Amazon EKS vs Docker comparison

Read 56 Docker reviews

1,212 Views
724 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Amazon EKS

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 13, 2024

Amazon EKS and Docker compete in the cloud computing and containerization category. Amazon EKS appears to have the upper hand due to its integration with AWS services and the abstraction capabilities of Fargate, although Docker shines in simplicity and flexibility.

Features: Amazon EKS provides robust orchestration with Kubernetes, facilitating the deployment of microservices, scalability, and ease of management. The standout is Fargate, simplifying deployments by abstracting cluster complexities. It integrates with AWS for auto-scaling, monitoring, and security. Docker excels in containerization, offering simplicity, flexibility, comprehensive security, and ease of use with autonomy and portability across environments.

Room for Improvement: Amazon EKS could improve security integrations and a more intuitive user experience. Its reliance on cloud tools and frequent upgrades pose challenges. Docker needs better stability and clearer documentation. Its firewall setup is complex, and the UI could be improved for better usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon EKS excels in public and hybrid cloud deployments with reliable AWS support though it can be complex to configure. Docker supports various deployment models including on-premises and hybrid cloud, relying on community support. Its documentation often suffices for reducing technical support needs.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon EKS is cost-effective but pricey compared to GKE, with worthwhile ROI potential requiring careful cost management. Docker, being open-source, is cost-efficient but its enterprise version demands licensing. Docker’s straightforward pricing appeals to those preferring open-source with optional enterprise support.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon EKS vs. Docker Report (Updated: June 2025).

Amazon EKS vs. Docker

Download the complete report

Helped 856,873 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Amazon EKS

Ranking in Container Management

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Container Security (19th)

Docker

Ranking in Container Management

5th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Development Platforms (1st), Software Supply Chain Security (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Container Management category, the mindshare of Amazon EKS is 12.2%, down from 13.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Docker is 2.6%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Container Management

Featured Reviews

Rock Wang

cloud architect at selfstarter

Managing complex environments effortlessly while focusing on growth

The most beneficial aspect of Amazon EKS is that it helps manage the Kubernetes master node, so I don't need to maintain the master node, including tasks like upgrading. This allows me to focus on business code. If using services like Fargate, I only need to maintain my workload, simply uploading code that will be deployed to the Kubernetes cluster. This is especially beneficial for startup companies that lack the technical resources to manage the Kubernetes cluster. Furthermore, Amazon EKS allows me to utilize Kubernetes cluster-level expansion. If there’s insufficient resource on a machine, the cluster can automatically expand to add new nodes.

Read full review

Rikin Parekh

Backend Engineer at Northeastern University

Useful to create sandbox environments to run applications and makes it easy to test them

Overall, setting up the Docker environment is quite easy. Many methods exist, such as using Docker Compose and Docker networks to communicate between containers. The main challenge lies in designing the architecture and integrating different frameworks and microservices. I would rate the ease of setting up the tool at around nine out of ten. The time it takes to deploy depends on the scale of the system. For the early-stage startup I'm currently working with, it doesn't take much time. It's just me handling the deployment. In our early-stage startup, we have a couple of teams with around four to five backend APIs and two front-end services. Deploying these doesn't take much time. My focus is more on minimizing costs due to our lean startup structure.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Through Amazon EKS, we can have the blue-green deployment very easily."

"Amazon EKS allows upscaling and downscaling by reallocating resources."

"The serverless capability of Amazon EKS is quite valuable."

"The stability is excellent."

"It is the best service because it has proper security packages."

"The main benefits that I received from using Amazon EKS are that it is a managed cluster and offers simplicity."

"We do not have to do a lot of administration, such as create virtual machines, or worry about our controllers or nodes going down because the solution is fully managed by Amazon."

"Amazon EKS can be used to implement and create clusters."

More Amazon EKS pros

"There are ways of using Docker where you have absolutely no dependencies on the environment that you work in. This allows us to deploy Docker anywhere anytime and this has been most valuable."

"We use Docker to facilitate deployment, updates, and management."

"When used in conjunction with Kubernetes, it is seamless because it integrates very well."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its sandbox environment. It makes it very easy to run and test applications without needing configurations, which is the core advantage of containerization. Kubernetes and Helm are helpful as they provide high-level metrics, making tracking the status of all the containers and applications running easier."

"We are able to stop our containers or stop the service with a single command."

"It is a very stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"The most valuable feature of Docker is that it provides a containerized environment. The isolation between the environments is beneficial. Additionally, the solution is easy to use."

"Docker offers a resilient system with minimal failure chances and optimized performance"

More Docker pros

Cons

"Sometimes, we face minor connectivity issues."

"I would like to see it a little more stable, more operational, and more convenient to develop."

"The overall stability of the product should be improved to prevent any loss of data."

"I would like to see a cloud setup bank management feature."

"The graphical user interface could be better."

"They need to work on the Amazon plugins on the Kubernetes cluster."

"I am not impressed with the tool's Amazon console. It also needs to add security features."

"I would like to see a warm-up time for AWS Fargate, similar to what GCP Cloud Run has."

More Amazon EKS cons

"The Kubernetes blocks need improvement since Docker has many holes in it."

"I advise new users to review their website, commands, and the steps for creating images."

"One item that could be improved is the overall stability of Docker."

"I would love to have it available on Linux."

"The solution could improve with a GUI instead of only a command line interface. Having to use the command line interface can be a hassle."

"Enhancing artificial intelligence capabilities and cluster management should be a priority. It should facilitate some security management."

"We'd like knowledge transfer to be easier."

"Stability is an area with a shortcoming."

