Azure Container Service vs Google Kubernetes Engine: What are the differences?

Developers describe Azure Container Service as "Deploy and manage containers using the tools you choose". Azure Container Service optimizes the configuration of popular open source tools and technologies specifically for Azure. You get an open solution that offers portability for both your containers and your application configuration. You select the size, the number of hosts, and choice of orchestrator tools, and Container Service handles everything else. On the other hand, Google Kubernetes Engine is detailed as "Deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications on Kubernetes, powered by Google Cloud". Container Engine takes care of provisioning and maintaining the underlying virtual machine cluster, scaling your application, and operational logistics like logging, monitoring, and health management.

Azure Container Service and Google Kubernetes Engine belong to "Containers as a Service" category of the tech stack.

Some of the features offered by Azure Container Service are:

• Create a container hosting solution optimized for Azure
• Scale and orchestrate applications using Apache Mesos or Docker Swarm
• Use popular open source, client-side tooling

On the other hand, Google Kubernetes Engine provides the following key features:

• Docker support - Improve the predictability of your deployments with Docker containers. Containers make it easy to deploy applications across environments.
• Better ops - Give ops a better system, starting with a managed compute cluster. Container Engine takes care of provisioning and maintaining the underlying virtual machines and operational logistics like logging, monitoring, and health management.
• Declarative management - Use declarative syntax to define your application requirements. Container Engine will actively manage your application, ensuring your containers are running and scheduling additional as needed.

"Easy to setup, very agnostic" is the top reason why over 3 developers like Azure Container Service, while over 15 developers mention "Powered by kubernetes" as the leading cause for choosing Google Kubernetes Engine.

According to the StackShare community, Google Kubernetes Engine has a broader approval, being mentioned in 184 company stacks & 50 developers stacks; compared to Azure Container Service, which is listed in 8 company stacks and 7 developer stacks.