Overview

Docker Compose

Stacks22.3K

Followers16.5K

Votes501

GitHub Stars36.4K

Forks5.5K

Docker Machine

Stacks429

Followers518

Votes12

Docker Compose vs Docker Machine: What are the differences?

Key differences between Docker Compose and Docker Machine

Docker Compose and Docker Machine are both tools provided by Docker that help in managing and deploying containers. While they serve different purposes, they can be used together for a complete container management solution.

Docker Compose: Docker Compose is a tool that allows you to define and run multi-container Docker applications. It uses a YAML file to define the services, networks, and volumes required for your application. With Docker Compose, you can easily set up and manage complex applications with multiple containers running together.
Docker Machine: Docker Machine is a tool that helps you create and manage Docker hosts on your local machine or on a remote cloud provider. It allows you to easily provision and manage multiple Docker hosts using different providers such as VirtualBox, AWS, or Azure. Docker Machine is especially useful when you need to set up a Docker development environment on different platforms or in a distributed environment.
Docker Compose allows you to define and manage multi-container applications, whereas Docker Machine is used to manage the Docker hosts themselves. Docker Compose focuses on the orchestration and configuration of the containers, while Docker Machine focuses on the provisioning and management of the hosts.
Docker Compose is used for local development and testing, as it allows you to easily define the services and dependencies required for your application. Docker Machine, on the other hand, is used for deploying and managing Docker hosts in production or staging environments.
Docker Compose is not concerned with the underlying infrastructure, as it abstracts away the details of the hosts and focuses on the containers and their configuration. Docker Machine, on the other hand, is responsible for provisioning and managing the hosts, including choosing the appropriate provider and configuring the networking and storage.
Docker Machine provides a simple and unified interface for managing Docker hosts, regardless of the underlying infrastructure or provider. It allows you to easily create, start, stop, and manage Docker hosts using a single command-line interface. Docker Compose, on the other hand, provides a declarative syntax for defining multi-container applications and their dependencies.

In summary, Docker Compose is used for defining and managing multi-container applications, while Docker Machine is used for provisioning and managing Docker hosts. Compose focuses on the containers and their configuration, while Machine focuses on the infrastructure and hosts.

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Advice on Docker Compose, Docker Machine

Michael

CEO at asencis Ltd

Jan 5, 2021

Needs advice

We develop rapidly with docker-compose orchestrated services, however, for production - we utilise the very best ideas that Kubernetes has to offer: SCALE! We can scale when needed, setting a maximum and minimum level of nodes for each application layer - scaling only when the load balancer needs it. This allowed us to reduce our devops costs by 40% whilst also maintaining an SLA of 99.87%.

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Detailed Comparison

Docker Compose	Docker Machine
With Compose, you define a multi-container application in a single file, then spin your application up in a single command which does everything that needs to be done to get it running.	Machine lets you create Docker hosts on your computer, on cloud providers, and inside your own data center. It creates servers, installs Docker on them, then configures the Docker client to talk to them.
Statistics
GitHub Stars 36.4K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 5.5K	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 22.3K	Stacks 429
Followers 16.5K	Followers 518
Votes 501	Votes 12
Pros & Cons
Pros 123 Multi-container descriptor 110 Fast development environment setup 79 Easy linking of containers 68 Simple yaml configuration 60 Easy setup Cons 9 Tied to single machine 5 Still very volatile, changing syntax often	Pros 12 Easy docker hosts management
Integrations
Docker	Docker

What are some alternatives to Docker Compose, Docker Machine?

Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.

Rancher

Rancher is an open source container management platform that includes full distributions of Kubernetes, Apache Mesos and Docker Swarm, and makes it simple to operate container clusters on any cloud or infrastructure platform.

Docker Swarm

Swarm serves the standard Docker API, so any tool which already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to transparently scale to multiple hosts: Dokku, Compose, Krane, Deis, DockerUI, Shipyard, Drone, Jenkins... and, of course, the Docker client itself.

Tutum

Tutum lets developers easily manage and run lightweight, portable, self-sufficient containers from any application. AWS-like control, Heroku-like ease. The same container that a developer builds and tests on a laptop can run at scale in Tutum.

Portainer

It is a universal container management tool. It works with Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Swarm and Azure ACI. It allows you to manage containers without needing to know platform-specific code.

Codefresh

Automate and parallelize testing. Codefresh allows teams to spin up on-demand compositions to run unit and integration tests as part of the continuous integration process. Jenkins integration allows more complex pipelines.

CAST.AI

It is an AI-driven cloud optimization platform for Kubernetes. Instantly cut your cloud bill, prevent downtime, and 10X the power of DevOps.

k3s

Certified Kubernetes distribution designed for production workloads in unattended, resource-constrained, remote locations or inside IoT appliances. Supports something as small as a Raspberry Pi or as large as an AWS a1.4xlarge 32GiB server.

Flocker

Flocker is a data volume manager and multi-host Docker cluster management tool. With it you can control your data using the same tools you use for your stateless applications. This means that you can run your databases, queues and key-value stores in Docker and move them around as easily as the rest of your app.