What is AWS ECS and when would you choose it over EKS?
ECS (Elastic Container Service) is AWS’s native container orchestrator. EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service) is managed Kubernetes.
Choose ECS when:
- Your team is AWS-native and doesn’t have Kubernetes expertise
- You want lower operational overhead (no Kubernetes control plane concepts to manage)
- Tight AWS service integration is a priority (IAM roles per task, ALB integration is simpler)
Choose EKS when:
- You need Kubernetes-native features (CRDs, Operators, Helm ecosystem)
- You have multi-cloud or hybrid requirements
- Your team already has Kubernetes expertise