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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

"ECS is a useful platform."
"The biggest lesson that I have learned from using this product is that it is highly available, cost-effective, and reliable."
"Amazon ECS allows users to deploy and manage container applications like microservices or web applications on Amazon clusters. It's easy to install and designed for AWS targets, serving as a serverless container platform. It offers features such as automatic scanning, load balancing, and service discovery to help users manage their container applications."
"The solution's technical support is good."
"It's quick and easy to have the solution working."
"The solution is simple to access."
"I use the tool to manage containerized applications. What I like about Amazon ECS is the interface it provides. Although the configurations can be extensive, such as setting up auto-scaling groups and configuring separate tasks and services for each application, the interface makes it manageable."
"Our platform stability has rated from 97%, 98% to 99.99% and we are pretty much happy with the stability of Amazon Elastic Container Service."
"My experience with Nutanix's technical support is excellent."
"I would recommend using this product, it's very good."
"The most valuable features of the Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE) are its simplicity and efficiency during the initial cluster creation phase."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"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."
"The solution provides no downtime features. If we face issues, we create a new port, deploy it there, and then drop the existing one. This way, we avoid NKE downtime on our website."
"We can do a lot of provisioning."
 

Cons

"Support could be better with response time and knowledge of staff."
"Since it is a managed service for container orchestration, it may limit our control over certain infrastructure functions."
"It's a complex tool and should be simplified."
"Probably, they should include automated graphing, and monitoring solutions."
"We faced challenges with AWS and I feel the support could have been better - more timely with their response, more knowledgeable staff and more customer friendly."
"I also believe there are limitations in terms of upgrading. The software has the concept of dedicated servers that you can manage. However, an issue arises when you can't match one operating system with another that you've already purchased. You can't simply merge them; instead, you have to buy a completely new one. This limitation has caused some challenges for us."
"I rate the platform's stability an eight out of ten. It easily dies."
"For Amazon EC2 Container Service, providing the ability for users to select specific processor, memory, disk, and interface types might be an ideal feature. But, the practicality of offering all possible physical combinations is nearly impossible due to the underlying physical machines. AWS and Azure organize options into groups based on essential components like powerful processors or critical interfaces, considering physical restrictions. While expanding these choices is conceivable, it may not be feasible from a financial and practical perspective. Customers generally comprehend this limitation, as even in their own data centers, exact physical machine requirements are often a result of a combination of factors such as price, availability, and new machine generations."
"In the next release, I would like to have automatic dynamic scaling, both upscaling and downscaling."
"Areas for improvement in Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE) include upgrading management capabilities and enhancing the user interface for improved usability."
"There have been challenges related to software bugs, especially regarding long-term licensing options and issues within our customer network."
"I have issues with the product's interoperability."
"It's mostly for lab purposes; we haven't seen a lot of traction in the market from enterprise customers yet."
"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."
"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."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price, I rate Amazon EC2 Container Service’s pricing a four or five out of ten."
"I rate the product's pricing an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"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."
"Amazon EC2 Container Service is an expensive solution."
"Although AWS has successfully captured over 60 percent of the market in the cloud part, the tool is competitively way cheaper for the resources it provides compared to the other solutions."
"If you want to scale without the traditional methods, the solution is a bit cost-effective."
"The tool's licensing is monthly."
"The product's licenses are included in the software version deployed in our data center."
"While deploying Kubernetes clusters on Nutanix is cost-effective, there may be additional costs for remote branch offices where Kubernetes is less common."
"I rate the product price a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"The platform is averagely priced. I rate the pricing as four out of ten."
"I rate NKE's pricing a six out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
17%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

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?
As for how Amazon Elastic Container Service can be improved, I currently find there is not much lacking since I can identify everything I need from Amazon Elastic Container Service container itself...
What is your primary use case for Amazon EC2 Container Service?
My main use case for Amazon Elastic Container Service is deploying microservices-based applications with different technologies.A quick specific example of a project or application I have deployed ...
What advice do you have for others considering Amazon EC2 Container Service?
I would rate Amazon Elastic Container Service as a nine out of ten.I give it a nine out of ten because, although it is not a direct alternative, it is indirectly an alternative to Kubernetes, which...
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
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