AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs Docker

Overview

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Stacks2.1K

Followers1.8K

Votes241

Docker

Stacks194.2K

Followers143.8K

Votes3.9K

AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs Docker: What are the differences?

Introduction:

In this article, we will discuss the key differences between AWS Elastic Beanstalk and Docker. Both AWS Elastic Beanstalk and Docker are popular tools used in the deployment and management of applications, but they have distinct features and use cases.

Scalability and Management: AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a fully managed service that abstracts the underlying infrastructure, making it easier to deploy, scale, and manage applications. It automatically handles tasks such as capacity provisioning, load balancing, and scaling based on defined policies. On the other hand, Docker is a containerization platform that allows applications to run in isolated containers. Docker provides more fine-grained control over the infrastructure, allowing developers to manage scaling and orchestration using tools like Docker Swarm or Kubernetes.
Portability and Dependency Management: Docker provides a standardized format for packaging applications and their dependencies into containers. This ensures that applications run consistently across different environments, making it easier to deploy and move them between different hosts or cloud platforms. AWS Elastic Beanstalk, although it supports Docker containers, is primarily focused on deploying and managing applications within the AWS ecosystem. This means it may have some limitations when it comes to portability and dependency management outside of AWS.
Flexibility and Customization: Docker allows developers to create customized container images that contain the exact configuration and dependencies required by their applications. This level of customization provides more flexibility in choosing specific versions of software libraries or frameworks. In contrast, AWS Elastic Beanstalk provides a more standardized approach to deploying applications, with predefined platforms and configurations. While it offers some degree of customization, it may not be as flexible as Docker in terms of application configuration.
Environment and Infrastructure Control: With Docker, developers have complete control over the environment and infrastructure that their applications run on. They can choose the operating system, networking settings, and resource allocation for each container. In contrast, AWS Elastic Beanstalk abstracts much of the infrastructure control, providing a simplified interface for deploying applications. This can be beneficial for developers who don't want to deal with the complexities of infrastructure management, but it may limit the level of control for applications that require specific configurations.
Auto-scaling and Load Balancing: AWS Elastic Beanstalk includes built-in features for auto-scaling and load balancing. It can automatically scale the application based on predefined metrics and distribute traffic across multiple instances. Docker, on the other hand, requires the use of additional tools like Docker Swarm or Kubernetes to achieve auto-scaling and load balancing functionality. While Docker provides more flexibility in choosing the scaling approach, it also requires additional configuration and management.
Monitoring and Logging: AWS Elastic Beanstalk provides integrated monitoring and logging features, allowing developers to easily track the performance and health of their applications. It collects and presents metrics such as CPU utilization, memory usage, and response times. Docker, being a containerization platform, does not provide built-in monitoring and logging capabilities. Developers need to use external tools like Prometheus or ELK stack to monitor and collect logs from Docker containers.

In Summary, AWS Elastic Beanstalk simplifies the deployment and management of applications within the AWS ecosystem, with built-in scalability and monitoring. Docker, on the other hand, provides more flexibility and portability, allowing developers to package and run applications consistently across different environments. The choice between AWS Elastic Beanstalk and Docker depends on the specific requirements of the application and the level of control and customization desired by the developer.

Share your Stack

Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.

View Docs

CLI (Node.js)

Manual

Advice on AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Docker

Florian

IT DevOp at Agitos GmbH

Oct 22, 2019

Decided

lxd/lxc and Docker aren't congruent so this comparison needs a more detailed look; but in short I can say: the lxd-integrated administration of storage including zfs with its snapshot capabilities as well as the system container (multi-process) approach of lxc vs. the limited single-process container approach of Docker is the main reason I chose lxd over Docker.

