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Amazon Elastic Container Service vs Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL] comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 1, 2025

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...
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
53
Ranking in other categories
Container Management (12th), Containers as a Service (CaaS) (1st)
Nutanix Kubernetes Engine N...
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

AG
Lead Developer at Virtual Restaurant Solutions
Starts strong with functionalities but reveals cost limitations
The main challenge with Amazon Elastic Container Service is the significant learning curve. Everything mentioned took months to understand. It is not for the faint of heart. Though they have graphical interfaces and numerous dashboards that help create all the services graphically, learning to use Bash can be challenging. Because these are headless servers by nature, there is no graphical interface. It is not similar to Windows where you can hit the start button and look for your program, or Mac where you can look for programs on your desktop. Instead, users must understand this new paradigm of a Linux headless server, which requires using command-based prompts for builds and development.
reviewer2741271 - PeerSpot reviewer
Nutanix Administrator at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Has provided seamless upgrade experiences and robust technical support
I have heard there are many features added in NKP that are not available in Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE, such as load balancer features. The unified control plane feature is not being used in Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE. We are currently using a third-party tool for load balancing, but going forward, NKP will include load balancer, ingress, and egress features, making infrastructure management much easier. There is no auto-scaling feature in Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE; however, NKP offers it. In NKE, we created additional worker nodes and increased CPU and RAM capacity, but it required manual intervention. Concerning policy-driven governance in Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE, we have the ability to implement RBAC at the cluster level, which helps maintain security by not granting full admin privileges to every end user, thus restricting access effectively.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We have been happy with it."
"Amazon Elastic Container Service has impacted my organization positively by being very helpful, cost-optimized, and easy to deploy; from a developer perspective, user perspective, and DevOps team perspective, it accommodates everyone, whether they are a fresher, intermediate, or advanced user, thanks to its easy UI features."
"The solution is quite scalable and allows you to launch multiple EC2s within minutes."
"Amazon EC2 Container Service has multiple valuable features like load balancers and autoscalers."
"Overall, it is a user-friendly and efficient tool for managing containers."
"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."
"The most valuable feature is the volume size they offer."
"The solution has good performance."
"We can do a lot of provisioning."
"My experience with Nutanix's technical support is excellent."
"The product integrates well with our infrastructure."
"Karbon is embedded in the hypervisor, there are no deployment costs and the administration is via Prism Central."
"Nutanix is very stable and reliable, based on my experience with many customers, including large banks and telcos."
"Nutanix's support is really good."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"We can add some add-ons and plugins to the product if we need to."
 

Cons

"Amazon EC2 Container Service's security can be improved."
"Visualization is an important factor for me, and I don't think that the visuals within ECS are good enough because it doesn't show you all the details you might need to see at a glance."
"I think that it would help if the vendor provided more use cases and explanations as to how ECS can be utilized."
"The solution must improve backup and compatibility around OS like Windows and Mac."
"The product can become expensive if you don't choose what you want."
"The solution is expensive compared to other alternatives like Azure."
"The orchestration of the workloads running in ECS needs improvement."
"The user interface of ECS could be improved for better navigation and to assist in quickly setting up a deployment."
"GUI lacks sufficient information to help with understanding the installation and process."
"One major issue we faced was that appliances couldn't migrate from VMware to the tool. However, this seems to be a common problem across platforms. We've seen the same issue when migrating from VMware to RHV or other solutions. It's not specifically a Nutanix problem but rather an issue migrating appliances from one VM infrastructure to another. Some kernel-level and storage-level issues impact this process."
"In the next release, I would like to have automatic dynamic scaling, both upscaling and downscaling."
"The product lacks some virtualization capabilities, making it an area for improvement where the solution can focus on providing users with more virtualization capabilities related to disk systems."
"There have been challenges related to software bugs, especially regarding long-term licensing options and issues within our customer network."
"Areas for improvement in Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE) include upgrading management capabilities and enhancing the user interface for improved usability."
"There is no auto-scaling feature in Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE; however, NKP offers it. In NKE, we created additional worker nodes and increased CPU and RAM capacity, but it required manual intervention."
"Nutanix has limitations compared to VMware, particularly in testing and industry tie-ups with different OEMs. Deploying virtual machines, especially for industrial automation, can be challenging due to compatibility issues."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Amazon EC2 Container Service is worth the money."
"They offer a pay-as-you-go pricing model for the product."
"Amazon Elastic Container Service's price is good."
"Amazon Elastic Container Service has a decent price, which is neither cheap nor expensive."
"The pricing of Amazon EC2 Container Service is average."
"The solution is pricey."
"The platform is inexpensive."
"I rate the product's pricing an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"I rate NKE's pricing a six out of ten."
"I rate the product price a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"While deploying Kubernetes clusters on Nutanix is cost-effective, there may be additional costs for remote branch offices where Kubernetes is less common."
"The product's licenses are included in the software version deployed in our data center."
"The platform is averagely priced. I rate the pricing as four out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Construction Company
16%
Computer Software Company
15%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Amazon EC2 Container Service?
I am not certain about potential improvement areas for Amazon. However, I think the UI should be enhanced to better visualize things.
What is your primary use case for Amazon EC2 Container Service?
Amazon Elastic Container Service is used for hosting different applications in a container environment. It makes it somewhat easy to host applications, and as one of the AWS-provided solutions, it ...
What advice do you have for others considering Amazon EC2 Container Service?
I combine Checkmarx, Infosec, and AWS solutions. I work with Amazon solutions such as Amazon Elastic Container Service, Kubernetes, and some of the AI solutions, including Bedrock; these are some o...
What needs improvement with Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE?
In terms of features, I cannot comment technically, but the real value is the consolidated out-of-the-box solution that Nutanix offers. Nutanix has built great branding and a lot of credibility and...
What is your primary use case for Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE?
I have experience with OpenShift, Kubernetes, and Nutanix, as we are one of the largest Nutanix resellers in the Middle East. We handle Kubernetes on the cloud as well, so we manage most of the Kub...
What advice do you have for others considering Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE?
I don't have a technical role, but we are a system integrator, so we sell solutions such as OpenShift and Kubernetes as part of the sales team. We are a reseller called eSky IT, and I serve as the ...
 

Also Known As

Amazon ECS, Amazon EC2 Container Service
Nutanix Karbon
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Ubisoft, GoPro, TIBCO, Remind
JetBlue, International Speedway Corporation, SAIC Volkswagen
Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kubernetes and others in Container Management. Updated: May 2026.
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