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Compare:
Cycle vs. Google GKE

While GKE extends Kubernetes’ capabilities, it inherits its complexity and cloud constraints. Cycle offers a ground-up, provider-agnostic alternative with orchestration, networking, storage, and automation included out of the box.
vs.
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Streamline Your DevOps

Even with GKE handling the control plane, teams often find themselves managing layers of configuration—YAML files, Helm charts, ingress, and storage. Cycle offers a more integrated path forward, helping teams focus on delivering software rather than stitching the stack together.
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Simplicity
(More opinionated)
Customizability
(More complex)

Data Sovereignty & Compliance

GKE runs only in Google regions, keeping data under U.S. jurisdiction. Cycle deploys in sovereign EU datacenters or any provider, ensuring GDPR compliance with one control plane.

Avoid Google Lock-In

GKE depends on GCP services like IAM, VPC, and Cloud DNS. Cycle runs on your hardware or any cloud, without re-architecting.

Less Add-On Sprawl

GKE leans on Cloud Ops, Anthos, and other GCP add-ons. Cycle delivers networking, storage, monitoring, and upgrades out of the box.

More Than Just Containers

GKE is container-only. Cycle supports containers and full VMs in one control plane, plus functions for task-based workloads.

Predictable Costs

GKE charges per resource and across GCP services. Cycle’s tiered pricing stays predictable as you scale.

Expert Support Included

GKE support is fragmented across GCP services. Cycle includes direct access to engineers for design, migration, and day-to-day operations.

Features

Cycle.io

Google GKE

Architecture and Deployment
Model
Hybrid SaaS & PaaS
SaaS
Management
hybrid(Self + Fully-Managed)
cloud
Scope
On-prem / Colo / Cloud
GCP
Pricing
Tiered(Seats & Servers)
Per-resource
Bring Your Own Infrastructure
Bare Metal
Multi‑Cloud
Edge Support
Upgrade Automation
automatic
Automatic
Core Infrastructure
Containers
VMs
Functions
BETA
external
Service Mesh
(Discovery)
Add-on
Load Balancing
(cloud LB)
DNS
Cloud DNS
Networking
Automatic(managed overlay)
Automatic(GCP VPC native)
Storage
Automatic(managed volumes)
Automatic(Persistent Disk)
DevOps & Automation
CI/CD
Integrations
Cloud Build
Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Stacks(JSON / YAML)
Terraform
API
REST & Webhooks
GCP & K8s
Monitoring
Cloud Ops
Operations & Governance
ACL / RBAC
IAM
Multi‑Tenancy
Strong(Environments + Clusters + Namespaces)
Namespaces/IAM
Support Model
Included & Community
Paid & Community
Cycle on any infrastructure
Ready To Make The Switch?

Ship More by Simplifying Your Stack

With Cycle, you get a fully managed platform that unifies everything from orchestration to automation. Chat with our team to see first-hand how how simple provider-agnostic orchestration can be.

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Build Your Private Cloud

Don’t let GKE tie you to one provider, let us help you integrate your servers, colo racks and cloud accounts into a private cloud that works for you.

Seamless Multi‑Cloud Orchestration

We understand cross‑cloud complexity, so Cycle offers one control plane across GCP, AWS, on‑prem, and more.

Bring Your Own Infrastructure.

Combine cloud and on-prem infrastructure, bare-metal or virtualized, under one platform. Cycle unifies it into a cohesive, managed private cloud.

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