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Amazon EKS vs Docker comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 13, 2024

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

Amazon EKS
Ranking in Container Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
48
Ranking in other categories
Container Security (13th)
Docker
Ranking in Container Management
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
Development Platforms (1st), Software Supply Chain Security (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Container Management category, the mindshare of Amazon EKS is 13.8%, up from 13.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Docker is 2.9%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Container Management
 

Featured Reviews

Rock Wang - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing complex environments effortlessly while focusing on growth
The most beneficial aspect of Amazon EKS is that it helps manage the Kubernetes master node, so I don't need to maintain the master node, including tasks like upgrading. This allows me to focus on business code. If using services like Fargate, I only need to maintain my workload, simply uploading code that will be deployed to the Kubernetes cluster. This is especially beneficial for startup companies that lack the technical resources to manage the Kubernetes cluster. Furthermore, Amazon EKS allows me to utilize Kubernetes cluster-level expansion. If there’s insufficient resource on a machine, the cluster can automatically expand to add new nodes.
Rikin Parekh - PeerSpot reviewer
Useful to create sandbox environments to run applications and makes it easy to test them
Overall, setting up the Docker environment is quite easy. Many methods exist, such as using Docker Compose and Docker networks to communicate between containers. The main challenge lies in designing the architecture and integrating different frameworks and microservices. I would rate the ease of setting up the tool at around nine out of ten. The time it takes to deploy depends on the scale of the system. For the early-stage startup I'm currently working with, it doesn't take much time. It's just me handling the deployment. In our early-stage startup, we have a couple of teams with around four to five backend APIs and two front-end services. Deploying these doesn't take much time. My focus is more on minimizing costs due to our lean startup structure.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product's most valuable features are scalability, observability, and performance."
"The stability of the solution is good."
"Through Amazon EKS, we can have the blue-green deployment very easily."
"It's the best option for medium or large enterprises."
"It's a faster solution to adopt on native applications."
"The solution's performance is good."
"Provides high performance and easy manageability."
"The product helps us to configure the new environment."
"Feature-wise, Docker is very user-friendly...The solution's initial setup process was straightforward."
"The ability to use an image with the software built into it, rather than just the software, is beneficial."
"The most valuable feature of Docker is the dedicated QA environment for connecting the team members. Additionally, there are many core features available and it is highly secure when we are imaging a client's server."
"The capability of the solution to convert an application into a Docker image is a vital functionality"
"Docker creates lightweight applications that are easy to manage and scale."
"The solution is stable."
"When used in conjunction with Kubernetes, it is seamless because it integrates very well."
"Docker's containerization property is its main selling point."
 

Cons

"I'd like improved traffic handling and additional application details within the system."
"I would like to see it a little more stable, more operational, and more convenient to develop."
"Amazon EKS is very scalable, but scaling can sometimes cause trouble. When Amazon EKS scales up or down, there might be occasional intermediate pod interruptions, though it's rare."
"It's difficult to connect to some of the clusters."
"I'm having difficulty getting my AWS clusters to communicate with my local machine."
"Setup depends on what kind of architecture you have"
"Amazon EKS needs to improve customer operations and technical support."
"I would like to see a warm-up time for AWS Fargate, similar to what GCP Cloud Run has."
"The solution is not easy to manage and it is one of the reasons why people introduce orchestration tools to manage it."
"They should provide proper documentation to understand the solution's cgroup process."
"Docker needs to improve its pricing."
"The solution needs to be more scalable for local machines."
"There may not be much room for improvement with Docker as it has greatly evolved. However, one area that could be improved upon is the documentation on their website which was once easy to follow but has become quite terrible with numerous versions being released. As an example, the installation process for Docker now requires more than just a one-line command, causing inconvenience. Additionally, based on my experience as a college instructor, teaching students to install Docker was a difficult task due to the lack of straightforward and easy-to-follow documentation. Docker should focus on improving their documentation to make it more user-friendly for all."
"I have encountered network issues while connecting with microservices. I want to optimize the application layers over the bucket. It should also have better documentation."
"Docker management is very difficult when we have a large number of nodes."
"I would like to see a more UI-based tool so that students can easily understand it rather than memorizing all of the Docker commands."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Amazon EKS is quite pricey, but the functionality it provides is worth it."
"The product is available at such a huge scale in the market since the resources that are offered under the tool are competitively priced and available at a much cheaper rate compared to other solutions."
"The tool's pricing is good."
"The price can be a problem for small-sized businesses."
"I rate Amazon EKS’s pricing a nine out of ten."
"My company paid for the license."
"Amazon EKS is very cost-effective."
"The price could be cheaper. I would rate it as seven out of ten."
"Its convenience edition is free of cost."
"The solution offers an open-source version that is free and includes a lot of functionality."
"Docker is a free-to-use solution. However, Docker Enterprise is not free."
"The product is not expensive."
"The solution is an open-source technology and not a commercial product. However, you will have to pay sometimes. The tool's pricing depends on the vendor."
"Customers pay for the license through a yearly subscription model, where they pay per license. This means that the license is based on a subscription, and the customer pays annually for each license they use."
"Docker's price is good."
"Docker is a free open-source solution. However, there is the Docker Enterprise which is a paid solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Insurance Company
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Insurance Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon EKS?
The product's most valuable features are scalability, observability, and performance.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EKS?
The pricing structure is beneficial for large companies who pay for what they use, but it is not affordable for startups. Offering a free version could help small companies.
What needs improvement with Amazon EKS?
There is room for improvement in making Amazon EKS ( /products/amazon-eks-reviews ) less error-prone when writing on the YAML file. A UI could help generate config files, simplifying the process fo...
What do you like most about Docker?
We are using Docker to host applications.
What needs improvement with Docker?
In terms of communication between services, perhaps the configuration within networks between containers could be improved.
 

Also Known As

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

GoDaddy, Pearson, FICO, Intuit, Verizon, Honeywell, Logicworks, RetailMeNot, LogMeIn, Conde Nast, mercari, Trainline, Axway
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon EKS vs. Docker and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
847,862 professionals have used our research since 2012.