Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications comparison

Nutanix and VMware are both solutions in the Container Monitoring category. Nutanix is ranked #6 with an average rating of 7.6, while VMware is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.8. Nutanix holds a 0.4% mindshare in DCM, compared to VMware’s 3.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Nutanix users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE

Read 14 Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE reviews

2,824 Views
56 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Read 14 VMware Aria Operations for Applications reviews

2,539 Views
482 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 3, 2025

VMware Aria Operations for Applications and Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE are products competing in application management and container orchestration. VMware Aria Operations holds an advantage with strong pricing and support, while Nutanix Kubernetes Engine offers an appealing feature set.

Features: VMware Aria Operations for Applications delivers comprehensive monitoring, advanced analytics capabilities, and extensive insights into application performance. Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE distinguishes itself with seamless Kubernetes integration, premier scalability for complex needs, and high efficiency in provisioning new environments.

Room for Improvement: VMware Aria Operations could enhance its Kubernetes orchestration features, improve ease of use for non-technical users, and expand cloud compatibility. Nutanix Kubernetes Engine can work on simplifying user interfaces, reducing complexity in network configuration, and optimizing resource consumption for smaller setups.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VMware Aria Operations is known for its easy deployment process and strong support system, allowing quick integration. Nutanix Kubernetes Engine supports straightforward deployment through an intuitive setup, benefiting from efficient Nutanix customer service.

Pricing and ROI: VMware Aria Operations offers competitive pricing and favorable ROI through effective resource monitoring. Nutanix Kubernetes Engine may carry a higher initial cost but seeks a potentially greater ROI through advanced features and scalability, important for businesses focusing on efficiency and growth.

To learn more, read our detailed Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

July 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

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE

Ranking in Container Monitoring

6th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Container Management (10th)

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Ranking in Container Monitoring

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (18th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (17th), Cloud Monitoring Software (14th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Container Monitoring category, the mindshare of Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Operations for Applications is 3.1%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Container Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Prasanthraj PN

Sales Director at InnovationTQ

Offers efficient deployment and management with easy resource allocation, yet faces challenges in integration and compatibility

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE offers easy and fast deployment, management, stability, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. The resource allocation is very simple. If we need to expand the memory, storage space, or processor core, it is very easy to manage through our central control. These features are what stand out the most.

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ToniLindberg

senior consultant at Virtual Consultants Sverige AB

Troubleshooting capabilities have improved application monitoring and support engagement

I can see what happens end to end, which is pretty beneficial. The solution has troubleshooting capabilities, providing a direct connection to knowledge base articles from VMware Broadcom. When I encounter an error, I can search directly within the system to see what solutions have been employed by others. It has a familiar interface, which makes it easy to get started.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We can do a lot of provisioning."

"The solution is easy to manage. You can get everything in a single platform. It is also easy to work with Terraform as a code."

"The product integrates well with our infrastructure."

"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"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."

"The most valuable features of the Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE) are its simplicity and efficiency during the initial cluster creation phase."

"Nutanix is very stable and reliable, based on my experience with many customers, including large banks and telcos."

"The technical support is excellent."

More Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE pros

"The stability of Aria Operations for Applications has improved significantly over the years."

"It has a familiar interface, which makes it easy to get started."

"The solution is great for virtualization and preparing the infrastructure in Tanzu to test products. It's very fast and has good visibility."

"This solution allows me to have true visibility for any metrics when it comes to my cloud, and private."

"It significantly improves application performance management by offering recommendations for resource allocation to avoid wastage or overcommitment."

"For us, the ease of deployment in combination with TMZ was the most important part because we don't have to manually deploy a complex monitoring solution. We can more or less do that with the click of a button, and we are not dependent on the developers to provide us with all the necessary features and functions to make that work. We can just deploy it on a workload cluster and monitor at least a good part of the workload. If we want to go into detail, we clearly need to make changes, but for a good part of application monitoring, it gives us good insights."

"VMware comes with a support team, and if you have trouble, you can easily create a ticket, and VMware will help you. Therefore, the best aspect is the support."

"I find VMware Aria Operations for Applications to be very stable, and I would rate it a ten out of ten."

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications pros

Cons

"I have issues with the product's interoperability."

"There have been challenges related to software bugs, especially regarding long-term licensing options and issues within our customer network."

"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."

"I would like to have more nodes for availability and storage."

"NKE could benefit from additional features that support more advanced Kubernetes functionalities and configurations."

"It's mostly for lab purposes; we haven't seen a lot of traction in the market from enterprise customers yet."

"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."

More Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE cons

"I find that there could be improvements in the support service response time, as the urgency varies unless specified as Priority 2 or 1 cases."

