Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Amazon ECS VS Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Compare Amazon ECS VS Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and see what are their differences

Amazon ECS logo Amazon ECS

Amazon EC2 Container Service is a highly scalable, high-performance​ container management service that supports Docker containers.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) logo Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Container Management
  • Amazon ECS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-05
  • Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-23

Amazon ECS features and specs

  • Cost-Effective
    Amazon ECS allows you to run only the computing resources you need. You can scale your services up or down based on demand, optimizing costs efficiently.
  • Integration with AWS Services
    ECS seamlessly integrates with other AWS services like IAM, VPC, CloudWatch, and more, providing a cohesive and robust ecosystem for your applications.
  • Ease of Use
    ECS is managed by AWS, reducing the complexity of setting up, operating, and scaling containerized applications. It handles orchestration tasks, simplifying deployment and management.
  • Security
    Offers strong security features like IAM roles for tasks, fine-tuned network policies, and encrypted traffic between services, ensuring robust security for your applications.
  • High Availability
    ECS leverages AWS’s global infrastructure, enabling you to deploy applications across multiple availability zones for high availability and fault tolerance.

Possible disadvantages of Amazon ECS

  • Complexity in Hybrid Environments
    Integrating ECS with non-AWS components in a hybrid cloud setup can be complex, requiring additional configuration and management effort.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    Being tightly integrated with AWS services means that migrating away from ECS to another container orchestration platform could be challenging and time-consuming.
  • Learning Curve
    While ECS simplifies many tasks, users still need to understand AWS services and best practices, creating a learning curve for those new to the AWS ecosystem.
  • Limited Multi-Cloud Support
    Unlike Kubernetes, which can be deployed in multi-cloud environments, ECS is mainly optimized for AWS, limiting its flexibility in multi-cloud strategies.
  • Dependency on AWS Infrastructure
    The performance and availability of ECS are dependent on AWS infrastructure, making it less appealing for organizations that need infrastructure independence.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) features and specs

  • Managed Service
    AKS is a managed Kubernetes service, which means Azure handles critical tasks such as health monitoring and maintenance, reducing the operational overhead for development teams.
  • Integration with Azure Services
    AKS offers seamless integration with a wide range of Azure services such as Azure Active Directory, Azure Monitor, and Azure DevOps, providing a comprehensive ecosystem for building and managing applications.
  • Scalability
    AKS supports easy scaling of applications, which allows businesses to quickly adapt to changes in demand by adjusting the number of nodes or implementing autoscaling policies.
  • Enhanced Security
    With features such as Azure Policy, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), and network isolation, AKS provides robust security mechanisms to protect containerized applications.
  • Cost Effective
    AKS does not charge for the Kubernetes control plane, so users only pay for the resources (VMs, storage) they use, which can make it cost-effective for many applications.

Possible disadvantages of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

  • Complex Setup for Beginners
    For organizations or individuals new to Kubernetes, the initial setup and configuration of AKS can be complex and may require a steep learning curve.
  • Limited Customization
    As a managed service, AKS abstracts away some of the low-level control over Kubernetes components, which might not be ideal for all use cases that require extensive customization.
  • Regional Availability
    AKS is not available in all Azure regions, which may limit its use for globally distributed teams or applications that require specific regional deployments.
  • Dependency on Azure Ecosystem
    While tight integration with Azure services is an advantage, it can also be a limitation for organizations preferring multi-cloud or hybrid cloud strategies.

