Amazon EC2 Container Service vs Docker Compose

Overview

Amazon EC2 Container Service

Stacks14.6K

Followers10.2K

Votes325

Docker Compose

Stacks22.3K

Followers16.5K

Votes501

GitHub Stars36.4K

Forks5.5K

Amazon EC2 Container Service vs Docker Compose: What are the differences?

Developers describe Amazon EC2 Container Service as "Container management service that supports Docker containers". Amazon EC2 Container Service lets you launch and stop container-enabled applications with simple API calls, allows you to query the state of your cluster from a centralized service, and gives you access to many familiar Amazon EC2 features like security groups, EBS volumes and IAM roles. On the other hand, Docker Compose is detailed as "Define and run multi-container applications with Docker". 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.

Amazon EC2 Container Service can be classified as a tool in the "Containers as a Service" category, while Docker Compose is grouped under "Container Tools".

"Backed by amazon", "Familiar to ec2" and "Cluster based" are the key factors why developers consider Amazon EC2 Container Service; whereas "Multi-container descriptor", "Fast development environment setup" and "Easy linking of containers" are the primary reasons why Docker Compose is favored.

Docker Compose is an open source tool with 16.6K GitHub stars and 2.56K GitHub forks. Here's a link to Docker Compose's open source repository on GitHub.

According to the StackShare community, Docker Compose has a broader approval, being mentioned in 796 company stacks & 626 developers stacks; compared to Amazon EC2 Container Service, which is listed in 794 company stacks and 391 developer stacks.

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Advice on Amazon EC2 Container Service, Docker Compose

Andres

Lead Senior Software Engineer at InTouch Technology

Jun 3, 2020

Decided

If you want to integrate your cluster and control end to end your pipeline with AWS tools like ECR and Code Pipeline your best option is ECS using a EC2 instance. There are pros and cons but it's easier to integrate using cloud formation templates and visual UI for approvals, etc. ECS is free, you need to pay only for the EC2 instance but unfortunately, it is not standard then you cannot use standard tools to see and manage your Kubernetes.
EKS in the other hand uses standard Kubernates definitions but you need to pay for the service and also for the EC2 instance(s) you have in your cluster.

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Detailed Comparison

Amazon EC2 Container Service	Docker Compose
Amazon EC2 Container Service lets you launch and stop container-enabled applications with simple API calls, allows you to query the state of your cluster from a centralized service, and gives you access to many familiar Amazon EC2 features like security groups, EBS volumes and IAM roles.	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.
Docker Compatibility;Managed Clusters;Programmatic Control;Task Definitions;Scheduler;Docker Repository	-
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 36.4K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 5.5K
Stacks 14.6K	Stacks 22.3K
Followers 10.2K	Followers 16.5K
Votes 325	Votes 501
Pros & Cons
Pros 100 Backed by amazon 72 Familiar to ec2 53 Cluster based 42 Simple API 26 Iam roles	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
Integrations
Docker Amazon EC2	Docker

What are some alternatives to Amazon EC2 Container Service, Docker Compose?

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.

Google Kubernetes Engine

Container Engine takes care of provisioning and maintaining the underlying virtual machine cluster, scaling your application, and operational logistics like logging, monitoring, and health management.

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.

Containerum

Containerum is built to aid cluster management, teamwork and resource allocation. Containerum runs on top of any Kubernetes cluster and provides a friendly Web UI for cluster management.

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.

Related Comparisons

Docker Compose is an open source tool with 16.6K GitHub stars and 2.56K GitHub forks. Here's a link to Docker Compose's open source repository on GitHub.

Amazon EC2 Container Service vs Docker Compose