"It could use a URL document server. Everything in the market is moving towards automation and everybody's looking for the single click operations as well relational data locality."

"The return on investment is best suited for organizations that do not have the resources for a dedicated VM environment team. However, the cost of the product doesn't show significant benefits."

"Its billing model is consumption-based. I understand the consumption-based model, but it is not necessarily easy to estimate and guess how many points or how much we are going to consume on a specific application up until we get to that point. So, for us, it would be helpful to have more insights or predictability into what we can expect from a cost perspective if we are starting to use specific features. This can potentially also drive our consumption a bit more."

"They could make it more easy to plug-in data so that a nontechnical person will be able to use it, like accountants or finance people. That way they don't have to ask us."

"In the new version, I would love to see more prediction capabilities. It would be great if one could see the alerts get a little more enriched with information and become more human-friendly instead of the technical stuff that they put in there. I think those would be really awesome outcomes to get."

"VMware technical support has declined since the Broadcom acquisition. Previously, they were more focused on issue resolution, but now they prioritize licensing verification before providing support."

"The solution could be expensive, which might be a limiting factor."

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate NKE's pricing a six out of ten."

"The platform is averagely priced. I rate the pricing as four out of ten."

"The product's licenses are included in the software version deployed in our data center."

"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."

"I don't have the details. In our case, there is a mixture in place. We have production usage, and we are also doing training for VMware. So, we also have a training instance. It is worth the money you would spend on it. That's because if you were to build all of this yourself by using some of the open source tools, then you would need a lot of time."

"I would rate the pricing as three out of five."

"The licensing costs are very high, particularly when you consider that we have to purchase a level 1 license for every integration, such as the load balancer, HAProxy, and the MSSP. And if you want to use vSAN, that's another license. Then, of course, Tanzu Observability has its own separate license."

"Different locations require different setups. In your terms, around 300 to around 400K USD."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE?

The most valuable features of the Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE) are its simplicity and efficiency during the initial cluster creation phase.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE?

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 Nut...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE?

I have been working with the Nutanix Kubernetes platform for the past five years. Currently, I am supporting JetBlue Airlines in America, which uses a Nutanix environment and Nutanix Kubernetes Eng...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

The solution includes cost drivers that can be configured according to your environment. You can input server-wise, CPU-wise, storage, and memory costs per hour or day. Once cost drivers are provid...

See all answers

What needs improvement with VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

The new version 8.18 has brought significant improvements. The main purpose of using this tool is having a single console to manage all entities. The cloud integration capabilities, including priva...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

I have been involved in several projects where I had to implement automation and monitoring alerting. I performed automation using VMware Aria Operations for Applications. There is an automation ta...

See all answers

Comparisons

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform vs Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE

Compared 31% of the time

VMware Tanzu Platform vs Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE

Compared 19% of the time

Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) vs Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE

Compared 17% of the time

Kubernetes vs Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE

Compared 10% of the time

Rancher Labs vs Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE

Compared 5% of the time

More Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE Competitors

Grafana vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 11% of the time

Dynatrace vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 8% of the time

Zabbix vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 7% of the time

Datadog vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 5% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 5% of the time

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE

August 2025

Download Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Operations for Applications

July 2025

VMware Aria Operations for Applications report

Download VMware Aria Operations for Applications product report

Also Known As

Nutanix Karbon

Tanzu Observability, Wavefront, Wavefront by VMware, VMware Tanzu Observability

Overview

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE) is an enterprise Kubernetes management solution that simplifies provisioning, operations, and lifecycle management of Kubernetes.

Nutanix

VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront is a powerful tool for monitoring and analyzing the performance and availability of applications and infrastructure in real-time.

With its comprehensive monitoring capabilities, visualizing and analyzing data becomes effortless. The real-time alerting system ensures timely issue resolution, while scalability and a user-friendly interface provide a seamless experience for smooth operations.

VMware

Sample Customers

JetBlue, International Speedway Corporation, SAIC Volkswagen

1. Atlassian 2. Cisco 3. Databricks 4. DigitalOcean 5. Equinix 6. Fidelity Investments 7. Google 8. Hewlett Packard Enterprise 9. Honeywell 10. IBM 11. Intel 12. JetBlue Airways 13. LinkedIn 14. Lyft 15. Mastercard 16. Microsoft 17. MongoDB 18. Netflix 19. Nvidia 20. Oracle 21. PayPal 22. Pinterest 23. Qualcomm 24. Red Hat 25. Salesforce 26. SAP 27. Spotify 28. Square 29. TMobile 30. Twitter 31. Uber 32. VMware

Buyer's Guide

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

July 2025

Free Report: Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

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