Docker vs Google Kubernetes Engine comparison

Docker and Google are both solutions in the Container Management category. Docker is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.9, while Google is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.2. Docker holds a 2.6% mindshare in CM, compared to Google’s 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Docker users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Google users who would recommend it.

Docker

Read 56 Docker reviews

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724 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Google Kubernetes Engine

Read 37 Google Kubernetes Engine reviews

942 Views
556 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Docker

Google Kubernetes Engine

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 13, 2024

Google Kubernetes Engine and Docker compete in the cloud infrastructure and containerization space. GKE appears to have the upper hand due to its robust infrastructure management and advanced auto-scaling capabilities.

Features: GKE is known for its ease of deployment, seamless multi-cloud support, and advanced auto-scaling capabilities. It integrates well with Google's ecosystem, enhancing its usability for machine learning applications. On the other hand, Docker excels in containerization, providing a flexible and user-friendly environment with fast deployment times. Its simplicity in container orchestration and cross-environment consistency is beneficial for straightforward containerization.

Room for Improvement: Google Kubernetes Engine could enhance application-level security, backup systems, and provide more integrated tools to reduce reliance on third-party software. Improved documentation and support are also necessary. Docker could focus on improving stability and security features, enriching documentation, and offering straightforward management tools. Integration of GPU support and enhancing user interfaces are potential areas for improvement.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: GKE primarily operates on public cloud infrastructure, making it scalable and easy to deploy. However, customer service experiences vary, with noted slow response times and a need for better documentation. Docker offers flexibility with deployments across on-premises, public, private, and hybrid clouds, though its support largely depends on community resources, with professional support available via a paid license.

Pricing and ROI: GKE is a paid service with flexible pricing based on usage, offering excellent operational productivity but potentially higher costs compared to competitors like AWS. Docker is mostly open-source and free, with a paid Enterprise version including additional features. GKE's costs are linked to virtual machine and resource requirements, while Docker offers cost efficiency through its open-source nature. Both provide worthwhile ROI, though cost structures vary; GKE costs are driven by infrastructure needs, whereas Docker remains cost-effective.

To learn more, read our detailed Docker vs. Google Kubernetes Engine Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Docker vs. Google Kubernetes Engine

June 2025

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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

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)

Google Kubernetes Engine

Ranking in Container Management

10th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Container Management category, the mindshare of Docker is 2.6%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Kubernetes Engine is 2.1%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Container Management

Featured Reviews

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.

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Immánuel Fodor

Product Manager at Traefik Labs

The auto-scaling feature ensures that we only use resources when needed

The most valuable aspect of Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is its managed nature, which significantly reduces the burden on our platform team. Features like auto-scaling are highly beneficial for both handling traffic spikes and optimizing costs. Furthermore, Google's promise of good SLA availability, with the service being available in different locations, adds to its robustness.

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

"Kubernetes is the primary container orchestration tool I use with this solution. Docker provides a complete solution for deploying and managing workloads across multiple nodes. Container orchestration has significantly impacted my workload by automating tasks and streamlining operations. The availability of systems like Kubernetes is crucial for planning and managing complete clusters and computing environments. Every client's needs are different, and not one solution fits all."

"It is neat and very flexible."

"I think that with Docker, it is easy to deploy it on different platforms."

"The most valuable feature of Docker is its integration with other solutions, such as KVM and AlmaLinux."

"The solution is easy to deploy for clients so it saves a lot of hassle."

"I have seen end-to-end performance with Docker. It's a great tool, and it's the most popular container service in the market."

"The most valuable feature of Docker is that it revolutionized virtualization by providing a new approach with containers that completely nullified the time it used to take to deploy applications on virtual servers, resulting in deployment times that can be as quick as milliseconds, unless it is a heavy application, such as Java. Additionally, resource utilization has greatly improved with Docker, allowing for more resources to be allocated to other tasks. These are a few key features that make Docker a preferred choice."

"The lift and shift creates a lightweight image."

More Docker pros

"I am satisfied with the stability offered by the solution."

"The most valuable feature of Google Kubernetes Engine is how you can automatically scale and load balance."

"Before using this solution, it was a lot of manual tasks and a lot of people participated in the process."

"I rate Google Kubernetes Engine a ten out of ten."

"It's easy to manage and deploy. It's the best."

"The main advantage of GKE is that it is a managed service. This means that Google is responsible for managing the master node in the Kubernetes cluster system. As a result, we can focus on deploying applications to the slaves, while Google handles any updates and security patches. The fact that GKE is fully integrated into the Google ecosystem, including solutions such as BigQuery and VertexAI. This makes it easier for us to integrate these tools into our process. This integration ultimately speeds up our time to market and reduces the time and effort spent on managing infrastructure. The managed aspect of GKE allows us to simply deploy and utilize it without having to worry about the technicalities of infrastructure management."

