Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Azure Kubernetes Engine VS Amazon ECS

Compare Azure Kubernetes Engine VS Amazon ECS and see what are their differences

Azure Kubernetes Engine logo Azure Kubernetes Engine

AKS Engine: Units of Kubernetes on Azure! Contribute to Azure/aks-engine development by creating an account on GitHub.

Amazon ECS logo Amazon ECS

Amazon EC2 Container Service is a highly scalable, high-performance​ container management service that supports Docker containers.
  • Azure Kubernetes Engine Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-13
  • Amazon ECS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-05

Azure Kubernetes Engine features and specs

  • Integration with Azure Services
    AKS Engine provides seamless integration with various Azure services, such as Azure Monitor, Azure Active Directory, and Azure DevOps, allowing users to leverage a comprehensive cloud environment.
  • Customizable Kubernetes Deployments
    Users can customize Kubernetes cluster configurations to suit their specific needs, offering flexibility in node sizing, network setup, and more.
  • Scaling and Upgrading
    AKS Engine supports easy scaling and upgrading of Kubernetes clusters, enabling users to manage workload changes efficiently and ensure their applications remain available and up-to-date.
  • Open-source Community
    Being open-source, AKS Engine benefits from community contributions, ensuring continual improvements, quick issue resolutions, and a large pool of shared knowledge and expertise.

Possible disadvantages of Azure Kubernetes Engine

  • Complexity in Setup
    Initial setup and configuration can be complex, requiring in-depth knowledge of both Azure and Kubernetes concepts.
  • Management Overhead
    While AKS Engine provides flexibility, it also necessitates management of Kubernetes infrastructure, unlike fully managed services such as Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
  • Support Requirements
    Since AKS Engine is an open-source project, it may not offer the same level of commercial support that Azure's managed services provide, potentially requiring internal expertise for troubleshooting.
  • Frequent Updates
    Keeping up with Kubernetes and AKS Engine updates can be demanding, requiring careful planning and execution to maintain cluster stability and security.

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 Engine videos

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Amazon ECS videos

Amazon ECS: Core Concepts

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Azure Kubernetes Engine and Amazon ECS)
Developer Tools
14 14%
86% 86
Containers As A Service
23 23%
77% 77
Cloud Hosting
0 0%
100% 100
DevOps Tools
100 100%
0% 0

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Reviews

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

Azure Kubernetes Engine Reviews

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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.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Amazon ECS seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 52 times since March 2021. 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.

Azure Kubernetes Engine mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Azure Kubernetes Engine yet. Tracking of Azure Kubernetes Engine recommendations started around Mar 2021.

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 / 3 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 / 5 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
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Azure Kubernetes Engine and Amazon ECS, you can also consider the following products

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.

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

Apache Mesos - Apache Mesos abstracts resources away from machines, enabling fault-tolerant and elastic distributed systems to easily be built and run effectively.

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

Docker Swarm - Native clustering for Docker. Turn a pool of Docker hosts into a single, virtual host.

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