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Kubernetes VS Google Anthos

Compare Kubernetes VS Google Anthos and see what are their differences

Kubernetes logo Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers

Google Anthos logo Google Anthos

Anthos is an open application platform that can help you accelerate app development, and enables consistency across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
  • Kubernetes Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-24
  • Google Anthos Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-26

Kubernetes features and specs

  • Scalability
    Kubernetes excels in scaling applications horizontally by adding more containers to the deployment, ensuring that the application remains responsive even during high demand.
  • Portability
    Kubernetes supports a variety of environments including on-premises, hybrid, and public cloud infrastructures, offering flexibility and freedom from vendor lock-in.
  • High Availability
    Kubernetes ensures high availability through features like self-healing, automated rollouts and rollbacks, and various controller mechanisms to keep applications running reliably.
  • Extensibility
    Kubernetes has a modular architecture with a rich ecosystem of plugins, third-party tools, and extensions that allow customization and integration with various services.
  • Resource Efficiency
    Efficiently manages resources with features like autoscaling and resource quotas, helping to optimize usage and reduce costs.
  • Community and Support
    Kubernetes has a large, active community and strong industry support, which means abundant resources, tutorials, and third-party integrations are available.

Possible disadvantages of Kubernetes

  • Complexity
    The learning curve associated with Kubernetes is steep due to its numerous components, configurations, and operational paradigms.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running a Kubernetes cluster can be resource-intensive, often requiring significant CPU, memory, and storage resources, which can be costly.
  • Operational Challenges
    Managing a Kubernetes cluster requires expertise in areas such as networking, security, and cluster lifecycle management, making it challenging for smaller teams or organizations.
  • Debugging and Troubleshooting
    Pinpointing issues within a Kubernetes cluster can be difficult due to its distributed and dynamic nature, which can complicate debugging and troubleshooting processes.
  • Configuration Overhead
    Kubernetes involves numerous configurations and settings, which can be overwhelming and error-prone, especially during initial setup and deployment.
  • Security Management
    While Kubernetes provides various security features, managing those securely requires in-depth knowledge and diligence, as misconfigurations can lead to vulnerabilities.

Google Anthos features and specs

  • Hybrid and Multi-cloud Support
    Anthos provides a unified platform to manage Kubernetes clusters both on-premises and across multiple cloud providers, offering flexibility and performance optimization by enabling workload distribution based on business needs.
  • Consistent Experience
    With Anthos, organizations can achieve a consistent development and operational experience across environments, minimizing the learning curve and operational overhead traditionally associated with managing different environments.
  • Enhanced Security
    Anthos includes robust security features like service mesh integration and configuration management, helping organizations enforce security policies consistently across all clusters and reduce the risk of misconfigurations.
  • Streamlined Application Management
    The platform allows for easy monitoring and management of applications and services, offering tools for logging, monitoring, and tracing to enhance visibility and operational efficiency.
  • Open Source Foundation
    As Anthos is based on open-source projects such as Kubernetes, Istio, and Knative, organizations benefit from community-driven innovation and avoid vendor lock-in associated with proprietary solutions.

Possible disadvantages of Google Anthos

  • Cost Implications
    The comprehensive nature of Anthos can lead to high implementation and operational costs, particularly for smaller organizations or those with limited cloud budgets.
  • Complexity
    Managing a hybrid or multi-cloud environment using Anthos can introduce significant complexity, requiring skilled personnel who are proficient in Kubernetes and cloud-native operations.
  • Initial Setup and Migration
    Setting up Anthos and migrating existing workloads to a hybrid or multi-cloud environment can be time-consuming and challenging, necessitating careful planning and execution.
  • Dependence on Kubernetes
    Organizations without existing Kubernetes expertise may face a steep learning curve, as Anthos heavily relies on Kubernetes for orchestration and management.
  • Limited Customization
    Despite its flexibility, some organizations may find that Anthos requires adaptations to fit into certain specialized use cases, which could limit its applicability in niche scenarios.

Analysis of Kubernetes

Overall verdict

  • Kubernetes is generally considered to be an excellent choice for managing containerized applications, especially for organizations aiming for scalability, flexibility, and resiliency. However, it comes with a steep learning curve and requires proper management and maintenance to fully utilize its potential.

Why this product is good

  • Kubernetes is widely regarded as a powerful and versatile platform for container orchestration. It automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications, which helps in efficiently handling workloads and ensuring high availability. Its open-source nature and a large, active community contribute to continuous improvements and a rich ecosystem of tools and extensions. Kubernetes supports a wide range of container runtimes and cloud platforms, making it a preferred choice for enterprises looking to deploy applications in a cloud-agnostic manner. Moreover, it offers advanced features such as self-healing, service discovery, load balancing, and secret management, making it a robust solution for modern DevOps practices.

