Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Azure Service Fabric VS Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

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

Azure Service Fabric logo Azure Service Fabric

Rapidly develop and update microservice-based applications with Azure Service Fabric that lets developers build features without additional infrastructure coding.

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

Container Management
  • Azure Service Fabric Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-16
  • Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-23

Azure Service Fabric features and specs

  • Scalability
    Azure Service Fabric provides scalable microservices architecture, allowing for automatic scaling based on demand and resource optimization.
  • High Availability
    Service Fabric ensures high availability and disaster recovery, enabling applications to remain available even if some of the online nodes fail.
  • Microservices Support
    It offers comprehensive support for microservices, both stateless and stateful, simplifying the development and management of these complex systems.
  • Flexible Deployment
    Supports container orchestration on Windows and Linux, providing flexibility in application deployment and management.
  • Automated Upgrades
    Allows for rolling upgrades with automatic rollback capabilities, minimizing downtime and reducing the risk of deployment errors.
  • Integration with Azure Tools
    Seamlessly integrates with other Azure services and tools, offering a unified experience for cloud development and operations.

Possible disadvantages of Azure Service Fabric

  • Complexity
    The learning curve and setup complexity can be high, especially for developers new to microservices architecture.
  • Management Overhead
    While powerful, Service Fabric can require significant management and configuration efforts, particularly for large applications.
  • Resource Intensive
    It may be resource-intensive, leading to higher costs, especially if the architecture isn't optimized efficiently.
  • Limited Ecosystem
    Compared to other solutions, Service Fabric may have a smaller community and fewer third-party integrations.
  • Complex Troubleshooting
    Diagnosing and troubleshooting issues can be challenging due to the complexity of the fabric infrastructure and distributed nature of microservices.

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.

Azure Service Fabric videos

Azure Service Fabric Mesh Overview

More videos:

  • Demo - AzureTalk: Azure Service Fabric Demo Session

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) videos

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Azure Service Fabric and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS))
Developer Tools
46 46%
54% 54
DevOps Tools
46 46%
54% 54
Containers As A Service
50 50%
50% 50
Continuous Integration
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) should be more popular than Azure Service Fabric. It has been mentiond 5 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 Service Fabric mentions (2)

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 Azure Service Fabric and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), you can also consider the following products

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

Azure Container Instances - Easily run application containers in the cloud with a single command. Azure Container Instances lets you get started in seconds and lower your infrastructure costs with per-second billing.

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.

Helios - Docker container orchestration platform, by Spotify

Rancher - Open Source Platform for Running a Private Container Service

Istio - Open platform to connect, manage, and secure microservices