What Extended Support Actually Costs: The Cross-Vendor Pricing Reference for Post-EOL Software

#eol #software

The first cross-vendor pricing reference for post-EOL extended support. Microsoft ESU: $61/device doubling yearly ($30 one-time for consumers). AWS: EKS $0.60/cluster-hour (6x), RDS $0.100/vCPU-hour doubling in year three. Ubuntu Pro: $25 desktop / $500 server per year. And the honest quote-based rows — Red Hat ELS, Oracle, SUSE LTSS, CentOS ELS — where no public price exists. Every figure traced to a vendor price page or our verified coverage.

The cross-vendor price table

Product	What it buys	Pricing model	Published price (verified 2026-08-12)	Source
Windows 10 — consumer ESU	Critical + important security updates to Oct 12, 2027	Per device, one-time enrollment	Free (settings sync) · 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points · or $30 one-time	Microsoft consumer ESU page
Windows 10 — commercial ESU	Yearly security updates, max 3 years (to Oct 2028)	Per device, per year — doubles annually, cumulative	$61 yr 1 → $122 yr 2 → $244 yr 3 (≈$427 total) · $0 on Azure VMs / Windows 365 / AVD	Microsoft ESU documentation
Windows Server 2012/R2 ESU	Final ESU year ends Oct 13, 2026 — then nothing, at any price	Per year, via volume licensing or Azure Arc	100% of the full license price, each year — no year discount · $0 on Azure	Per our analysis of Microsoft's ESU FAQ
Amazon EKS	12 more months of Kubernetes version support	Metered per cluster-hour — enrollment automatic, no opt-in	$0.60/cluster/hr vs $0.10 standard (6x) — ≈$438/mo vs ≈$73/mo per cluster	AWS EKS pricing page
Amazon RDS (MySQL / PostgreSQL)	Up to 3 years past end of standard support	Metered per vCPU-hour — enrollment automatic unless disabled	$0.100/vCPU-hr yrs 1–2, $0.200 yr 3 (AWS US East example rate) — Multi-AZ pays per instance	AWS RDS pricing page
Ubuntu — ESM (Ubuntu Pro)	+5 years of patching past LTS standard support (20.04 to Apr 2030, 22.04 to Apr 2032)	Per-machine subscription	Free up to 5 personal machines · $25/desktop/yr · $500/server/yr (unlimited VMs) — support plans extra	Canonical's Ubuntu Pro pricing page
RHEL — ELS add-on	RHEL 7 to May 31, 2029 · RHEL 8 to 2033 · RHEL 9 to 2036 (RHEL 6 ELS already ended Jun 30, 2024)	Subscription add-on	Quote-based — not publicly priced; sold through your Red Hat agreement	Our tracked lifecycle data
OpenShift — EUS	4.18: EUS Term 1 to Feb 25, 2027; Term 2 to Feb 25, 2028	Entitlement tier: included on Premium, paid add-on on Standard; Term 2 paid for everyone	Not publicly priced — your subscription tier decides whether you pay at all	Per our OpenShift 4.18 analysis
Oracle Java SE 17	Extended Support, Oct 2026 – Sep 2029	Fee waived	$0 above the existing Java SE subscription — the fee is waived through Sep 2029	Oracle Java SE Support Roadmap
Oracle Database	Extended Support windows per release (19c Extended to 2032; 11g past every published phase)	Percentage uplift on the annual support contract, per Oracle's Lifetime Support Policy	Not publicly priced in dollars — the uplift applies to your contract value; post-window coverage (e.g. 11g) is negotiated	Per our Oracle Database analysis
Oracle Linux	OL7 Extended Support to Jun 2028	Per-system support subscription	Quote-based — no fetchable public price list for the extended phase	Per our Oracle Linux analysis
Debian — ELTS (Freexian)	Debian 11 listed through Jun 30, 2031 — coverage scoped to subscribers' packages	Subscription, package-scoped	Quote-shaped — arranged with Freexian per estate; no flat public per-machine price	Per our Debian 11 analysis
SUSE — LTSS	Extra patch years past SLES general support	Add-on subscription	Quote-based — mechanism public, price not	Vendor publishes the mechanism only
CentOS 7	Security patches past the Jun 30, 2024 EOL	Third-party ELS market only — there is no first-party option	Quote-based at most vendors — some publish list prices, most enterprise coverage is quoted	Per our CentOS 7 analysis · matching