POSTPOST /calculator/self-hosted-tco
Self-hosted API gateway TCO
The true cost of free. EKS node cost + observability stack + ops FTE fraction, compared to the managed SaaS equivalent.
// Self-hosted TCO model monthly{"eks_control_plane": "$73.00", // 0.10/hr × 730 hr/mo"eks_worker_nodes": "$200.00", // 3 × m5.large on-demand"observability_stack": "$350.00", // Grafana Cloud or self-host equivalent"log_shipping_egress": "$80.00", // 5 GB/M calls × 0.09/GB"ops_fte_at_0_50": "$7,292.00", // 0.5 × loaded $175k/yr"total_monthly": "$7,995.00" // before SLA penalty / on-call overhead}
Break-even versus managed
Compare the figure above to Kong Konnect Plus at $250/month for 5 services , or Tyk Cloud at the low-hundreds-per-month entry tier . The managed SaaS markup is paid for by the ops FTE you do not hire. The break-even point is sensitive to the FTE fraction you assume and to whether you already have a Kubernetes platform team paying the EKS bill anyway.
See the long-form treatment at /pricing-models/self-hosted-vs-saas.