Elastic Beanstalk vs Kubernetes

Automatic software development and deployment is one of the most important things we need today. Developing and deploying the whole system manually from scrap takes a very long time, and it is not very efficient.

So, it also makes things inefficient for small and medium businesses as they cannot manage the hardware and team to develop/deploy their online system.

PaaS(Platform as a Service) is the best solution to all these problems. A good platform will always bring automatic development and deployment services.

 Two platforms that we will be discussing here are Elastic Beanstalk and Kubernetes. So, if you are also looking to choose one of them, this comparison will be vital in helping you select a platform.

Elastic Beanstalk Overview

Elastic Beanstalk is the PaaS from Amazon Web Services, which provides a quick and simple way to develop, deploy, and host your web application. 

As a developer, you only need to upload the application code on this platform, and everything else will be taken care of by Elastic Beanstalk. For the code uploading part, Elastic Beanstalk supports several languages and frameworks for an easy experience.

Along with support for several frameworks and languages, it also supports integration with different Amazon Web Services and Tools to add any feature in your web app that you want.

So, it further decreases the efforts from your end as it will automatically take care of things like monitoring, load balancing, automatic scalability, resource planning, etc.

With all of these features and qualities, the websites deployed here will be good enough to handle millions of visitors simultaneously easily.

Elastic Beanstalk Features

Elastic Beanstalk is full of features to enhance the experience of deploying your web app from all aspects. Below are some of the best features you can enjoy with Elastic Beanstalk.

• Performance monitoring

The performance monitoring experience with Elastic Beanstalk is like no other platform. Elastic Beanstalk is very easy to integrate with AWS tools like CloudWatch and AWS X-Ray.

Integrating these helps you monitor everything from resource performance and overall application stats within one interface. You can also set up the feature to get a notification as the performance stats meet the threshold.

• Reliability with compliance

Deploying on Elastic Beanstalk helps you meet all the compliance requirements with the SOC1, SOC2, SOC3, PCI, ISO, HIPAA, and PHI criteria. With eligibility from all of these, your application will be safe and reliable for the users.

• Customizability

There are no restrictions on the features and services you can customize with Elastic Beanstalk. You also have the freedom to choose from different services and tools to integrate for better customizations.

Elastic Beanstalk Pricing

Elastic Beanstalk provides a unique experience when it comes to pricing plans. No plans are specified here; the only information you get on the website is that it follows the pay-as-you-go pricing policy.

However, that does not mean you must meet minimum usage, timespan, or resource requirements. So, Elastic Beanstalk provides freedom over the services you will use.

A great thing about it is that it comes as a free service when you pay for AWS S3 or EC2. So, when you use these services and different AWS tools together, you will have a complete package to meet your deployment and hosting requirements.

Kubernetes Overview

Kubernetes is an open-source platform that helps automate software deployment, management, and resource scaling.

Cloud Native Computing Foundation currently maintains this container orchestration system. However, it was originally developed by Google.

Kubernetes works by grouping containers that collectively make up logical units for your application helping in easier management.

Kubernetes brings value to you in several ways, and one of those ways is that it scales without needing to increase the operations team, so your software can grow without increasing demands from you.

This platform is flexible enough to maintain performance while testing or running your application consistently.

The performance is consistent regardless of complex app needs and local/global backend. Being an open-source platform, it brings the freedom to run on the public cloud, local systems, or on hybrid infrastructure. So you can easily and efficiently manage all the workloads.

Kubernetes Features

Kubernetes does not make you compromise on any of the features, and here are some of the best features that you will enjoy using.

• Rollouts and Rollbacks are automated.

The rollouts and rollbacks with Kubernetes are automated. It rolls out all the changes to your application progressively.

So, when monitoring applications’ health, you won’t accidentally kill any instance. During testing and changing, things can go back, and if anything ever happens with your app, Kubernetes will automatically roll back the change. Thus, growing your ecosystem becomes easier and safer.

• Efficient secret and configuration management

When you use Kubernetes, you can deploy and update all the application configurations and secrets without needing to rebuild the image.

It also ensures that you never need to expose the secrets in the stack configuration. Thus, it results in better reliability and safety.

• Load balancing and batch execution

With Kubernetes, every pod has a unique IP address and a single DNS name so that you do not have to modify the application for unfamiliar services.

It also allows you to use load balancers across different pods. At the same time, Kubernetes manages batch and CI workloads so that whenever a container fails, it can be replaced as per the requirements.

Kubernetes Pricing

Kubernetes itself is open-source and free. However, when using it, you must deploy the Kubernetes release on a system such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud.

If you have to pay for those services, then technically, using Kubernetes will not be free. You can also deploy the Kubernetes release on your local system instead of using a public cloud.

Kubernetes vs Elastic Beanstalk

Conclusion

Elastic Beanstalk is a cloud service provided by AWS and was initially launched in 2011. Users only pay for other AWS products without additional cost to use the service. Product use cases include Talabat, Privé Technologies, and Siemens.

Kubernetes is a system to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containers and was initially launched in 2014. It’s open-source, and there is no cost to use it. Product use cases include Booking, AppDirect, and Babylon.

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