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Amazon Linux vs Docker on Ubuntu comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.9
Organizations achieve up to 30% cost savings and improved productivity with Amazon Linux's cost-effectiveness and seamless AWS integration.
Sentiment score
4.2
Docker on Ubuntu improves efficiency, productivity, and reduces costs, essential for deployments and achieving ROI without precise tracking.
With Amazon Linux, selecting and launching instances on a public cloud provider means the machine spins up in fewer than ten seconds, making it efficient.
Cloud Solution Engineer at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
By switching the compute fleet from a paid distribution to Amazon Linux, we have reduced our OS-related overhead cost by 100%.
System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Some wins commonly seen after switching, particularly when moving from general-purpose distributions such as Ubuntu, include approximately twenty to forty percent better price-performance ratio.
configuration and management deployment at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The main return is time-saving, as it provides less setup time, fewer errors, and improved developer productivity.
DevOps at Chill Flow
You need some type of operating system and a container engine, and these two are best in class.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
There is a pipeline for it, and the time saving occurs because whenever a developer pushes anything, that goes into the Docker container and builds it.
DevOps Engineer at Elevenxcapital
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
AWS customer service for Amazon Linux is efficient, with responsive support and excellent documentation, addressing issues quickly and reliably.
Sentiment score
6.0
Ubuntu Docker users value community support and documentation, rarely needing direct support despite Canonical's technical expertise and resources.
Amazon has the best expertise and they are available 24/7.
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
Timely and helpful responses for performance, updates, or AWS integration issues.
QA Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It offers specific advantages and constraints depending on the use case.
Cloud Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The customer service for Docker on Ubuntu and their technical support are pretty good, especially since the documentation is pretty robust.
Founder at Asynka
Amazon's customer support is brilliant, with very quick response times.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The documentation is good, especially when using AI tools that utilize Docker's information for support.
Chief Technology Officer at ML Cloud LLC
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.8
Amazon Linux provides efficient scalability, handling varying demands, offering elasticity, and ensuring reliable performance in AWS environments.
Sentiment score
5.6
Docker on Ubuntu is scalable, stable, and efficient, especially with Kubernetes, despite some challenges with scaling complexity and costs.
The beauty here is that we can scale it immediately, which also saves cost.
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
The scalability of Amazon Linux is very good; we run it on top of scalable EC2 instances, and we do not find any issues there.
Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Amazon Linux is highly scalable because it allows for EC2 instances to scale up and down based on what you want.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
In some cases, Docker on Ubuntu is not enough for all the complexity of the applications, and I have to go to the next level with Kubernetes.
Founder at Asynka
Ubuntu is very stable as an operating system, and Docker scales well when used properly across projects and environments.
DevOps at Chill Flow
Using Docker on Ubuntu together is a common configuration, and you can deploy it directly on server hardware using virtual machines or in the cloud, scaling however you wish.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Amazon Linux offers stable, reliable performance with minimal downtime and seamless transitions, praised for high availability and security.
Sentiment score
8.1
Docker on Ubuntu is stable, secure, and reliable, with limited features in the community edition versus the commercial version.
Combined with AWS managed infrastructure, it provides enterprise-grade reliability suitable for production workloads.
Software Engineer at INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING
Since it is purpose-built for the cloud, it lacks the bloat of traditional desktop-focused distributions, which leads to fewer crashes and higher uptime.
System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
My applications had a high availability (HA) environment, so even when one availability zone was down, traffic moved to a different availability zone without any issues.
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
Docker on Ubuntu is very stable.
Software Engineer at INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING
Docker is continually optimized by the Docker company, and Ubuntu is also continually optimized.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Docker on Ubuntu is very much stable; it is one of the most stable solutions that you can find.
DevOps Engineer at Elevenxcapital
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon Linux needs better security, package support, documentation, interface, compatibility, and seamless upgrades for improved cloud platform integration.
Enhancing Docker on Ubuntu involves improving usability, documentation, and updates while simplifying networking, security, and configuration for users.
Documentation explaining the differences between Ubuntu and Amazon Linux would be valuable.
full stack developer at 71Lbs
Since we are working in a real-time manner and need to scale things immediately, the time it takes to boot an instance and then deploy things is preventing me from giving it a perfect rating.
Senior Data Engineer at a transportation company with 501-1,000 employees
My advice for others looking into using Amazon Linux is to make sure the command line is easy and that Amazon Linux has more performance than other Linux environments and is more secure than other Linux environments as well.
DevOps Engineer at Wissen infotech
Code sharing ability exists in GitHub and other tools, but in Docker on Ubuntu, other users we are sharing with do not have options like edit and update the code.
Software Engineer at INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING
While Docker itself has no cost, the Docker repository and Docker Hub could improve their pricing, especially for startup companies.
Chief Technology Officer at ML Cloud LLC
It is completely complex to understand the networking in Docker on Ubuntu and Kubernetes clusters, as well as the ephemeral nature of the network and storage.
Founder at Asynka
 

