Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Google Kubernetes Engine pros and cons

Vendor: Google

4.0 out of 5

37 reviews
94% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

Google Kubernetes Engine simplifies deployment and automates processes, enhancing productivity by reducing manual tasks. It integrates with Google Cloud services like BigQuery and VertexAI, offering scalability and load balancing for growing demands. Despite its managed nature and ease of use, there are concerns about security features, documentation clarity, and cost-effectiveness. Stability issues may occur in complex deployments, and monitoring capabilities are insufficient, needing significant improvement.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Google Kubernetes Engine simplifies deployment with its ease of use and automation capabilities, reducing manual configuration and enhancing scalability and viability.

The managed nature of Google Kubernetes Engine significantly reduces management burden, enabling users to focus on application deployment while benefiting from seamless integration with other Google services.

Google Kubernetes Engine offers robust stability and reliability, minimizing downtime and providing a perfect experience in terms of service continuity.

The scalability and load balancing features of Google Kubernetes Engine allow for automatic scaling, ensuring efficient handling of increasing demands as the number of users grows.

Google Kubernetes Engine's security features and integration with DevOps tools enable a comprehensive and effective platform for automation and infrastructure management.

CONS

Security features for evaluating data in containers could be enhanced to create a more secure environment for multi-parent models.

The network configuration requires simplification.

Documentation should be clearer and more up-to-date to aid understanding and implementation.

Integration with third-party vendors needs improvement to enhance compatibility.

Pricing should be more competitive to offer better value.

Google Kubernetes Engine Pros review quotes

CTO at Translucent Computing Inc

Feb 26, 2021

The deployment of the cluster is very easy.

Read full review

CTO at Translucent Computing Inc

Jan 28, 2023

The main advantage of GKE is that it is a managed service. This means that Google is responsible for managing the master node in the Kubernetes cluster system. As a result, we can focus on deploying applications to the slaves, while Google handles any updates and security patches. The fact that GKE is fully integrated into the Google ecosystem, including solutions such as BigQuery and VertexAI. This makes it easier for us to integrate these tools into our process. This integration ultimately speeds up our time to market and reduces the time and effort spent on managing infrastructure. The managed aspect of GKE allows us to simply deploy and utilize it without having to worry about the technicalities of infrastructure management.

Read full review

RM

Cloud Engineer at Freelancer

Oct 9, 2023

The initial setup is very easy. We can create our cluster using the command line, or using our console.

Read full review

Google Kubernetes Engine

Free Report: Google Kubernetes Engine Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Google Kubernetes Engine. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.

842,194 professionals have used our research since 2012.

reviewer2313954

Principal Enterprise Architect at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

Nov 23, 2023

On the tip of a command, you can scale in or scale out, and it offers every robust platform to implement DevOps processes for your automation solutions. The product fully supports the IaC concept.

Read full review

Consultant at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Jul 18, 2023

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) takes care of managing Kubernetes, including the main control plane. It also offers solutions for monitoring resources and handling external traffic, which is essential for us. Being a cloud-native solution, it relieves us from worrying about these operational aspects.

Read full review

VB

Vyacheslav Balvinskiy

Head of Infra and Applications support department at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

May 22, 2019

Before using this solution, it was a lot of manual tasks and a lot of people participated in the process.

Read full review

Cloud architect at Vodafone

Mar 1, 2024

Stability is perfect for me.

Read full review

Yossi Shmulevitch

Owner at SoftContact

Jun 19, 2023

We used automation for the initial setup. It was okay. So it wasn't too complex.

Read full review

reviewer2561130

DevOps Engineer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

Sep 26, 2024

The most beneficial feature is the ability to separate each project and manage permissions more effectively.

Read full review

GD

Girish Kumar Dandamudi

Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Aug 15, 2022

The feature that I like the most is the ease of use as compared to AWS. Its ease of use is very high, and I can quickly deploy clusters with a simple template.

Read full review

Show 10 more reviews (out of 36)

Google Kubernetes Engine Cons review quotes

CTO at Translucent Computing Inc

Feb 26, 2021

Our critique is that we have to do too much work to get the cluster production-ready.

Read full review

CTO at Translucent Computing Inc

Jan 28, 2023

While the GKE cluster is secure, application-level security is an essential aspect that needs to be addressed. The security provided by GKE includes the security of communication between nodes within the cluster and the basic features of Kubernetes security. However, these features may not be sufficient for the security needs of an enterprise. Additional security measures must be added to ensure adequate protection. It has become a common practice to deploy security tools within a Kubernetes cluster. It would be ideal if these tools were included as part of the package, as this is a standard requirement in the industry. Thus, application-level security should be integrated into GKE for improved security measures.

Read full review

RM

Cloud Engineer at Freelancer

Oct 9, 2023

I would like to see the ability to create multiple notebook configurations.

Read full review

Google Kubernetes Engine

Free Report: Google Kubernetes Engine Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Google Kubernetes Engine. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.

842,194 professionals have used our research since 2012.

reviewer2313954

Principal Enterprise Architect at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

Nov 23, 2023

The product's stability is an area of concern where improvements are required.

Read full review

Consultant at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Jul 18, 2023

There is room for improvement in the cluster updates process. Specifically, when managing both non-production and production clusters, we need a sequential functionality.

Read full review

VB

Vyacheslav Balvinskiy

Head of Infra and Applications support department at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

May 22, 2019

I think that security is an important point, and there should be additional features for the evaluation of data in containers that will create a more secure environment for usage in multi-parent models.

Read full review

Cloud architect at Vodafone

Mar 1, 2024

The pricing could be more competitive. It should be cheaper.

Read full review

Yossi Shmulevitch

Owner at SoftContact

Jun 19, 2023

One of the things I missed a bit is the visibility and availability of solutions. If I compare it to a different solution, it is a bit behind.

Read full review

reviewer2561130

DevOps Engineer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

Sep 26, 2024

The primary area for improvement would be the complexity involved when working with Google Kubernetes Engine, especially when using Terraform.

Read full review

GD

Girish Kumar Dandamudi

Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Aug 15, 2022

Their documentation is a little here and there. Sometimes, the information is not clear or updated. Their documentation should be a little bit better.

Read full review

Show 10 more reviews (out of 36)

Product Categories

Product Categories

Container Management

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons

VMware Tanzu Platform vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Rancher Labs vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Kubernetes vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Docker vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Amazon Elastic Container Service vs Google Kubernetes Engine

HPE Ezmeral Container Platform vs Google Kubernetes Engine

See all alternatives

Product Categories

Product Categories

Container Management

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons

VMware Tanzu Platform vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Rancher Labs vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Kubernetes vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Docker vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Amazon Elastic Container Service vs Google Kubernetes Engine

HPE Ezmeral Container Platform vs Google Kubernetes Engine

See all alternatives

Related questions

2

When evaluating Container Management, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?

3

Why is Container Management important for companies?