processing - Data Transfer Out - Cloud Load Balancer Hours - Cloud Load Balancer Processing - Cloud Storage - Cloud Storage Requests - Cloud DNS Queries - Premium Tier Network Egress **This is ours.** - Compute - Block Storage - Object Storage - Load Balancer - Traffic ### Frequently asked questions **Is Google GKE GDPR-compliant?** enum is a German GmbH operating under German and EU law only, with no US parent and no US subprocessors. There are no transatlantic data flows, and the company holding your data is not subject to the US CLOUD Act or FISA Section 702. All infrastructure runs in Frankfurt. **Is Google GKE subject to the US CLOUD Act?** enum has no US entity in its corporate structure, so it is not subject to the US CLOUD Act or FISA Section 702. The jurisdiction is the company, not the region. A US company's EU region is still under US lawful-access mechanisms. **What does GKE really cost compared to enum?** enum includes the HA control plane per cluster at no extra charge. You pay for compute per hour, block storage per GB, object storage per GB, load balancing at a flat monthly fee, and outgoing traffic at a flat per-GB rate. No per-request fees, no NAT data-processing surcharges, no LCU charges. All prices in euros, excluding VAT. **What is the best European alternative to Google GKE?** enum offers upstream Kubernetes with an HA control plane included, operated in Frankfurt by a German GmbH under EU law only. You get self-service via CLI, API, and Terraform, private-by-default clusters, and a transparent bill in euros. No US dependencies, no CLOUD Act exposure. enum is a self-service public cloud, not a managed service or consulting engagement. **Can I migrate from Google GKE to enum?** Yes. enum runs upstream Kubernetes, so your manifests, Helm charts, and GitOps pipelines work without changes. Object storage is S3-compatible, so existing tools work as-is. Migration support is available if you need help with the cutover. **How does enum Kubernetes Engine differ from GKE Autopilot?** enum gives you explicit control over node shapes and scaling, includes the HA control plane per cluster at no extra charge, and bills compute per hour with optional commitment discounts. You keep full control over workloads, RBAC, Helm, and GitOps. The control plane, upgrades, and HA are operated for you. ### Further reading - [enum Kubernetes Engine](/kubernetes-engine) - [S3-compatible object storage](/object-storage) - [Sovereign Kubernetes and NIS2/DORA](/kubernetes-nis2-dora) - [Pricing calculator](/calculator)