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Amazon Elastic Container Service vs Kubernetes comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 13, 2024

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 Elastic Container Se...
Ranking in Container Management
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
50
Ranking in other categories
Containers as a Service (CaaS) (1st)
Kubernetes
Ranking in Container Management
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
78
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Container Management category, the mindshare of Amazon Elastic Container Service is 1.4%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kubernetes is 5.1%, down from 9.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Container Management
 

Featured Reviews

FABIO NAGAO - PeerSpot reviewer
Horizontal scaling is streamlined when deploying modern workloads
Currently, when scaling with Amazon Elastic Container Service, I have to choose between monitoring CPU or memory usage to scale up or scale out; there is no option to monitor both simultaneously. This limitation makes it challenging to define a balanced scale-out automation since a well-written software should balance between processing and memory.
Venu Boddu - PeerSpot reviewer
Manage infrastructure automation and smooth application deployment with robust auto-scaling capabilities
Kubernetes is highly valuable for its node-based setup, which allows for the running of multiple pods. This feature is essential for infrastructure automation and application deployment. Kubernetes also offers rollback control and auto-scaling capabilities, which are crucial for maintaining an application's availability even if nodes or pods go down. Additionally, Kubernetes supports load balancing to distribute traffic efficiently across multiple pods.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Scalability and availability are the most valuable features of Amazon Elastic Container Service."
"Performance is our top priority. So, if we need to deploy on a high-specification machine, we can choose it from the software. If we just need a low-specification one, we can just choose it based on the requirement handling software configuration."
"It has helped our organization greatly and especially on weekends because we have many transactions as our users are buying some kind of tools and paying online."
"What I really like about Amazon ECS is its simplicity and ease of use. Amazon also has really good security."
"ECS is flexible and easy to use."
"The tool's most valuable feature is the ability to create revisions on the configurations."
"I like the per-second billing."
"Implementing the product has helped me monitor the parameters. I utilize tools like CloudWatch and AWS systems to track these parameters. If any issues arise, I alert our developer team to address and resolve them. The product helps to have a global file system. Also, it helps in data replication from region to region."
"This solution provides a comprehensive way to scale up our ports and containers, without having to use multiple products."
"Kubernetes provides scalable clustering for containers and other means of deployment."
"The most important feature is container orchestration."
"We use it for various large microservice-based architectures and web services. That's the ideal use case, but it's suitable for any kind of service that can be decomposed and needs to be scaled. Of course, it's much easier to deploy services that are stateless. It"
"I like the replication center and the configuration."
"Kubernetes is easy to use, maintain resources, and configure YAML efficiently."
"One of the most valuable features is the thickness of the cloud platform or on-prem file, which makes the solution straightforward to shift and scale. It works well with different types of deployment strategies and networks."
"The most valuable aspect of the solution is the scalability."
 

Cons

"Billing is extremely complex."
"The solution's user experience and management are really bad."
"Amazon Elastic Container Service should simplify its management. It can be difficult for someone who doesn't have much experience with the tool. Also, the tool needs to add the ability to manage networks."
"The solution's stability is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"I think that it would help if the vendor provided more use cases and explanations as to how ECS can be utilized."
"There is room for improvement in the licensing costs. There can be better licensing costs."
"While it is generally stable, there have been some issues, especially when working on client projects where troubleshooting was needed."
"The solution’s UI should be improved."
"One area where Kubernetes could improve is troubleshooting. The current process for troubleshooting and installation can be challenging, especially with a large ecosystem. Better tools and artificial intelligence capabilities developed to assist with troubleshooting, configuration, and support would be helpful. This improvement would be particularly beneficial for large enterprise customers."
"We would to have additional features related to security within the API, instead of needing to install add-ons."
"The user-interface in regards to the other solution can be improved."
"Kubernetes could adopt UI-based approach. A UI-based approach would be really useful in the CI/CD pipeline. They should make everything a little bit more user-friendly. For example, when I'm deploying, it would be nice to load my code and be able to see which components need to be connected."
"Having a thread dump and memory dump, and seeing how many objects were created would be useful."
"The setup process could be improved as it's quite complex, especially for newbies."
"It's good for bigger organizations, but for smaller organizations or a few workloads, it may be too heavy, not easy to deploy, and the ROI may be less because it requires a control plane, worker nodes, and multiple VMs to run."
"We faced a challenge while migrating and upgrading versions of Kubernetes."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Amazon ECS is expensive."
"Amazon EC2 Container Service is an expensive solution."
"Our client is paying between $400 and $500 USD per month for this service."
"Licensing can be purchased directly from AWS or used with existing licenses, depending on the company's preference. The licensing structure is complex and depends on factors such as machine size, number of processors, and Container size. Companies have dedicated staff members managing license considerations full-time to find the most cost-effective options. Also, I have seen some companies opt for a combination of AWS and Azure, using more of Azure for Microsoft licenses due to potentially lower costs compared to AWS."
"Amazon Elastic Container Service's price is good."
"The platform is inexpensive."
"They offer a pay-as-you-go pricing model for the product."
"The product's pricing is good."
"Kubernetes is an open-source solution that can be free. We have some distribution with licenses, such OpenShift and Tucows in Amazon. They are billing services."
"You need to pay for a license if you buy branded products. For example, if you take the services from Azure, AWS, or Google, the price of the Kubernetes cluster is inclusive of the service that's being offered to us on a pay-and-use model."
"The solution itself is open-source, so there is no cost attached to it. However, it requires a virtual machine to operate, which does come at a cost; a choice of a pay as you go model, or a monthly charge via an enterprise agreement. There is a pricing calculator available, where organizations can determine the level and number of virtual machines required, and how much that will cost."
"The price of Kubernetes could be lower. However, it is less expensive than VMware Tanzu. Additionally, technical support is expensive. The overall cost of the solution is approximately $1,000 annually."
"I am using the solution's open-source version."
"Kubernetes is open-source."
"The management layer is free, which is perfect. You don't need to pay money for the management layer, but in AWS develop service, you need to pay. I think it is €75 per month for the management layer. It is free here, so you can have as many Kubernetes clusters as you need. You are paying just for the workload, that is, for the machine, CPU, memory, and everything."
"The solution is affordable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
31%
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon Elastic Container Service?
Implementing the product has helped me monitor the parameters. I utilize tools like CloudWatch and AWS systems to track these parameters. If any issues arise, I alert our developer team to address ...
What needs improvement with Amazon Elastic Container Service?
The solution must improve backup and compatibility around OS like Windows and Mac.
What do you like most about Kubernetes?
There are many good features. I feel that the scale-out features, like replica sets, are very good. The number of running containers can be autoscaled.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kubernetes?
Since we use Kubernetes on-premises, the costs are related to our expertise and the personnel we hire.
What needs improvement with Kubernetes?
Although we face issues when migrating to new versions of Kubernetes, such as misunderstandings on using new features or integration with proxy services, these issues can be addressed with proper p...
 

Also Known As

Amazon ECS, Amazon EC2 Container Service
K8
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Ubisoft, GoPro, TIBCO, Remind
China unicom, NetEase Cloud, Nav, AppDirect
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Elastic Container Service vs. Kubernetes and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.