Comparison
Kubecost vs Costory: Kubernetes Allocation Compared
Kubecost is the reference for in-cluster Kubernetes allocation and you may already run it. Costory allocates EKS and GKE without an agent, ingests a Kubecost or OpenCost export for AKS and other clusters, and puts Kubernetes next to the rest of your bill.
Claims checked: 2026-10-08
Costory is our product. Claims about other tools reflect their public documentation as of October 2026; check their current docs before deciding.
The short answer
Choose Kubecost if: Kubecost is the reference for in-cluster Kubernetes allocation and you may already run it.
Choose Costory if: Costory allocates EKS and GKE without an agent, ingests a Kubecost or OpenCost export for AKS and other clusters, and puts Kubernetes next to the rest of your bill.
Side by side
Kubecost | Costory | |
|---|---|---|
Delivery | Runs in your clusters (agent); read-only MCP since v3.3 | Hosted remote MCP (OAuth), EU data residency |
Providers | Kubernetes (plus cloud bill reconciliation) | AWS, GCP, Azure, OCI, Kubernetes, Snowflake, Datadog, OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor and more |
Allocation | Namespace, label, deployment | Virtual Dimensions (teams, products, envs), works with incomplete tagging |
Explaining changes | Kubernetes-level | Deploys, CI/CD and custom events next to cost |
Actions | Read-only MCP | Creates alerts, reports, dashboards and events in Costory; no cloud write access |
Pricing | Free tier and paid plans (IBM) | Flat: €250 per month or €1,000 per month (billed annually) |
Where Kubecost is strong
Kubecost is the reference for in-cluster Kubernetes allocation and you may already run it.
Where Costory is different
Allocation first: Virtual Dimensions map accounts, projects, labels and tags to teams and features, even with incomplete tagging.
Explanations, not just numbers: cost changes are shown next to deploys, incidents and usage metrics.
Works in the assistants engineers already use: Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code Copilot and Dust via MCP.
Slack digests and alerts in the channel you choose (for example #finops), and investigation notebooks to keep findings in one place.
Flat pricing: Copilot €250/month (up to €10M annual cloud spend), Copilot Pro €1,000/month (up to €20M annual cloud spend), billed annually.
What Costory does not do
It does not buy Reserved Instances or Savings Plans for you.
It does not apply automated rightsizing.
It does not get write access to your cloud accounts (MCP actions create Costory objects only: alerts, reports, dashboards, events).
Can you use both?
Often, yes. Many teams keep their provider's native tools for account-level detail and use Costory for cross-provider allocation, reporting and AI-assisted investigations.
FAQ
Is Costory a replacement for Kubecost?
Costory allocates EKS and GKE without an agent, ingests a Kubecost or OpenCost export for AKS and other clusters, and puts Kubernetes next to the rest of your bill.
How long does Costory take to set up?
Under 30 minutes to connect your billing exports and the MCP, with Terraform or CloudFormation. Your first recommendation comes the next day, once the first billing data lands. A 30-day free trial is available.
Where is Costory's data hosted?
In the EU.
Connect in under 30 minutes. Get your first optimization recommendation the next day.
30-day free trial. Copilot, €250/month, or Copilot Pro, €1,000/month, billed annually.
First optimization recommendation
The next day
ROI
Pays for itself with the first recommendation you act on
Setup
About 30 minutes
Data residency
EU
Access
Read-only on your cloud