5 Differences between EKS and OpenShift

Choosing the right Kubernetes Platform for Development

Source: https://platform9.com/blog/kubernetes-managed-apps-prometheus-efk-mysql-more-delivered-as-service-sla/

Recently I got the chance to finally play around with EKS, stand up a control plane and worker nodes and actually deploy an application to it. Last year I deployed my first application to OpenShift. Here are some of the key differences between the two:

1. OpenShift can be deployed on-prem or in AWS or both giving you more flexibility about where to run your K8 cluster. For enterprise users that may still have data or integration applications on-prem, this is a huge plus.
2. EKS like all things in AWS gives more power to developers. The so-called “Shift-Left” however with great power comes great responsibility. For an individual development team to try to build applications and deploy to their own K8 cluster it may become too much overhead. A solution like ECS or Fargate may be a better choice for smaller deployments or smaller teams.
3. Both require some K8 knowledge however OpenShifts WebApp interface makes it easier to get up to speed and start to understand K8 terminology.
4. OpenShift is more expensive. You’re paying for the license and regardless of where you deploy you’ll be paying for the infrastructure costs as well. EKS charges 10 cents/hr for the control plane+normal EC2 usage costs.