AWS
AWS ECS vs EKS in 2024: A Comprehensive Comparison
An in-depth comparison of Amazon ECS and EKS, helping you choose the right container orchestration service for your needs in 2024
March 15, 2024
DevHub Team
6 min read
AWS ECS vs EKS in 2024: A Comprehensive Comparison
Choosing between Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) and Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) is a crucial decision for containerized applications. This guide compares both services to help you make an informed choice in 2024.
Service Overview
graph TB
subgraph ECS["Amazon ECS"]
direction TB
EC["ECS Cluster"]
TD["Task Definition"]
SV["Service"]
CT["Container"]
end
subgraph EKS["Amazon EKS"]
direction TB
KC["Kubernetes Cluster"]
PD["Pod"]
DP["Deployment"]
CN["Container"]
end
classDef aws fill:#FF9900,stroke:#232F3E,color:#232F3E
class ECS,EKS aws
Feature Comparison
Feature | ECS | EKS |
---|---|---|
Orchestration | AWS-specific | Kubernetes |
Learning Curve | Lower | Higher |
Control | AWS-managed | Full K8s control |
Pricing | Lower | Higher |
Portability | AWS-specific | Cloud-agnostic |
Community | AWS-focused | Large K8s community |
Integration | Native AWS | Requires setup |
Scaling | Simple | Advanced |
Architecture Patterns
ECS Architecture
# ECS Task Definition Example { "family": "web-app", "containerDefinitions": [ { "name": "web", "image": "nginx:latest", "memory": 256, "cpu": 256, "portMappings": [ { "containerPort": 80, "hostPort": 80, "protocol": "tcp" } ] } ], "requiresCompatibilities": ["FARGATE"], "networkMode": "awsvpc", "memory": "512", "cpu": "256" }
EKS Architecture
# Kubernetes Deployment Example apiVersion: apps/v1 kind: Deployment metadata: name: web-app spec: replicas: 3 selector: matchLabels: app: web template: metadata: labels: app: web spec: containers: - name: web image: nginx:latest resources: requests: memory: "256Mi" cpu: "250m" limits: memory: "512Mi" cpu: "500m" ports: - containerPort: 80
Deployment Comparison
ECS Deployment
// AWS CDK Example for ECS import * as ecs from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-ecs'; import * as ec2 from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-ec2'; const cluster = new ecs.Cluster(this, 'Cluster', { vpc: new ec2.Vpc(this, 'Vpc') }); const taskDefinition = new ecs.FargateTaskDefinition(this, 'TaskDef'); taskDefinition.addContainer('web', { image: ecs.ContainerImage.fromRegistry('nginx:latest'), memoryLimitMiB: 512, cpu: 256, portMappings: [{ containerPort: 80 }] });
EKS Deployment
// AWS CDK Example for EKS import * as eks from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-eks'; import * as ec2 from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-ec2'; const cluster = new eks.Cluster(this, 'Cluster', { version: eks.KubernetesVersion.V1_27, defaultCapacity: 2, defaultCapacityInstance: ec2.InstanceType.of( ec2.InstanceClass.T3, ec2.InstanceSize.MEDIUM ) }); cluster.addManifest('web-app', { apiVersion: 'apps/v1', kind: 'Deployment', metadata: { name: 'web-app' }, spec: { replicas: 3, selector: { matchLabels: { app: 'web' } }, template: { metadata: { labels: { app: 'web' } }, spec: { containers: [{ name: 'web', image: 'nginx:latest' }] } } } });
Service Integration
ECS AWS Integration
# ECS Service with Application Load Balancer Resources: Service: Type: AWS::ECS::Service Properties: Cluster: !Ref Cluster TaskDefinition: !Ref TaskDefinition DesiredCount: 2 LaunchType: FARGATE LoadBalancers: - ContainerName: web ContainerPort: 80 TargetGroupArn: !Ref TargetGroup
EKS AWS Integration
# EKS with AWS Load Balancer Controller apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1 kind: Ingress metadata: name: web-ingress annotations: kubernetes.io/ingress.class: alb alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/scheme: internet-facing spec: rules: - http: paths: - path: / pathType: Prefix backend: service: name: web-service port: number: 80
Scaling Strategies
ECS Auto Scaling
{ "Type": "AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy", "Properties": { "PolicyName": "CPUScaling", "PolicyType": "TargetTrackingScaling", "ScalingTargetId": { "Ref": "ScalingTarget" }, "TargetTrackingScalingPolicyConfiguration": { "TargetValue": 70.0, "PredefinedMetricSpecification": { "PredefinedMetricType": "ECSServiceAverageCPUUtilization" } } } }
EKS Auto Scaling
apiVersion: autoscaling/v2 kind: HorizontalPodAutoscaler metadata: name: web-hpa spec: scaleTargetRef: apiVersion: apps/v1 kind: Deployment name: web-app minReplicas: 2 maxReplicas: 10 metrics: - type: Resource resource: name: cpu target: type: Utilization averageUtilization: 70
Cost Analysis (2024)
ECS Pricing Model
-
Fargate Pricing
- vCPU per hour: $0.04048
- Memory per GB-hour: $0.004445
- No cluster management fee
-
EC2 Launch Type
- Only pay for EC2 instances
- Additional EBS volumes
- No additional orchestration costs
EKS Pricing Model
-
Cluster Costs
- $0.10 per hour per cluster
- Control plane management fee
-
Node Costs
- EC2 instance costs
- EBS volumes
- Additional services (Load Balancer, etc.)
