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Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) vs. DigitalOcean Kubernetes

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

    Score7.9 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft'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

    DigitalOcean Kubernetes

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ADigitalOcean's Managed Kubernetes is designed for simple and cost effective container orchestration.N/A
    Pricing
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)DigitalOcean Kubernetes
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)DigitalOcean Kubernetes
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)DigitalOcean Kubernetes
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    DigitalOcean
    Chose DigitalOcean Kubernetes
    DigitalOcean is the most affordable and straightforward of the hosted Kubernetes options we evaluated. All features that we require are supported without an excess of complication of extraneous features. Straightforward billing is also very important for us in comparison to the …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    80%
    Implementation went as expected
    4 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)DigitalOcean Kubernetes
    Container Management
    Comparison of Container Management features of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and DigitalOcean Kubernetes
    Feature
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
    5.6
    1 Ratings
    32% below category average
    DigitalOcean Kubernetes
    -
    Ratings
    Security and Isolation8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Container Orchestration8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cluster Management2.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Storage Management3.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Resource Allocation and Optimization9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Discovery Tools4.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Update Rollouts and Rollbacks1.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Self-Healing and Recovery7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Analytics, Monitoring, and Logging8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)DigitalOcean Kubernetes
    Small Businesses
    Mirantis Kubernetes Engine
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Mirantis Kubernetes Engine
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS)
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS)
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service
    Score7.4 out of 10
    IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service
    Score7.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)DigitalOcean Kubernetes
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.0
    (6 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)DigitalOcean Kubernetes
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    At one instance, there was a fire in our data center and the backup power had some issues because of which the whole DC went down. I believe with AKS and the replication it's easier to handle such a situation. Also, the scenario would have been pretty transparent to the end-users.
    Incentivized
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    DigitalOcean
    DO Kubernetes is well-suited for: - deploying APIs - deploying workers - log collection and analysis (ie ELK stack) - deploying Helm charts and anything that can be mapped on to K8s concepts Less appropriate for anything requiring no public Internet access (ie VPC only). Less appropriate for anything requiring integration with the DO app platform via VPC, at the moment.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Microsoft
    • Scales quickly when the user base increases randomly
    • Downgrades very fast if a bunch of users hop off the system
    • Great dev UX for IT
    Incentivized
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    DigitalOcean
    • Hosted dashboard
    • Hosted container registry
    • Horizontal auto-scaling
    • LetsEncrypt SSL termination
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    DigitalOcean
    • Option for internal VPC-only deployment
    • Better integration with cloud firewall
    • Better integration with DO App platform via VPC
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Microsoft
    Barring certain missing features such as operator management , open cluster management, it does gives lot of options to host containerized applications. The GUI may be improved and can give user more insights to the cluster rather than using command line tools. The integration with standard azure monitoring tools is a big plus to use Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
    Incentivized
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    DigitalOcean
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Microsoft
    Microsoft support was really good, whenever we raise any ticket they come back to us within a couple of hours.
    Incentivized
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    DigitalOcean
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Microsoft
    Due to cost efficiency. And using AZURE cloud for other services as well. Azure Kubernetes Service is more suitable to configure CI/CD pipelines. With a facility of automated or One click deployment and integration of the application. As compared with other Kubernetes Services like Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service and Google Kubernetes Service, Azure Kubernetes is most cost-efficient with the same facilities and with an advantage to configure easily, manage easily, as it is one click manageable with Microsoft applications. It provides high Microsoft security to containers and secures applications from any kind of harm.
    Incentivized
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    DigitalOcean
    DigitalOcean is the most affordable and straightforward of the hosted Kubernetes options we evaluated. All features that we require are supported without an excess of complication of extraneous features. Straightforward billing is also very important for us in comparison to the Big Three cloud hosts, which have very complicated billing practices. DigitalOcean also provides a platform with very little vendor lock-in.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Microsoft
    • Positive impact in moving applications to cloud from the in-hose data center to save cost
    • Sometimes got affected with some bugs on the AKS infrastructure but hasn't caused a big kios as our production footprint in AKS is not yet high
    Incentivized
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    DigitalOcean
    • Excellent uptime
    • Low cost for provided value
    • Good integration with the rest of the DO platform to provide additional value
    Incentivized
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