Setup Cost

Amazon Linux offers cost-effective cloud usage with no extra fees, easy EC2 management, and cost-saving Graviton instances.
Enterprise users view Docker on Ubuntu as cost-effective; main expenses involve hiring skilled personnel for setup and operation.
With Amazon Linux itself, there is no cost associated with using it, so I would say it is very good from a pricing perspective.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
If I am a new AWS customer, the AWS Free Tier typically includes, for the first six months, micro instances such as t2.micro or t3.micro for free.
Software Engineer at INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING
I am paying around $300 to $400 per month because I use many services.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
99.9% of people will be happy with the open source version, which is open source and free.
SRE at Akamai
I find the pricing for Docker on Ubuntu is not expensive because basically, it is zero.
Founder at Asynka
I do not have a problem with the pricing for Docker on Ubuntu because I do not pay for that; my boss does.
DevOps at Chill Flow
 

Valuable Features

Amazon Linux offers efficient AWS integration, security, and scalability, making it ideal for cloud and microservices deployment.
Docker on Ubuntu enhances deployment with portability, consistency, and fast startup, boosting CI/CD reliability and application scalability.
Amazon Linux handles this automatically. It is optimized for EC2, AWS hardware and software, mostly secure and stable, and there is no additional cost.
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
In terms of service security, there are many constraint security protocols and policies that help me create our own networks, security groups, and inline policies.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Amazon Linux's security updates have been helpful in general because I have had to be more specific in using the Identity Access Management (IAM) service so that we can have role-based permissions in preference to just keeping it open.
Fullstack Developer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Docker is the heart of many AI tools that are used, and I have an AI workstation that uses Docker to package up certain capabilities for AI engineering.
Chief Technology Officer at ML Cloud LLC
The best features that Docker on Ubuntu offers are container isolation, fast startup time, portability, and strong integration with the Ubuntu Linux ecosystem, making it easy to package applications with their dependencies and run them consistently across systems.
Embedded Linux / BSP Engineer at Veethree
Docker on Ubuntu has positively impacted my organization by making our CI/CD pipeline faster because of the multi-stage build, multi-arch build, and the strategy of layering.
DevOps Engineer at Elevenxcapital
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Linux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
13th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Docker on Ubuntu
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
12th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Amazon Linux is 0.7%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Docker on Ubuntu is 0.3%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Docker on Ubuntu0.3%
Amazon Linux0.7%
Other99.0%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

SAURAB K GANGURDE - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
“Amazon Linux delivers automated security updates— including live kernel patching in AL2023—ensuring protected workloads with minimal manual effort and zero-downtime patching.”
One improvement for Amazon Linux would be stronger support for running it outside AWS. Although Amazon provides local VM images for VirtualBox and VMware, they are intended mainly for development and testing. Unlike Ubuntu, Debian, or Red Hat, Amazon Linux is not designed or fully supported as a production OS in on-prem or hybrid environments. Expanding official support outside AWS would offer more flexibility for teams that maintain mixed infrastructure. Another area for improvement is the community ecosystem. Compared to Ubuntu or Red Hat, Amazon Linux has a smaller community and fewer third-party resources or tutorials. A larger ecosystem would make troubleshooting and adoption easier. Finally, improving backward compatibility between Amazon Linux 2 and Amazon Linux 2023—especially around package management (DNF vs yum) and updated toolchains—would simplify upgrades for teams managing large fleets.
reviewer2795433 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Built a reliable cloud foundation that has supported flexible web applications and smooth scaling
Docker on Ubuntu can be improved because Ubuntu is not minimalist at all; it comes with a lot of software by default. This has led some individuals, including myself, to try using Alpine, which is more lightweight, allowing the container to run on a more lightweight operating system that potentially uses fewer resources and reduces costs. If Ubuntu were a little more minimalist, that would be good, but it's not really aiming for that since it intends to be the baseline. Also, Ubuntu moves very fast, possibly faster than other operating systems like Debian, which could demand operational heavy upgrades to major versions every couple of years if there are many applications running.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
14%
Computer Software Company
12%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Computer Software Company
30%
Construction Company
21%
Comms Service Provider
5%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise17
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Amazon Linux?
From a technical perspective, Amazon Linux could improve in broader availability of third-party packages, simplified system-level troubleshooting tools, and more beginner-focused system administrat...
What is your primary use case for Amazon Linux?
My primary use case was Amazon Linux as the default operating system for EC2 instances supporting Docker-based container deployments, CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, Kubernetes worker nodes, back-en...
What advice do you have for others considering Amazon Linux?
Amazon Linux is an operating system, and I can install any of the other tools such as DevOps tools and other back-end services, back-end servers, and also AWS tools. I primarily used it in an EC2 i...
What needs improvement with Docker on Ubuntu?
Docker on Ubuntu can probably be improved in the UI part. I was part of the Docker testing team, and they have a public testing team. There are some improvements to UI and probably making Kubernete...
What is your primary use case for Docker on Ubuntu?
My main use case for Docker on Ubuntu is running containers and projects that are in containers, containerized projects.One of those containerized projects is the monitoring stack build, which incl...
What advice do you have for others considering Docker on Ubuntu?
My advice to others looking into using Docker on Ubuntu is to learn the containers as this is really cool technology.I do not have any additional thoughts about Docker on Ubuntu before we wrap up. ...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Linux vs. Docker on Ubuntu and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.