Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Google Container Engine vs Rancher Labs comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Google Container Engine
Ranking in Container Management
17th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Containers as a Service (CaaS) (4th)
Rancher Labs
Ranking in Container Management
12th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Data Storage for Kubernetes (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Container Management category, the mindshare of Google Container Engine is 0.6%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rancher Labs is 5.3%, down from 9.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Container Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Rancher Labs5.3%
Google Container Engine0.6%
Other94.1%
Container Management
 

Featured Reviews

Hoang Do - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at The Digital Group Inc
Has autoscaling features that helps to save costs
We use the solution to deploy microservices.  The tool is very powerful, scalable, and easy to manage. Its autoscaling features helped us save costs.  Google Container Engine needs to be able to manage network products.  I have been using the product for two years.  I rate the product's…
RyanVassallo - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Systems and Infrastructure at Booming Games
Offers an open-source version along with a good UI
The product has multiple good features. One of the solution's good features is that it is the GitOps functionality known as Rancher fleet, which is used for continuous delivery. The tool's UI is very convenient enough to help you manage multiple clusters in the cloud or on-premises, making it a product with which you can manage different clusters and locations. The tool also has a feature that is still kind of maturing, but I think it has very good potential. This new feature is named Harvester, which is allows users to have virtual machines managed by Kubernetes engine. This is very new technology in the market. I think that Harvester needs to mature as a product, and I think that in the future, it will be very powerful. You have one tool that does many things for you.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The tool is very powerful, scalable, and easy to manage. Its autoscaling features helped us save costs."
"The tool's UI is very convenient enough to help you manage multiple clusters in the cloud or the company, making it a product with which you can manage different clusters and locations."
"The solution has a lot of good features, such as you can access the console and edit through the GUI. The dashboard and the UI are designed well, user-friendly, and easy to manage, and access."
"The solution is stable."
"The customized deployment process is the most valuable feature in Rancher Labs."
"Rancher Labs is a very user-friendly tool."
"A great UI with very good integrations."
"This solution is not vendor-locked, which means that we we are able to use it across all of our resources; this feature is of great value to us."
"The most valuable feature of Rancher Labs is its user interface, which makes it easier to work with containers and deployment."
 

Cons

"Google Container Engine needs to be able to manage network products."
"We'd like their monitoring tool to be integrated by default."
"The biggest room for improvement in Rancher Labs would be to have a proper upgrading plan."
"We're looking for something that is even easier to use. It's a bit complicated."
"I can't migrate to the newer version."
"They should improve application visibility along with code visibility."
"There needs to be an improvement in observability and microservice monitoring tools in Rancher Labs."
"We have found that the auto-secure feature of this solution doesn't always work, and could be improved to be more reliable, particularly when working with business critical applications."
"While Rancher Labs provides some level of security, it's not considered very robust."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's pricing is medium."
"The solution is free and open source but there is a fee for support."
"This is an open-source solution, so there are no licensing costs involved."
"There is an annual subscription. The price of the solution should be cheaper and have better pricing flexibility."
"The cost is reasonable since it's open source. Rancher effectively addresses container orchestration trends, especially for those with some Kubernetes knowledge."
"There are no hidden charges attached to the product unless a user opts for the premium support offered by the solution."
"The pricing of the solution sits in the mid range, not high and not low. It has a fixed price that you pay every month."
"Although Rancher Labs is an open-source solution, they also offer a paid version, where you buy the support when needed."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Container Management solutions are best for your needs.
881,707 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
46%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google Container Engine?
The tool is very powerful, scalable, and easy to manage. Its autoscaling features helped us save costs.
What needs improvement with Google Container Engine?
Google Container Engine needs to be able to manage network products.
What do you like most about Rancher Labs?
The tool's UI is very convenient enough to help you manage multiple clusters in the cloud or the company, making it a product with which you can manage different clusters and locations.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rancher Labs?
The cost is reasonable since it's open-source. Rancher effectively addresses container orchestration trends, especially for those with some Kubernetes knowledge.
What needs improvement with Rancher Labs?
While Rancher Labs provides some level of security, it's not considered very robust. We found it to offer basic security features, which met some of our requirements, but we also relied on other op...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Tock
Albert Heijn, Bell, BMC, Samsung, WindStream, Johnson & Johnson
Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kubernetes and others in Container Management. Updated: January 2026.
881,707 professionals have used our research since 2012.