Ankra vs Cloudfleet

Two European answers to Kubernetes on Hetzner

Hetzner gives you fast, low-cost servers and leaves Kubernetes to you. Cloudfleet and Ankra are both European companies that close that gap, and both can keep their control planes in Europe.

Cloudfleet runs the Kubernetes control plane for you. Its nodes come up automatically on Hetzner, AWS and GCP, and any Linux server, from Proxmox to a dedicated machine in your rack, can join the same cluster. It is a clean, focused product with clear pricing.

Ankra builds the whole cluster on your servers and then runs what lives on it. Applications go from repository to release, platform add-ons stay current, vulnerabilities are ranked, cost is estimated, data is backed up and the AI helps operate it.

Cloudfleet gives you a well-run cluster. Ankra gives you the cluster and the platform work on top of it.

How the cluster is built

Cloudfleet hosts the control plane in Frankfurt or Iowa, whichever you pick when you create the cluster. On the Basic plan each cluster has its own isolated control plane, running in one zone on shared capacity; Pro adds multi-zone high availability on dedicated resources with a 99.95% SLA, and Enterprise raises that to 99.99%. Workers are auto-provisioned on Hetzner, AWS and GCP based on demand. UpCloud, Exoscale, Scaleway and OVH have been in private preview since April 2026. Mixing clouds and on-premises servers in one cluster is its standout feature, and self-managed nodes now run Ubuntu, Debian and the Red Hat family behind NAT.

Ankra builds kubeadm or k3s on Hetzner, with control plane, workers, private network and bastion in your own project. The same applies on OVHcloud, UpCloud, DigitalOcean, AWS EC2 and Proxmox VE. Ankra handles upgrades, node groups and power schedules, node autoscaling on the five public clouds and rolling OS security patching, and can stop a cluster outside working hours to save compute. It also creates EKS, GKE, AKS, DOKS, OVHcloud MKS and UpCloud UKS, and imports any conformant cluster. An Ankra cluster stays within one provider; Cluster Mesh connects separate UpCloud and Proxmox clusters.

A hosted control plane on Ankra Cloud

The closest like-for-like with Cloudfleet is Ankra Cloud Kubernetes, which is in closed beta and turned on per organisation. The Ankra team runs the control plane on Ankra Cloud, Ankra’s own EU cloud, and your nodes are billed as servers.

• a Production control plane has three replicas and high availability, for €40 a month per cluster
• a Development control plane has one replica, no fee, and is not for production
• a Dev cluster is k3s on one server, with no fee and no high availability

Cloudfleet’s hosted control plane is generally available today and spans clouds and your own servers. Ankra’s runs on Ankra Cloud and is still in closed beta.

What runs on the cluster

Cloudfleet stops at a running cluster with a registry and a chart marketplace in preview. You connect your own CI, and choose and operate your own GitOps, scanning and backup tools. Under its shared responsibility model, your workloads, images and network policies are yours to secure.

Ankra builds that work in.

• Applications and Ankra Pipelines test, build and scan your code with Semgrep, Checkov and Trivy in your own cluster, and publish only the image that passed the gate
• a merge train on GitHub tests each pull request as the commit it will merge
• stacks install Helm add-ons and manifests in dependency order, and stack profiles version them across environments
• the Security Center ranks running-workload vulnerabilities by CISA KEV and EPSS
• backups write volumes and database dumps to a bucket you own

Applications start from GitHub repositories, and some documented pipeline stage kinds do not run yet. Pull-request previews also exist for GitHub applications, but Ankra’s own documentation says not to rely on them yet.

Security, cost and AI

Cloudfleet encrypts data in transit and at rest, isolates every control plane and logs staff access. Since October its Enterprise plan offers a Confidential Control Plane, where your own HSM or cloud KMS holds the keys. Its security page says it is working toward SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001. Ankra’s security and compliance material is on its trust page.

Both products help with cost. Cloudfleet offers cost reports with one-click optimisations. Ankra’s Cloud Cost estimates spend from list prices per namespace and stack and reprices the whole cluster on every provider Ankra can build on.

Since 1 November, Cloudfleet’s AI agents plugin installs Cloudfleet skills and its MCP server into Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot CLI, Cursor and other coding agents. The MCP server reads cluster data and handles support tickets but cannot change the cluster. Ankra’s AI analyses alerts with AI Insights, reviews pull requests on GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket Cloud through the AI Gateway, fixes failing ones and drafts stacks from a description. Ankra’s own AI asks before every write by default. Its MCP server can also write; those writes are audited, and your MCP client decides how it confirms them.

When to choose Ankra, and when to choose Cloudfleet

Choose Ankra when you want Kubernetes on Hetzner or another European provider and also want delivery, add-ons, security ranking, backups and AI operations handled, not just the cluster.

Choose Cloudfleet when

• you want a generally available managed control plane and to run everything on top yourself
• one cluster has to span several clouds and your own servers
• you want automatic node provisioning on Hetzner, AWS and GCP from a single cluster
• you need customer-held encryption keys for the control plane

Compare the work that remains

1. Create the foundation. Note where the control plane runs and who upgrades it.
2. Ship a release. Include build, tests, scans and a rollback, and list every tool you add.
3. Add a platform component. Install an ingress controller or operator and note who keeps it current.
4. Investigate a vulnerability. Find every affected workload.
5. Compare total cost. Cloudfleet charges per cluster: Basic €12 a month with 8 vCPU, Pro €69 with 24 vCPU, and Enterprise from €499 with 96 vCPU, then €2.45, €4.95 or €7.25 per extra vCPU a month, on cloud and self-managed nodes alike. New accounts get €200 of credit for 30 days. Ankra’s Free tier includes 30 worker vCPU; beyond that the Startup plan charges €0.01 per worker vCPU-hour, about €7.20 a month. On both, your provider bills the servers. Add the tools and hours each route needs on top.

Reviewed 9 November 2026 against Cloudfleet’s documentation and pricing. Product scope and plans can change.