Google Kubernetes Engine vs Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL] comparison

Google and Nutanix are both solutions in the Container Management category. Additionally, 95% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Nutanix users who would recommend it.

Google Kubernetes Engine

Read 40 Google Kubernetes Engine reviews

1,286 Views
913 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine N...

Read 14 Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL] reviews

100% willing to recommend

Google Kubernetes Engine

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine N...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 1, 2025

Google Kubernetes Engine and Nutanix Kubernetes Engine compete in the Kubernetes space. Google Kubernetes Engine seems to have an edge in pricing and support, while Nutanix is noted for its robust features.

Features: Google Kubernetes Engine is known for seamless deployment with managed autoscaling, instant scaling, and integration within Google Cloud. It also provides detailed monitoring and a managed backup service. Nutanix Kubernetes Engine offers simplicity in cluster creation, easy on-premises deployment, and integration with storage and hypervisor virtualization features.

Room for Improvement: Google Kubernetes Engine's security and monitoring features need enhancement, and its documentation could be clearer regarding configuration and backup. Nutanix Kubernetes Engine should improve its user interface and expand features such as auto-scaling and disaster recovery capabilities, along with better third-party integration.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Google Kubernetes Engine supports Public, Hybrid, and Private Cloud deployments, offering flexibility with varying levels of customer support. Nutanix Kubernetes Engine, focusing on on-premises deployment, is easier for organizations already using Nutanix infrastructure, with robust tech support for these setups.

Pricing and ROI: Google Kubernetes Engine's pricing varies with usage and redundancy needs, making it potentially costly for smaller enterprises, though it provides positive ROI through operational efficiency. Nutanix offers cost-effectiveness for existing users without extra licensing costs and structured pricing tiers that provide financial flexibility.

To learn more, read our detailed Container Management Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Container Management

December 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 881,082 peers since 2012

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 Kubernetes Engine

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Container Management (8th)

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine N...

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Featured Reviews

Parthasarathy T

Cloud Associate DevOps at Publicis Sapient

Managed solutions enable efficient handling of web applications and migration projects

Google Kubernetes Engine can be improved by enabling the in-place upgrade of the machine type of an existing node pool since I currently need to destroy and recreate it. There is no feature present where I can upgrade directly, and having more than 1,000 to 2,000 workloads in one node pool makes changing the node pool name difficult for all those workloads. I choose eight out of ten mainly because of the node pool upgrade challenge I mentioned, but also because of the existence of Anthos service mesh, which is the ingress controller available only for the enterprise Kubernetes Engine. It would be beneficial if it could be offered in the normal Kubernetes Engine with any limitations.

Read full review

reviewer2741271

Nutanix Administrator at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

Has provided seamless upgrade experiences and robust technical support

I have heard there are many features added in NKP that are not available in Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE, such as load balancer features. The unified control plane feature is not being used in Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE. We are currently using a third-party tool for load balancing, but going forward, NKP will include load balancer, ingress, and egress features, making infrastructure management much easier. There is no auto-scaling feature in Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE; however, NKP offers it. In NKE, we created additional worker nodes and increased CPU and RAM capacity, but it required manual intervention. Concerning policy-driven governance in Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE, we have the ability to implement RBAC at the cluster level, which helps maintain security by not granting full admin privileges to every end user, thus restricting access effectively.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Google Kubernetes Engine has positively impacted my organization in migration-based projects such as on-prem to GCP and AWS to GCP, as we migrated more than thousands, even 10,000s workload in Google Kubernetes Engine."

"The product has valuable security features. It can connect with multiple DevOps tools."

"The solution is more user-friendly than AWS or Azure. I can also easily scale out the service in the future when the number of customers grows. GKE is the leader of Kubernetes service and it can be easily updated. I love the tool's user interfaces."

"Stability-wise, this solution is really good."

"The logs are important for detecting problems in our clusters."

"Google Kubernetes Engine's most valuable features are microservices and its acquisition rate, which is very useful for scaling perspective."

"I rate Google Kubernetes Engine a ten out of ten."

"On the tip of a command, you can scale in or scale out, and it offers every robust platform to implement DevOps processes for your automation solutions. The product fully supports the IaC concept."

More Google Kubernetes Engine pros

"The technical support is excellent."

"Nutanix is very stable and reliable, based on my experience with many customers, including large banks and telcos."

"The most valuable features of the Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE) are its simplicity and efficiency during the initial cluster creation phase."

"We can add some add-ons and plugins to the product if we need to."

"The product integrates well with our infrastructure."

"The solution is embedded in the hypervisor and there are no deployment costs."

"The platform is valuable due to its ease of use and quick deployment capabilities."

"My experience with Nutanix's technical support is excellent."

More Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL] pros

Cons

"I have created a couple of issues with Google tech support, and I am not satisfied with the assistance I received."

"I use the Firebase tool with GKE and it would be helpful if the solution can give notifications when we reach the budget limit."

"There is room for improvement in the cluster updates process. Specifically, when managing both non-production and production clusters, we need a sequential functionality."

"The product's integration with third-party vendors needs improvement."

"The product could be cheaper."

"The pricing could be more competitive. It should be cheaper."

"Google Kubernetes Engine's cost should be improved because it is high."

"The user interface could be improved."

More Google Kubernetes Engine cons

"There is no auto-scaling feature in Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE; however, NKP offers it. In NKE, we created additional worker nodes and increased CPU and RAM capacity, but it required manual intervention."

"NKE could benefit from additional features that support more advanced Kubernetes functionalities and configurations."

"It's mostly for lab purposes; we haven't seen a lot of traction in the market from enterprise customers yet."

"The product lacks some virtualization capabilities, making it an area for improvement where the solution can focus on providing users with more virtualization capabilities related to disk systems."

