Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) vs. Docker

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft's Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is designed to make deploying and managing containerized applications easy. It offers serverless Kubernetes, an integrated continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) experience, and enterprise-grade security and governance. It allows development and operations teams on a single platform to rapidly build, deliver, and scale applications with confidence.N/A
Docker
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Docker Enterprise was sold to Mirantis in 2019; that product is now sold as Mirantis Kubernetes Engine. But Docker now offers a 2-product suite that includes Docker Desktop, which they present as a fast way to containerize applications on a desktop; and, Docker Hub, a service for finding and sharing container images with a team and the Docker community, a repository of container images with an array of…
$5
per month
Pricing
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)Docker
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Free
$0
unlimited public repositories
Pro
$5.00
per month per user
Team
$7.00
per month per user
Business
$21
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)Docker
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)Docker
Features
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)Docker
Container Management
Comparison of Container Management features of Product A and Product B
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
7.6
5 Ratings
7% below category average
Docker
-
Ratings
Security and Isolation8.65 Ratings00 Ratings
Container Orchestration8.05 Ratings00 Ratings
Cluster Management7.45 Ratings00 Ratings
Storage Management7.45 Ratings00 Ratings
Resource Allocation and Optimization8.05 Ratings00 Ratings
Discovery Tools6.95 Ratings00 Ratings
Update Rollouts and Rollbacks6.45 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-Healing and Recovery8.05 Ratings00 Ratings
Analytics, Monitoring, and Logging7.65 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)Docker
Small Businesses
Portainer
Portainer
Score 9.0 out of 10
Git
Git
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat OpenShift
Score 9.2 out of 10
Git
Git
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat OpenShift
Score 9.2 out of 10
Git
Git
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)Docker
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(6 ratings)
10.0
(14 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Usability
7.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)Docker
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
AKS works very well for running containerized applications that require high availability and scalability. This includes systems like our HRIS platform and customer-facing web applications. AKS is a good choice when applications are broken into multiple services that need independent scaling and deployment. It provides the flexibility needed to manage these architectures effectively. But for single, low-traffic applications or simple internal tools, AKS can be overkill. For scenarios like that Azure App Service would be better.
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Docker
You are going to be able to find the most resources and examples using Docker whenever you are working with a container orchestration software like Kubernetes. There will always some entropy when you run in a container, a containerized application will never be as purely performant as an app running directly on the OS. However, in most scenarios this loss will be negligible to the time saved in deployment, monitoring, etc.
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Pros
Microsoft
  • AKS makes it easier to replicate data to multiple regions
  • Azure portal make it easier to manage the resources of the organization
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Docker
  • Packaging of application to limit the space occupied
  • Ease of running the application
  • Provide multiple ways to handle the application issues and integration of different components like pipeline, ansible, terraform etc
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Cons
Microsoft
  • Steep learning curve
  • Expected charges are unclear until you see real production usage
  • Operations teams need to learn an entirely new skill set
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Docker
  • Docker hub image retention policy can be relaxed
  • Docker hub policies can be more developer friendly
  • Docker CLI help section can be improved
  • Image and container storage (local) management can be optimized
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Usability
Microsoft
As already said, the UI/CLI and even terraform are perfectly fine, but certain details could be documented better. For instance, if I want to secure the whole Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) with my own managed keys, then it is very complex and hard to get there. Not really a single source that gives you the whole picture. Besides that, it is still good to use, in most cases intuitive but details mentioned as above can be tricky.
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Docker
I have been using Docker for more than 3 years and it really simplifies the modern application development and deployment. I like the ability of Docker to improve efficiency, portability and scalability for developers and operations teams. Another reason for giving this rating is because Docker integrates CI/CD pipelines very well
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Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Docker
Haven't seen any outages, fatal/unrecoverable errors in my usage so far. Enough said.
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Performance
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Docker
Docker Desktop. The CPU high usage is a known issue. Needs fixing. Otherwise, it is great overall. Would not use anything else still.
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Support Rating
Microsoft
Microsoft support was really good, whenever we raise any ticket they come back to us within a couple of hours.
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Docker
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
Amazon EKS stacked up very well and had better performance in some areas. However, Azure Kubernetes Service was a better fit given our Azure environment.
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Docker
The reason why we are still using Docker right now is due to that is the best among its peers and suits our needs the best. However, the trend we foresee for the future might indicate Amazon lambda could potentially fit our needs to code enviornmentless in the near future.
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Scalability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Docker
It is the only tool in our toolset that has not [had] any issues so far. That is really a mark of reliability, and it's a testimony to how well the product is made, and a tool that does its job well is a tool well worth having. It is the base tool that I would say any organisation must have if they do scalable deployment.
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Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • We had to spend more time on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) than on AWS and GCP to get our kubernetes cluster up and running
  • The resources on nodes need to be left out unused, so effectively it is wasting money there
  • It definitely made us spend more time into maintaining kubernetes
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Docker
  • Reduces the number of virtual machine which impacted our quarterly billing
  • Using docker with proxy we run multiple application on same port on same host.
  • impact on billing is we have to provide docker training to the people who are working on it.
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