Amazon ECS videos

Amazon ECS: Core Concepts

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) videos

Introduction To Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) | Azure Container Service | Azure Training | Edureka

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Amazon ECS and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS))
Developer Tools
83 83%
17% 17
Cloud Hosting
100 100%
0% 0
DevOps Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Cloud Computing
87 87%
13% 13

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Amazon ECS and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Amazon ECS Reviews

The Top 7 Kubernetes Alternatives for Container Orchestration
Amazon ECS is a flexible, high-performing, scalable container management solution compatible with Docker containers that let you run your applications on a controlled group of Amazon EC2 instances. Through Amazon ECS, you don’t have to set up and manage the cluster’s management infrastructure or set up tasks. You can use the management tools of AWS Console or SDKs, AWS CLI...
Top 10 Best Container Software in 2022
If you are looking for great backup recovery and building cloud-native applications, then AWS Fartgate is one of the best tools. If you initially want to do POCs without investing much in infrastructure, then Amazon ECS is a good choice because of its pay per use pricing model.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Reviews

We have no reviews of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Amazon ECS seems to be a lot more popular than Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). While we know about 52 links to Amazon ECS, we've tracked only 5 mentions of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Amazon ECS mentions (52)

  • AWS ECS vs Sliplane
    Amazon's Elastic Container Service (ECS) and Sliplane both simplify deployment, management, and scaling of containerized applications. However, there are some key differences, and both platforms serve different users and use cases. Let's compare them side by side. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Top 8 Docker Alternatives to Consider in 2025
    AWS Elastic Container Service (ECS) and Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) provide managed container orchestration platforms integrated with AWS infrastructure. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Day 3: What is Docker and why should I care?
    Most cloud platforms support Docker containers. Sliplane, Fly.io, AWS, Google Cloud, etc. This means that you can easily switch between cloud providers if you want to, without having to change your software. If you ever migrated from one cloud provider to another, you probably know how much work this can be. With Docker, you can just take your container image and run it on the new platform. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • The New Dev's Guide to Externalizing App Config
    In containerized environments like Kubernetes or Amazon ECS, configuration is often injected as environment variables or mounted as files. Your app starts up with fresh values every time—no rebuilds needed. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Large-scale Data Processing with Step Functions : AWS Project
    The workers in this example are containers, running in Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) with an Amazon Fargate Capacity Provider . Though the workers could potentially run almost anywhere so long as they had access to poll the Step Functions Activity and report SUCCESS/FAILURE back to Step Functions. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
View more

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) mentions (5)

  • Grant Kubernetes Pods Access to AWS Services Using OpenID Connect
    Having this foundation in place, it's easy to extend this pattern to managed Kubernetes clusters such as Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) or Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). All you need from the managed Kubernetes cluster is the OIDC configuration endpoint, which in turn has the JWKs URL. With that, you can create the trust relationship in AWS or any other Service Provider and grant the relevant access to your... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Microsoft Announced Application Gateway for Containers.
    Application Gateway for Containers is the evolution of the Application Gateway Ingress Controller (AGIC), a Kubernetes application that enables Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) customers to use Azure's native Application Gateway application load-balancer. In its current form, AGIC monitors a subset of Kubernetes Resources for changes and applies them to the Application Gateway, utilizing Azure Resource Manager (ARM). Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Learn How to Dockerize Strapi v4
    Another option is to use Docker to facilitate the deployment to various cloud providers, or Kubernetes managed services such as Amazon EKS, Microsoft AKS, or others. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • How To Deploy Apache Kafka With Kubernetes
    Instructions for setting up Kubernetes to run in your cloud provider of choice can be found in the documentation for each provider (for example, AWS, GCP, or Azure), but the YAML configuration files listed below should work across all providers, with minor adjustments for IP addresses and related fields. - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
  • Getting started with AKS
    This place will help you to get started on the Kubernetes and AKS, even if you have a piece of simple knowledge on the cloud computing concepts. - Source: dev.to / about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Amazon ECS and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), you can also consider the following products

Docker - Docker is an open platform that enables developers and system administrators to create distributed applications.

Kubernetes - Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers

Google Kubernetes Engine - Google Kubernetes Engine is a powerful cluster manager and orchestration system for running your Docker containers. Set up a cluster in minutes.

Rancher - Open Source Platform for Running a Private Container Service

OpenShift Container Platform - Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform is the secure and comprehensive enterprise-grade container platform based on industry standards, Docker and Kubernetes.

Helios - Docker container orchestration platform, by Spotify