Security Comparison
ECS Security Features
{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": [ "ecs:CreateCluster", "ecs:DeregisterContainerInstance", "ecs:DiscoverPollEndpoint", "ecs:Poll", "ecs:RegisterContainerInstance", "ecs:StartTelemetrySession", "ecs:Submit*", "ecr:GetAuthorizationToken", "ecr:BatchCheckLayerAvailability", "ecr:GetDownloadUrlForLayer", "ecr:BatchGetImage" ], "Resource": "*" } ] }
EKS Security Features
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: Role metadata: namespace: default name: pod-reader rules: - apiGroups: [""] resources: ["pods"] verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"] --- apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: RoleBinding metadata: name: read-pods namespace: default subjects: - kind: User name: jane apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io roleRef: kind: Role name: pod-reader apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
Monitoring and Observability
ECS Monitoring
import boto3 import datetime cloudwatch = boto3.client('cloudwatch') def get_ecs_metrics(): response = cloudwatch.get_metric_statistics( Namespace='AWS/ECS', MetricName='CPUUtilization', Dimensions=[ {'Name': 'ClusterName', 'Value': 'production'}, {'Name': 'ServiceName', 'Value': 'web-app'} ], StartTime=datetime.datetime.utcnow() - datetime.timedelta(hours=1), EndTime=datetime.datetime.utcnow(), Period=300, Statistics=['Average'] ) return response
EKS Monitoring
apiVersion: monitoring.coreos.com/v1 kind: ServiceMonitor metadata: name: web-monitor spec: selector: matchLabels: app: web endpoints: - port: web interval: 15s
Decision Matrix
Requirement | ECS | EKS |
---|---|---|
Simple Workloads | ✅ | ⚠️ |
Complex Orchestration | ⚠️ | ✅ |
AWS-Native Integration | ✅ | ⚠️ |
Multi-Cloud Strategy | ⚠️ | ✅ |
Cost-Effectiveness | ✅ | ⚠️ |
Learning Curve | ✅ | ⚠️ |
Community Support | ⚠️ | ✅ |
Enterprise Features | ⚠️ | ✅ |
Best Practices
ECS Best Practices
-
Task Definition Design
- Use task definition versioning
- Implement proper logging
- Set appropriate resource limits
- Use secrets management
-
Service Configuration
- Enable service auto scaling
- Use appropriate deployment strategies
- Implement health checks
- Configure service discovery
EKS Best Practices
-
Cluster Management
- Use managed node groups
- Implement proper RBAC
- Enable cluster autoscaler
- Use pod security policies
-
Application Deployment
- Use Helm charts
- Implement pod disruption budgets
- Configure resource requests/limits
- Use network policies
Migration Considerations
Migrating to ECS
# Example migration script #!/bin/bash # Pull existing images docker pull old-registry/app:latest # Tag for ECR docker tag old-registry/app:latest ${AWS_ACCOUNT_ID}.dkr.ecr.${REGION}.amazonaws.com/app:latest # Push to ECR aws ecr get-login-password --region ${REGION} | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin ${AWS_ACCOUNT_ID}.dkr.ecr.${REGION}.amazonaws.com docker push ${AWS_ACCOUNT_ID}.dkr.ecr.${REGION}.amazonaws.com/app:latest # Update ECS service aws ecs update-service --cluster production --service web-app --force-new-deployment
Migrating to EKS
# Example migration script #!/bin/bash # Install required tools curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl" sudo install -o root -g root -m 0755 kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl # Update kubeconfig aws eks update-kubeconfig --name my-cluster --region ${REGION} # Apply manifests kubectl apply -f k8s/
Conclusion
Choose ECS if you:
- Need simple container orchestration
- Want deep AWS integration
- Have budget constraints
- Prefer managed services
Choose EKS if you:
- Need Kubernetes features
- Want cloud portability
- Have complex orchestration needs
- Need extensive community support
References
- AWS ECS Documentation
- AWS EKS Documentation
- ECS vs EKS Pricing
- Container Services Blog
- ECS Best Practices
- EKS Best Practices
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ECS
EKS
Containers
Kubernetes
Docker