What does Kubernetes support cost?

Kubernetes support is billed by actual effort: €120 excl. VAT per hour during regular service hours (Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00), €240 excl. VAT per hour outside them. There is no contract term. As of October 2026.

Is Kubernetes support available around the clock?

Without an operations contract there is no guaranteed response time and no on-call duty. Work outside service hours is billed at €240 excl. VAT per hour. In Managed Kubernetes operations: monitoring runs 24/7, the response to P1 incidents follows the service level. The levels are described on the service levels page.

How does Kubernetes support work in an emergency?

Describe the incident using the form. We assess the task, give an effort estimate and settle the fee agreement before work begins. A permanently staffed emergency hotline is not part of support without a contract.

Which problems does the support help with?

With upgrades that abort, outages of the control plane, ingress or workloads, expired certificates and problems with storage and etcd. We can also cross-check a planned change before it is carried out.

Which clusters does the support cover?

For existing clusters on Proxmox, bare metal and at cloud providers, including Amazon EKS and Azure AKS, regardless of the distribution.

When does Managed Kubernetes make more sense than one-off jobs?

As soon as the same need recurs or a cluster is to run permanently. Managed Kubernetes costs from €590 excl. VAT per cluster and month including 3 worker nodes and covers monitoring, upgrades, backups with restore test and hardening. It can be cancelled monthly, with 30 days' notice to the end of the month. As of October 2026.

When are access credentials needed?

Access is discussed only after the technical assessment and an agreement. Please do not send access credentials with your enquiry.

Kubernetes support without a standing contract

In short: help with outages, upgrades and emergencies on existing clusters, billed by effort. Guaranteed response times come with Managed Kubernetes and a service level.

Billed by effort
Upgrade, outage, certificates
Storage and etcd
Written result

Describe your task View service scope

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Occasions

When Kubernetes support is needed

Typical occasions when a cluster needs outside help.

Upgrade gets stuck
A minor upgrade aborts, nodes stay NotReady or components run in different versions.
Control plane or ingress outage
The API server, ingress or workloads are unreachable and the cause is unclear.
Certificates expire
Certificates of the control plane or ingress have expired or are about to expire.
Storage and etcd problems
Volumes cannot be mounted, a storage system is degraded or etcd loses quorum.

Services

What Kubernetes support covers

Contract work on existing clusters. The scope is agreed before work begins.

Isolate and review

Isolate the incident
Analyse events, logs and node and control plane state, and name the cause.
Second opinion
Cross-check a planned upgrade or change before it is carried out.

Fix

Complete the upgrade
Continue or roll back aborted upgrades and align version differences.
Certificates and access
Renew expired certificates and restore access and kubeconfig.
Storage and etcd
Check volumes and storage systems, back up and restore etcd.

Process

Four steps from enquiry to billing

Scope, effort estimate and fee agreement are in writing before work begins.

01
Describe the task
Cluster, infrastructure and incident in your own words. Access is discussed later.
02
Assessment and effort estimate
We say whether the task makes sense as a one-off job and give an effort estimate before work begins.
03
Agreement and execution
Scope and rate are fixed in writing, then work proceeds within that frame. Additional effort is agreed beforehand.
04
Documentation and billing
Written result with findings and open points, billed by actual effort.

What we need for the assessment

Distribution, Kubernetes version and number of nodes
Infrastructure: Proxmox, bare metal, cloud, EKS or AKS
The incident in your own words
Since when the state exists and what has been tried
Whether production systems are affected
Who on your side is the technical contact

Billing

Hourly rate or hour package

Actual effort is billed. If you expect several tasks, buy hours in advance as a package. Service hours: Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00.

No contract term
Packages valid 12 months, one-time

By effort

Hourly rate

€120excl. VAT / hourOutside service hours: €240

Hour package

10 hours

€1,200excl. VAT, one-time€120 per hour, valid 12 months

Hour package

25 hours

€2,750excl. VAT, one-time€110 per hour, valid 12 months

Hour package

50 hours

€5,250excl. VAT, one-time€105 per hour, valid 12 months

All prices are net and exclude statutory VAT. The offers are addressed to businesses. As of October 2026.

Payment

Bank transfer

Boundaries

Support by effort or Managed Kubernetes

Contract work is not operations. The comparison shows what Managed Kubernetes adds.

Not included

Contract work is not operations and not on-call duty

Guaranteed response times and on-call duty, which come with a service level
Monitoring, patch cycles and backup checks between engagements
Costs for hardware, licences and the provider's infrastructure

Criterion	Support by effort (this page)	Managed Kubernetes
Billing	€120 excl. VAT per hour	from €590 excl. VAT per cluster and month, including 3 worker nodes
Monitoring	not included	24/7
Response to P1 incidents	no guaranteed response time	according to the service level
Upgrades, backups, hardening	only when commissioned	included in operations
Term	one-off job, no commitment	cancellable monthly, 30 days' notice to the end of the month

As of October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Answers to the most important questions

Knowledge

Operations that visibly relieve customers

Customer feedback on monitoring, updates, maintenance, support and stable production systems.

Networking & Provisioning

WZ-IT moved our studio infrastructure from decentralised individual devices to a central platform: every site is securely connected via VPN, new devices are onboarded automatically and an entire site is provisioned from a template, without manual steps on location. What impressed me most is the breadth and depth of their knowledge: Timo and Robin are not a typical IT provider who sets up a server and leaves. The two of them think their way into highly complex infrastructure and software topics, work through every requirement we put in front of them, and build networking, provisioning and operations so that everything fits together in the end. WZ-IT is an excellent partner for complex software, network and architecture projects.

Steve KirchnerManaging Director, nextGYM GmbH

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International

Built in Germany's Ruhr Valley. Running worldwide.

WZ-IT designs, develops and operates infrastructure and software for clients in Germany and internationally. We deliver projects remotely and continue supporting them in ongoing operations after go-live.