MiniStack Now Emulates Amazon EKS — Free, Open-Source AWS Emulator v1.2.20
Source: Dev.to
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EKS Joins the Free AWS Emulator
MiniStack v1.2.20 adds Amazon EKS to its list of emulated AWS services. Create clusters, manage node groups, and hit the EKS API surface — all locally, all free. If you haven’t seen MiniStack before: it’s a free, MIT-licensed AWS emulator. 40+ services on a single Docker container, single port (4566). No account, no API key, no telemetry. Drop-in compatible with the AWS CLI, Terraform, CDK, and every AWS SDK. docker run -p 4566:4566 nahuelnucera/ministack
aws —endpoint-url=http://localhost:4566 eks create-cluster
—name my-cluster
—role-arn arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/eks-role
—resources-vpc-config subnetIds=subnet-1,securityGroupIds=sg-1
aws —endpoint-url=http://localhost:4566 eks describe-cluster
—name my-cluster
aws —endpoint-url=http://localhost:4566 eks create-nodegroup
—cluster-name my-cluster
—nodegroup-name my-nodes
—node-role arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/node-role
—subnets subnet-1
Terraform and CDK work without changes — just point your provider endpoint to localhost:4566. EKS is one of those services that’s painful to test against real AWS. Clusters take 10-15 minutes to provision, cost money even when idle, and are overkill when all you need is to validate your IaC or integration logic. With MiniStack, your Terraform plans, CDK deploys, and SDK integration tests hit a local EKS API instantly. No cluster spin-up time, no AWS bill. Not just EKS. The full list keeps growing: Core (in-memory): Infrastructure (real Docker containers): Compute & Container: Data & Analytics: Other:
LocalStack Free LocalStack Pro MiniStack
EKS ❌ ✅ Paid ✅ Free
Core services Now paid ✅ ✅ Free
RDS/ElastiCache/ECS ❌ ✅ ✅ Real containers
Startup ~30s ~30s ~2s
RAM at idle ~500MB ~500MB ~21MB
Image size ~1GB ~1GB ~270MB
License BSL Proprietary MIT
Price Paid $35+/mo Free forever
docker run -p 4566:4566 nahuelnucera/ministack
No account. No API key. No telemetry. GitHub: github.com/ministackorg/ministack
Docker Hub: nahuelnucera/ministack
Website: ministack.org
MIT licensed. PRs welcome.