# Private vs Public GCE kubernetes cluster

Date: 15 May 2019

Decision: Public clusters are the "right" thing to use now

It would be a nice idea for the k8s cluster to be private (no node IP addresses), just because.. However, making the k8s cluster private means that the nodes also can not contact the outside world. See: https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/private-clusters#outbound_internet_for_nodes (opens new window) Cloud NAT would mean we could do this, but there is an added cost...

an hourly price for the NAT gateway, starting at $0.045 per NAT gateway hour

0.045 * 24 * 30 = $32.40 per month

This is a cost that is not worth it at this stage...

Later down the line it might be nice to change this.