"We need a backup of production clusters."

"In the next release, I would like to have automatic dynamic scaling, both upscaling and downscaling."

"Areas for improvement in Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE) include upgrading management capabilities and enhancing the user interface for improved usability."

"There have been challenges related to software bugs, especially regarding long-term licensing options and issues within our customer network."

More Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is competitive, and it is not expensive. It is almost competitive with AWS and the rest of the cloud solutions. We are spending around 3K USD per month. There are four projects that are currently running, and each one is incurring a cost of around 3K USD."

"Its pricing is good. They bill us only per user. That's nice."

"The price for Google Kubernetes Engine could be lower - I'd rate its pricing at three out of five."

"I would rate Kubernetes' pricing four out of five."

"The pricing for GKE is dependent on the type of machine or virtual machine (VM) that is selected for the nodes in the cluster. There is a degree of flexibility in choosing the specifications of the machine, such as the number of CPUs, GPUs, and so on. Google provides a variety of options, allowing the user to create the desired cluster composition. However, the cost can be quite steep when it comes to regional clusters, which are necessary for high availability and failover. This redundancy is crucial for businesses and is required to handle an increase in requests in case of any issues in one region, such as jumping to a different region in case of a failure in the Toronto region. While it may be tempting to choose the cheapest type of machines, this may result in a limited capacity and user numbers, requiring over-provisioning to handle additional requests, such as those for a web application."

"I would rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten. The tool costs around 3000 dollars per month. There are no additional costs apart from these."

"This is an open source solution, so there is no pricing or licensing."

"Pricing is a bit expensive compared to some other products, but it's acceptable."

More Google Kubernetes Engine pricing and cost advice

"I rate NKE's pricing a six out of ten."

"The platform is averagely priced. I rate the pricing as four out of ten."

"While deploying Kubernetes clusters on Nutanix is cost-effective, there may be additional costs for remote branch offices where Kubernetes is less common."

"The product's licenses are included in the software version deployed in our data center."

"I rate the product price a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Container Management solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

26%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Retailer

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	21
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	15

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	4

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google Kubernetes Engine?

The product has no downtime.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Kubernetes Engine?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Google Kubernetes Engine is straightforward, as I previously indicated. The need for humans is reduced with GCP since there is no need for ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Kubernetes Engine?

The price could be a bit cheaper. I don't see anything with Google Kubernetes Engine that needs to be improved. I think they are already implementing Kubernetes itself, so they are the owners. Howe...

See all answers

What do you like most about Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE?

The most valuable features of the Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE) are its simplicity and efficiency during the initial cluster creation phase.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE?

In terms of features, I cannot comment technically, but the real value is the consolidated out-of-the-box solution that Nutanix offers. Nutanix has built great branding and a lot of credibility and...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE?

I have experience with OpenShift, Kubernetes, and Nutanix, as we are one of the largest Nutanix resellers in the Middle East. We handle Kubernetes on the cloud as well, so we manage most of the Kub...

See all answers

Comparisons

Kubernetes vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Compared 13% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Compared 12% of the time

Docker vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Compared 12% of the time

VMware Tanzu Platform vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Compared 12% of the time

Illumio vs Google Kubernetes Engine

Compared 10% of the time

More Google Kubernetes Engine Competitors

Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) vs Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL]

Compared 26% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform vs Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL]

Compared 19% of the time

VMware Tanzu Platform vs Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL]

Compared 13% of the time

Kubernetes vs Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL]

Compared 9% of the time

Sysdig Monitor vs Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL]

Compared 2% of the time

More Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Google Kubernetes Engine

January 2026

Download Google Kubernetes Engine product report

Buyer's Guide

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL]

January 2026

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL] report

Download Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL] product report

Also Known As

GKE

Nutanix Karbon

Overview

Kubernetes Engine is a managed, production-ready environment for deploying containerized applications. It brings our latest innovations in developer productivity, resource efficiency, automated operations, and open source flexibility to accelerate your time to market.

Google

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL] offers easy deployment, efficient resource management, and seamless integration with existing infrastructure, supporting virtualization and configurable RBAC.

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL] simplifies Kubernetes cluster deployment and management, offering robust features such as health checks and seamless upgrades. It integrates with existing systems, supports virtualization, and provides a unified console. Automatic load management and scalability contribute to its stability. Though migrating via VMware poses challenges and documentation updates are needed, potential enhancements include dynamic resource scaling, advanced backup options, and improved disaster recovery. NKE is ideal for microservices, container management, and application modernization, playing a vital role in DevOps settings.

What are the key features of Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL]?

Easy Deployment: Simplifies cluster setup and management for quick ramp-up.
Resource Allocation: Efficiently allocates computing resources for optimized operations.
Seamless Upgrades: Handles updates without causing downtime.
Integration: Works with existing infrastructure, allowing virtualization support.
Console Management: Offers a single interface for robust management features.

What benefits should users look for in Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL]?

Cost-Effectiveness: Provides a reliable Kubernetes platform with reduced operational costs.
Scalability: Ensures stability and growth alongside increasing demands.
Support Features: Includes robust technical support for a seamless experience.
Efficiency: Enhances workload management in DevOps environments.
Configurable Options: Allows tailored RBAC and scalable virtualization benefits.

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE [EOL] is deployed in industries focusing on microservices and application modernization, serving development to testing environments. It integrates with hardware and API tools, supporting DevOps workloads and infrastructure management. Primarily used on-premises, it supports large-scale application deployment leveraging network capabilities.

Nutanix

Sample Customers

Philips Lighting, Alpha Vertex, GroupBy, BQ

JetBlue, International Speedway Corporation, SAIC Volkswagen

Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kubernetes and others in Container Management. Updated: December 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our list of best Container Management vendors.

We monitor all Container Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.