When running containers on AWS, you typically choose between ECS (Elastic Container Service) and EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service). Both are powerful, but built for different types of teams and use cases.
Let’s break it down! 👇
🚀 What Are They?
ECS (Elastic Container Service)
A fully managed container orchestration service built by AWS.
It’s simple, fast, and deeply integrated into AWS.
EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service)
A managed Kubernetes service on AWS.
Gives you the full power of Kubernetes without managing the control plane yourself.
🔍 Key Differences
| Feature | Amazon ECS | Amazon EKS |
|---|---|---|
| Orchestrator | AWS proprietary | Kubernetes |
| Learning Curve | Easy | Steeper (Kubernetes knowledge needed) |
| Flexibility | AWS-focused | Multi-cloud, open-source ecosystem |
| Setup Time | Faster | More complex setup |
| Community & Portability | Limited to AWS | Huge open-source community |
| Custom Controllers/CRDs | ❌ Not supported | ✅ Fully supported |
| Pricing | No control plane cost | \$0.10/hr per control plane (plus compute) |
| Fargate Support | ✅ Native | ✅ Supported |
| IAM Integration | Native and seamless | More complex (via IRSA, etc.) |
🧠 When to Use What?
Choose ECS if:
- You want simplicity and tight AWS integration
- Your team is new to containers
- You're all-in on AWS and don’t need portability
Choose EKS if:
- You want Kubernetes features (CRDs, Helm, Ingress, etc.)
- You’re using multi-cloud or already use Kubernetes
- You need more customization and control
🏁 Final Thoughts
Both ECS and EKS are powerful choices.
- Use ECS for simplicity and speed.
- Use EKS for flexibility and Kubernetes-native tooling.
🚨 Pro tip: You can use AWS Copilot with ECS or eksctl with EKS to simplify setup!
💬 Have you used both? Drop your experience below!
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