More Docker cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is available at such a huge scale in the market since the resources that are offered under the tool are competitively priced and available at a much cheaper rate compared to other solutions."

"Cloud based pay-as-you-go pricing"

"Pricing is dependent upon instance type."

"Amazon EKS is very cost-effective."

"The solution is cheaper than one of its competitors."

"My company paid for the license."

"The solution is pricey. The tool's pricing is monthly."

"Amazon EKS has fair pricing. It's better in terms of pricing than other platforms."

More Amazon EKS pricing and cost advice

"It's free."

"For commercial use, it's about $30 per month. The license itself isn't expensive, but if there are many users, the price becomes high."

"Regarding pricing, we primarily use AWS for our deployments since we have funding for it. We don't spend much on Docker-specific services, just the containerization product. Docker Hub isn't particularly expensive either, so overall, the pricing is pretty reasonable."

"We are using the open-source version of the solution."

"The current cost for us is nothing as an open source."

"Docker is a free open-source solution. However, there is the Docker Enterprise which is a paid solution."

"Pricing is based on the number of users."

"The solution is an open-source technology and not a commercial product. However, you will have to pay sometimes. The tool's pricing depends on the vendor."

More Docker pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Container Management solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Insurance Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon EKS?

The product's most valuable features are scalability, observability, and performance.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EKS?

We are making a significant effort to transform our usage of Amazon EKS, which was previously rated as eight or nine in terms of cost. Now, it stands at six or seven due to optimizing our workload.

What needs improvement with Amazon EKS?

I am not the right person to ask what could be improved in Amazon EKS to make this tool better for the next release. A continuation of the managed pieces would be beneficial because there is no int...

What do you like most about Docker?

We are using Docker to host applications.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Docker?

I consider Docker's pricing to be affordable.

What needs improvement with Docker?

In terms of communication between services, perhaps the configuration within networks between containers could be improved.

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform vs Amazon EKS

Comparisons

Compared 80% of the time

VMware Tanzu Platform vs Amazon EKS

Compared 9% of the time

Akamai Connected Cloud (Linode) vs Amazon EKS

Compared 3% of the time

Rancher Labs vs Amazon EKS

Compared 2% of the time

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE vs Amazon EKS

Compared 2% of the time

More Amazon EKS Competitors

VMware Tanzu Platform vs Docker

Compared 27% of the time

Mirantis Container Runtime vs Docker

Compared 13% of the time

Codespaces vs Docker

Compared 13% of the time

Rancher Labs vs Docker

Compared 11% of the time

AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) vs Docker

Compared 7% of the time

More Docker Competitors

Product Reports

Amazon EKS

Download Amazon EKS product report

Download Docker product report

Also Known As

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service

No data available

Overview

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) is a fully managed Kubernetes service. Customers such as Intel, Snap, Intuit, GoDaddy, and Autodesk trust EKS to run their most sensitive and mission critical applications because of its security, reliability, and scalability.

EKS is the best place to run Kubernetes for several reasons. First, you can choose to run your EKS clusters using AWS Fargate, which is serverless compute for containers. Fargate removes the need to provision and manage servers, lets you specify and pay for resources per application, and improves security through application isolation by design. Second, EKS is deeply integrated with services such as Amazon CloudWatch, Auto Scaling Groups, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), and Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), providing you a seamless experience to monitor, scale, and load-balance your applications. Third, EKS integrates with AWS App Mesh and provides a Kubernetes native experience to consume service mesh features and bring rich observability, traffic controls and security features to applications. Additionally, EKS provides a scalable and highly-available control plane that runs across multiple availability zones to eliminate a single point of failure.
EKS runs upstream Kubernetes and is certified Kubernetes conformant so you can leverage all benefits of open source tooling from the community. You can also easily migrate any standard Kubernetes application to EKS without needing to refactor your code.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Docker is a versatile container platform used for running and deploying applications in isolated environments, ensuring consistency across development, testing, and production.

Docker offers solutions for containerizing applications, automating deployments, and managing infrastructure through its robust platform. It supports CI/CD workflows, provides a development platform for container management, and simplifies the setup by using streamlined tools. Organizations leverage Docker for building microservices, running UI applications, deploying web services, and setting up secure environments. It also facilitates managing containers via Kubernetes and creating development stacks for enhanced productivity.

What are Docker's key features?

Security: Offers containment and isolation of applications.
Easy Use: Simplifies the deployment and management of applications.
Documentation: Extensive resources to aid in understanding and implementation.
Customization: Flexible environment configurations.
Scalability: Efficiently handles applications irrespective of scale.
Internal DNS: Manages network configurations within the container ecosystem.
Overlay Networks: Facilitates seamless inter-container communication.
Resource Efficiency: Optimizes usage of system resources.

What benefits should users look for?

Consistency: Ensures homogeneous environments across development, testing, and production stages.
Portability: Allows applications to run consistently on any platform.
Cost-Effectiveness: Reduces overhead costs associated with application deployment.
Speed: Accelerates the build, test, and deployment cycles.
Flexibility: Supports various tools and integrations to adapt to different workflows.

Industries implement Docker for CI/CD pipelines, scaling services, and improving resource utilization. Tech companies use Docker for building and deploying their software in isolated environments. Finance and healthcare sectors deploy applications securely, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. Educational institutions set up consistent development environments for coding labs and training students in advanced technologies.

Sample Customers

GoDaddy, Pearson, FICO, Intuit, Verizon, Honeywell, Logicworks, RetailMeNot, LogMeIn, Conde Nast, mercari, Trainline, Axway

Information Not Available

Amazon EKS vs. Docker