Karpenter vs. Cluster Autoscaler - Kubernetes Scaling Tools
· via Spacelift
Summary: Node scaling decides both your bill and your pending pod queue. Cluster Autoscaler scales node groups you defined in advance and stays the portable, battle-tested option; Karpenter provisions instances directly from pod requirements, which improves packing and spot usage. Test consolidation behavior before production traffic meets it.
Who should read it: EKS operators tired of tuning node groups, and platform teams doing cost work on Kubernetes compute.