"The solution simplified deployment, making it more automated. Previously, Docker required manual configuration, often done by developers on their computers. However, with Google Kubernetes Engine, automation extends to configuration, deployment, scalability, and viability, primarily originating from Docker rather than Kubernetes. Its most valuable feature is the ease of configuration."

"Stability is perfect for me."

More Google Kubernetes Engine pros

Cons

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

"There can be challenges with port mapping, however, that's not related to Docker itself."

"The documentation could be improved."

"We have found that it is not easy to install it into a Windows system."

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

"It could be easier to create images and save them on reports. Just improved development workflow, just quicker, like some better user experience creating the images for the Docker containers."

"Sometimes there's a bug or defect in the solution. However, the Docker team works on fixing it."

"The solution could offer better documentation."

More Docker cons

"The product's integration with third-party vendors needs improvement."

"Our critique is that we have to do too much work to get the cluster production-ready."

"The console for this solution could be improved because it is very limited."

"There are some security issues, but it might just be because we are not up to speed yet as much as we should be and so we haven't found it in the documentation yet. That's why I don't want to confuse this. Still, it could be a little bit easier to understand and implement."

"The pricing could be more competitive. It should be cheaper."

"I would rate the scalability a seven out of ten."

"Log observability could be made easier so someone from high school can use it without having technological expertise."

"It needs to support load balancing."

More Google Kubernetes Engine cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"This is an open-source solution, so there are no licensing costs."

"The offering and service are quite free."

"Docker is open source. To use a Docker enterprise model, we would need to pay for it."

"I use the solution's open-source version."

"There is a license needed to use Docker."

"I would rate the pricing of Docker as ten out of ten"

"It's free."

More Docker pricing and cost advice

"Currently, it costs around $1000 per month which sorted our deployment. So once we get more clients, having a huge suffix, costs can go up."

"The product is a little bit expensive."

"I would rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten. The tool costs around 3000 dollars per month. There are no additional costs apart from these."

"The pricing for GKE is dependent on the type of machine or virtual machine (VM) that is selected for the nodes in the cluster. There is a degree of flexibility in choosing the specifications of the machine, such as the number of CPUs, GPUs, and so on. Google provides a variety of options, allowing the user to create the desired cluster composition. However, the cost can be quite steep when it comes to regional clusters, which are necessary for high availability and failover. This redundancy is crucial for businesses and is required to handle an increase in requests in case of any issues in one region, such as jumping to a different region in case of a failure in the Toronto region. While it may be tempting to choose the cheapest type of machines, this may result in a limited capacity and user numbers, requiring over-provisioning to handle additional requests, such as those for a web application."

"Its pricing is good. They bill us only per user. That's nice."

"I rate the product's price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price. The product is competitively priced."

"It is competitive, and it is not expensive. It is almost competitive with AWS and the rest of the cloud solutions. We are spending around 3K USD per month. There are four projects that are currently running, and each one is incurring a cost of around 3K USD."

"The solution's price is reasonable."

More Google Kubernetes Engine pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Insurance Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

12%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Docker?

We are using Docker to host applications.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Docker?

I consider Docker's pricing to be affordable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Docker?

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

See all answers

What do you like most about Google Kubernetes Engine?

The product has no downtime.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Kubernetes Engine?

The on-demand nodes are quite expensive, so we now use spot machines.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Kubernetes Engine?

Gemini could be more integrated with Google Kubernetes Engine ( /products/google-kubernetes-engine-reviews ). For example, it would be helpful if I could easily find log information in a particular...

See all answers

Comparisons

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

JFrog Xray vs Docker

Compared 4% of the time

More Docker Competitors

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Compared 24% of the time

Akamai Connected Cloud (Linode) vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Compared 20% of the time

VMware Tanzu Platform vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Compared 15% of the time

Rancher Labs vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Compared 13% of the time

More Google Kubernetes Engine Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Docker

June 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Google Kubernetes Engine

June 2025

Download Google Kubernetes Engine product report

Also Known As

No data available

GKE

Overview

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.

Docker

Kubernetes Engine is a managed, production-ready environment for deploying containerized applications. It brings our latest innovations in developer productivity, resource efficiency, automated operations, and open source flexibility to accelerate your time to market.

Google

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Philips Lighting, Alpha Vertex, GroupBy, BQ

Buyer's Guide

Docker vs. Google Kubernetes Engine

June 2025

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