Recommended for

  • Organizations with significant containerized workloads
  • Teams that require multi-cloud or hybrid cloud deployments
  • Enterprises focusing on DevOps and continuous delivery practices
  • Scalable microservices-based applications
  • Businesses that have resources to manage complex orchestration tools

Kubernetes videos

Kubernetes in 5 mins

More videos:

  • Review - Kubernetes Documentation
  • Review - Module 1: Istio - Kubernetes - Getting Started - Installation and Sample Application Review
  • Review - Deploying WordPress on Kubernetes, Step-by-Step

Google Anthos videos

No Google Anthos videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Kubernetes and Google Anthos)
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud Computing
93 93%
7% 7
DevOps Tools
96 96%
4% 4
Continuous Integration
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Kubernetes and Google Anthos

Kubernetes Reviews

The Top 7 Kubernetes Alternatives for Container Orchestration
Rancher RKE is an interface to the command line for Rancher Kubernetes Engine (RKE) and OpenShift. Both are software tools employed to deploy Kubernetes, an open source project that manages containers on several hosts.
Kubernetes Alternatives 2023: Top 8 Container Orchestration Tools
Azure Kubernetes Service is a container orchestration platform that offers secure serverless Kubernetes. AKS helps to manage Kubernetes clusters and makes deploying containerized applications so much easier. In addition to that, it provides automatic configuration of all Kubernetes nodes and master.
Top 12 Kubernetes Alternatives to Choose From in 2023
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is a prominent choice for a Kubernetes alternative. It is provided and managed by Google Cloud, which offers fully managed Kubernetes services.
Source: humalect.com
Docker Swarm vs Kubernetes: how to choose a container orchestration tool
In this article, we explored the two primary orchestrators of the container world, Kubernetes and Docker Swarm. Docker Swarm is a lightweight, easy-to-use orchestration tool with limited offerings compared to Kubernetes. In contrast, Kubernetes is complex but powerful and provides self-healing, auto-scaling capabilities out of the box. K3s, a lightweight form of Kubernetes...
Source: circleci.com
Docker Alternatives
An open-source code, Rancher is another one among the list of Docker alternatives that is built to provide organizations with everything they need. This software combines the environments required to adopt and run containers in production. A rancher is built on Kubernetes. This tool helps the DevOps team by making it easier to testing, deploying and managing the...
Source: www.educba.com

Google Anthos Reviews

We have no reviews of Google Anthos yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Kubernetes seems to be a lot more popular than Google Anthos. While we know about 359 links to Kubernetes, we've tracked only 8 mentions of Google Anthos. 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.

Kubernetes mentions (359)

  • Is Go Worth Learning in 2025?
    Cloud-Native Friendly: Lightweight and fast, Go apps fit perfectly into containerized environments like Docker and Kubernetes. - Source: dev.to / 15 days ago
  • India Open Source Development: Harnessing Collaborative Innovation for Global Impact
    Over the years, Indian developers have played increasingly vital roles in many international projects. From contributions to frameworks such as Kubernetes and Apache Hadoop to the emergence of homegrown platforms like OpenStack India, India has steadily carved out a global reputation as a powerhouse of open source talent. - Source: dev.to / 25 days ago
  • A Guide to Setting up Service Discovery for APIs
    Kubernetes isn't just for container orchestration—it packs a powerful built-in service discovery system that's changing how developers think about service connectivity. It uses DNS under the hood, along with environment variables, to help services find each other. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Kubernetes 1.33: A Deep Dive into the Exciting New Features of Octarine
    For a comprehensive overview, explore the Kubernetes 1.33 release notes and GitHub changelog. Engage with the community at events like KubeCon or join the Kubernetes Slack to collaborate on the future of cloud-native computing. With Octarine, Kubernetes continues to shine as the backbone of modern infrastructure. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • A Detailed Comparison between Kubernetes Operators and Controllers
    Imagine trying to keep a fleet of ships sailing smoothly across the ocean. You need to ensure each ship has enough crew, fuel, and cargo, and that they're all heading in the right direction. This is a complex task, requiring constant monitoring and adjustments. In the world of Kubernetes, Controllers and Operators play a similar role, ensuring your applications run smoothly and efficiently. This blog post delves... - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
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Google Anthos mentions (8)

  • HarperDB with Anthos on GKE
    Anthos is a service from Google cloud using which we can deploy and manage workloads using various options such as cloud run, GKE, self managed clusters, hybrid cloud clusters, edge based workloads and so on. In this post, we would focus on the autopilot GKE based cluster and deploy HarperDB on it with a Helm chart. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Setting up GCP in an organisation - Things I should be mindful of as a 1st time user?
    It might be worth your time to evaluate it as well: https://cloud.google.com/anthos. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Kubernetes from Scratch in 2022
    Google Kubernetes Engine provides a similar experience in the context of Google Cloud Computing. It’s a completely managed Kubernetes platform, with emphasize on auto scaling, security features such as container scanning, and a marketplace for prebuild Kubernetes applications. An additional addon is Google Athos, a management environment that allows GKS applications to run in non-Google environments, including... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Sudden disturbing moves for IT in very large companies, mandated by CEOs. Is something happening? What would cause this?
    Google's Anthos will run on GCP, AWS, Azure, or your own equipment. Doesn't seem that expensive, actually. Source: over 2 years ago
  • The Cost of Managed Kubernetes - A Comparison
    When using GKE, you pay an administration fee of $0.10 per hour per cluster, and otherwise, you only pay for the underlying resources. However, this administration fee can be waived by running GKE on-prem, with the help of Anthos. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Kubernetes and Google Anthos, you can also consider the following products

Rancher - Open Source Platform for Running a Private Container Service

AWS Outposts - Application and Data, Build, Test, Deploy, and AWS Tools

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

Hex.pm - Hex.

Helm.sh - The Kubernetes Package Manager

i-doit - i-doit is a web based Open Source IT documentation and CMDB (Configuration Management Database).