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

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 1, 2025

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

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine N...
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Nutanix Kubernetes Platform...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Container Management (7th)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2741271 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
RashidAnwar - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Project Lead at Tetra Pak
Centralized cluster deployment has improved remote site operations and supported hybrid application models
The initial setup was not straightforward. It was challenging, but then it was manageable. It is relatively easy, but we do have challenges. Not everything is straightforward. There are things that can be addressed. In a couple of cases, we needed some third-party expertise to ensure that we did it correctly. In most cases, we were able to do it on our own. When hosting something on Azure and connecting with an HTTPS link, there are some dependencies that need to be tweaked on Nutanix. Otherwise, it does not communicate with the on-premises infrastructure. There were a few tweaks that we struggled with for almost a couple of days. That was not part of the original design manual. We needed to make some tweaks within the cluster ourselves to achieve the goal. There were some shortcomings in the design that we had to customize ourselves to achieve, especially integration with Azure Cloud.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of the Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE) are its simplicity and efficiency during the initial cluster creation phase."
"The solution provides no downtime features. If we face issues, we create a new port, deploy it there, and then drop the existing one. This way, we avoid NKE downtime on our website."
"Nutanix's support is really good."
"The platform is valuable due to its ease of use and quick deployment capabilities."
"We can add some add-ons and plugins to the product if we need to."
"The solution is easy to manage. You can get everything in a single platform. It is also easy to work with Terraform as a code."
"I would recommend using this product, it's very good."
"Karbon is embedded in the hypervisor, there are no deployment costs and the administration is via Prism Central."
"What I like the most about Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) are the catalog applications, which provide an internal Git repo with logging and backup operators that are pre-integrated in the Kubernetes cluster itself, making it a simple plug and play feature where we can enable any operators we want to use in Kubernetes in a simple way."
"Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) has very good customer support, the product is very stable and resilient, and I did not find any lags or system failures."
"Compared to Azure or Amazon, Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) is not as secure, but the new edition may improve these functionalities."
"The stability of Nutanix is exceptional; when operational, it performs flawlessly and demonstrates remarkable resilience."
"The platform is easy to set up, maintain, and update."
"It helped me to orchestrate the microservice architecture on Kubernetes easily, without spending a lot of time to implement Kubernetes myself."
"Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) is a centralized platform that allows us to deploy different clusters from a centralized location."
"The platform is stable."
 

Cons

"NKE could benefit from additional features that support more advanced Kubernetes functionalities and configurations."
"GUI lacks sufficient information to help with understanding the installation and process."
"Areas for improvement in Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE) include upgrading management capabilities and enhancing the user interface for improved usability."
"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."
"There have been challenges related to software bugs, especially regarding long-term licensing options and issues within our customer network."
"In the next release, I would like to have automatic dynamic scaling, both upscaling and downscaling."
"We need a backup of production clusters."
"I have issues with the product's interoperability."
"Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) Kubernetes dashboard itself needs improvement."
"There are some limitations with the non-air gap version as it requires complete internet access, which poses restrictions due to government regulations."
"The reviewer has experience with Cisco and expressed a preference for Cisco over Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP)."
"One drawback was that Nutanix required a higher number of nodes compared to VMware."
"So it's not user-friendly; it's still not easy for a junior engineer, as it still requires some experienced engineer."
"Regarding the stability and reliability of Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP), I sometimes worry about incidents that occur, but we don't receive a clear explanation of what happened."
"A significant limitation of the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) is its requirement for extensive Kubernetes knowledge."
"There were some shortcomings in the design that we had to customize ourselves to achieve, especially integration with Azure Cloud."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The platform is averagely priced. I rate the pricing as four out of ten."
"I rate NKE's pricing a six out of ten."
"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."
"While deploying Kubernetes clusters on Nutanix is cost-effective, there may be additional costs for remote branch offices where Kubernetes is less common."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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...
What advice do you have for others considering Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE?
I don't have a technical role, but we are a system integrator, so we sell solutions such as OpenShift and Kubernetes as part of the sales team. We are a reseller called eSky IT, and I serve as the ...
What needs improvement with Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP)?
While I'm glad to provide good marks, the areas that have room for improvement in Nutanix are the pricing. I believe the pricing will improve over time. The cost is what it is. I would suggest impr...
What is your primary use case for Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP)?
My use case for Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) is to redeploy and migrate existing Kubernetes workloads in the public cloud to on-premises Nutanix.
What advice do you have for others considering Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP)?
The maintenance of Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) is good. My experience with managing applications in production with Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) is really excellent. It is really stable....
 

Also Known As

Nutanix Karbon
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

JetBlue, International Speedway Corporation, SAIC Volkswagen
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