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Google Kubernetes Engine 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

Google Kubernetes Engine
Ranking in Container Management
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
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 October 2025, in the Container Management category, the mindshare of Google Kubernetes Engine is 2.1%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kubernetes is 6.2%, down from 6.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Container Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Kubernetes6.2%
Google Kubernetes Engine2.1%
Other91.7%
Container Management
 

Featured Reviews

Parthasarathy T - PeerSpot reviewer
Managed solutions enable efficient handling of web applications and migration projects
Google Kubernetes Engine can be improved by enabling the in-place upgrade of the machine type of an existing node pool since I currently need to destroy and recreate it. There is no feature present where I can upgrade directly, and having more than 1,000 to 2,000 workloads in one node pool makes changing the node pool name difficult for all those workloads. I choose eight out of ten mainly because of the node pool upgrade challenge I mentioned, but also because of the existence of Anthos service mesh, which is the ingress controller available only for the enterprise Kubernetes Engine. It would be beneficial if it could be offered in the normal Kubernetes Engine with any limitations.
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

"On the tip of a command, you can scale in or scale out, and it offers every robust platform to implement DevOps processes for your automation solutions. The product fully supports the IaC concept."
"Regarding deployment in the cloud platform, it is simple because there are pre-configured configurations."
"The deployment of the cluster is very easy."
"The most beneficial feature is the ability to separate each project and manage permissions more effectively."
"Stability is perfect for me."
"Google Kubernetes Engine has positively impacted my organization in migration-based projects such as on-prem to GCP and AWS to GCP, as we migrated more than thousands, even 10,000s workload in Google Kubernetes Engine."
"GKE's plugin management and configuration sync are excellent features. The amount of data it provides is good, and I've been able to integrate it with the things I need."
"The product has valuable security features. It can connect with multiple DevOps tools."
"The easy management of containers is one of the main features I have found useful."
"Having fast storage classes is very important."
"The deployment is one of the most valuable feature."
"Kubernetes is a leading container orchestration solution, known for its simplicity and ease of use. Being open-source, it benefits from large community support, including enterprise support. Many companies offer their own version of Kubernetes, making it widely adopted and supported in the industry."
"Offers a crucial feedback process"
"The most valuable feature of the platform is the ability to load some of the containers that were previously managed by humans."
"The most valuable features of Kubernetes have been autoscaling and its resilience mechanisms."
"It is a stable and scalable product."
 

Cons

"The console for this solution could be improved because it is very limited."
"The tool's configuration features need improvement."
"One of the things I missed a bit is the visibility and availability of solutions. If I compare it to a different solution, it is a bit behind."
"The network configuration has to be simplified."
"There is a limitation for our infrastructure. It's very complex to see in one dashboard all the components and all the behavior on performance. I am looking for some additional tools for that. If I want to check the disk or file storage, it gets complex. There should be an integrated dashboard so that we can manage everything through a single pane."
"Log observability could be made easier so someone from high school can use it without having technological expertise."
"Google Kubernetes Engine is less stable in some highly complex deployments with many nodes."
"The solution does not have a visual interface."
"It's complex to manage and requires specialists."
"The Kubernetes dashboard can be improved. It is currently a mess. We were using Rancher earlier, and everyone was happy with the dashboard. Right now, we are using Kubernetes, and it's not working with Microsoft workstations. We still have problems with the dashboard. It's terrible."
"Absence of a built-in feature for local API creation"
"The solution does not work with third-party tools, or alternative cloud providers, which limits the extent that we can utilize it to."
"Kubernetes can be complicated to understand."
"The front end is very rudimentary."
"Having a thread dump and memory dump, and seeing how many objects were created would be useful."
"The price is something they need to improve."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Initially, Google Kubernetes Engine was a little bit cheaper, but now its prices have been increased compared to the pricing model and the features that are made available by its competitors."
"The tool's licensing costs are yearly."
"This is an open source solution, so there is no pricing or licensing."
"The price for Google Kubernetes Engine could be lower - I'd rate its pricing at three out of five."
"Pricing is a bit expensive compared to some other products, but it's acceptable."
"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."
"Its pricing is good. They bill us only per user. That's nice."
"Microsoft provides reasonable costs for Kubernetes."
"Kubernetes is open source and is an orchestration platform. It is a cost effective solution and its pricing depends on your company and how you use it"
"If you're using a public cloud, the cost depends on the number of nodes you are planning to deploy Kubernetes on."
"We use the solution's open-source version."
"I am using the solution's open-source version."
"There is a license to use Kubernetes."
"Kubernetes is open source. But we have to manage Kubernetes as a team, and the overhead is a bit high. Compared with the platforms like Cloud Foundry, which has a much less operational overhead. Kubernetes, I have to manage the code, and I have to hire the developers. If someone has a product, a developer should know exactly what he's writing or high availability, and all those things may differ the costs."
"There is no licensing fee."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
24%
Computer Software Company
10%
Retailer
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise15
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise47
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Kubernetes Engine?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Google Kubernetes Engine is straightforward, as I previously indicated. The need for humans is reduced with GCP since there is no need for ...
What needs improvement with Google Kubernetes Engine?
Google Kubernetes Engine can be improved by enabling the in-place upgrade of the machine type of an existing node pool since I currently need to destroy and recreate it. There is no feature present...
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

GKE
K8
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Philips Lighting, Alpha Vertex, GroupBy, BQ
China unicom, NetEase Cloud, Nav, AppDirect
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Kubernetes Engine vs. Kubernetes and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
870,701 professionals have used our research since 2012.