482k views482k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

AWS Elastic Beanstalk	Docker
Once you upload your application, Elastic Beanstalk automatically handles the deployment details of capacity provisioning, load balancing, auto-scaling, and application health monitoring.	The Docker Platform is the industry-leading container platform for continuous, high-velocity innovation, enabling organizations to seamlessly build and share any application — from legacy to what comes next — and securely run them anywhere
Elastic Beanstalk is built using familiar software stacks such as the Apache HTTP Server for Node.js, PHP and Python, Passenger for Ruby, IIS 7.5 for .NET, and Apache Tomcat for Java;There is no additional charge for Elastic Beanstalk - you pay only for the AWS resources needed to store and run your applications.;Easy to begin – Elastic Beanstalk is a quick and simple way to deploy your application to AWS. You simply use the AWS Management Console, Git deployment, or an integrated development environment (IDE) such as Eclipse or Visual Studio to upload your application;Impossible to outgrow – Elastic Beanstalk automatically scales your application up and down based on default Auto Scaling settings;Complete control – Elastic Beanstalk lets you "open the hood" and retain full control over the AWS resources powering your application;Flexible – You have the freedom to select the Amazon EC2 instance type that is optimal for your application based on CPU and memory requirements, and can choose from several available database options;Reliable – Elastic Beanstalk runs within Amazon's proven network infrastructure and datacenters, and provides an environment where developers can run applications requiring high durability and availability.	Integrated developer tools; open, portable images; shareable, reusable apps; framework-aware builds; standardized templates; multi-environment support; remote registry management; simple setup for Docker and Kubernetes; certified Kubernetes; application templates; enterprise controls; secure software supply chain; industry-leading container runtime; image scanning; access controls; image signing; caching and mirroring; image lifecycle; policy-based image promotion
Statistics
Stacks 2.1K	Stacks 194.2K
Followers 1.8K	Followers 143.8K
Votes 241	Votes 3.9K
Pros & Cons
Pros 77 Integrates with other aws services 65 Simple deployment 44 Fast 28 Painless 16 Free Cons 2 Charges appear automatically after exceeding free quota 1 Lots of moving parts and config 0 Slow deployments	Pros 823 Rapid integration and build up 692 Isolation 521 Open source 505 Testability and reproducibility 460 Lightweight Cons 8 New versions == broken features 6 Documentation not always in sync 6 Unreliable networking 4 Moves quickly 3 Not Secure
Integrations
Papertrail	Java Docker Compose VirtualBox Linux Amazon EC2 Container Service Docker Swarm boot2docker Kubernetes Docker Machine Vagrant

What are some alternatives to AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Docker?

Heroku

Heroku is a cloud application platform – a new way of building and deploying web apps. Heroku lets app developers spend 100% of their time on their application code, not managing servers, deployment, ongoing operations, or scaling.

Clever Cloud

Clever Cloud is a polyglot cloud application platform. The service helps developers to build applications with many languages and services, with auto-scaling features and a true pay-as-you-go pricing model.

Google App Engine

Google has a reputation for highly reliable, high performance infrastructure. With App Engine you can take advantage of the 10 years of knowledge Google has in running massively scalable, performance driven systems. App Engine applications are easy to build, easy to maintain, and easy to scale as your traffic and data storage needs grow.

Red Hat OpenShift

OpenShift is Red Hat's Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering. OpenShift is an application platform in the cloud where application developers and teams can build, test, deploy, and run their applications.

Render

Render is a unified platform to build and run all your apps and websites with free SSL, a global CDN, private networks and auto deploys from Git.

Hasura

An open source GraphQL engine that deploys instant, realtime GraphQL APIs on any Postgres database.

Cloud 66

Cloud 66 gives you everything you need to build, deploy and maintain your applications on any cloud, without the headache of dealing with "server stuff". Frameworks: Ruby on Rails, Node.js, Jamstack, Laravel, GoLang, and more.

Jelastic

Jelastic is a Multi-Cloud DevOps PaaS for ISVs, telcos, service providers and enterprises needing to speed up development, reduce cost of IT infrastructure, improve uptime and security.

Dokku

It is an extensible, open source Platform as a Service that runs on a single server of your choice. It helps you build and manage the lifecycle of applications from building to scaling.

LXD

LXD isn't a rewrite of LXC, in fact it's building on top of LXC to provide a new, better user experience. Under the hood, LXD uses LXC through liblxc and its Go binding to create and manage the containers. It's basically an alternative to LXC's tools and distribution template system with the added features that come from being controllable over the network.

Related Comparisons

AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs Docker: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Scalability and Management: AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a fully managed service that abstracts the underlying infrastructure, making it easier to deploy, scale, and manage applications. It automatically handles tasks such as capacity provisioning, load balancing, and scaling based on defined policies. On the other hand, Docker is a containerization platform that allows applications to run in isolated containers. Docker provides more fine-grained control over the infrastructure, allowing developers to manage scaling and orchestration using tools like Docker Swarm or Kubernetes.
Portability and Dependency Management: Docker provides a standardized format for packaging applications and their dependencies into containers. This ensures that applications run consistently across different environments, making it easier to deploy and move them between different hosts or cloud platforms. AWS Elastic Beanstalk, although it supports Docker containers, is primarily focused on deploying and managing applications within the AWS ecosystem. This means it may have some limitations when it comes to portability and dependency management outside of AWS.
Flexibility and Customization: Docker allows developers to create customized container images that contain the exact configuration and dependencies required by their applications. This level of customization provides more flexibility in choosing specific versions of software libraries or frameworks. In contrast, AWS Elastic Beanstalk provides a more standardized approach to deploying applications, with predefined platforms and configurations. While it offers some degree of customization, it may not be as flexible as Docker in terms of application configuration.
Environment and Infrastructure Control: With Docker, developers have complete control over the environment and infrastructure that their applications run on. They can choose the operating system, networking settings, and resource allocation for each container. In contrast, AWS Elastic Beanstalk abstracts much of the infrastructure control, providing a simplified interface for deploying applications. This can be beneficial for developers who don't want to deal with the complexities of infrastructure management, but it may limit the level of control for applications that require specific configurations.
Auto-scaling and Load Balancing: AWS Elastic Beanstalk includes built-in features for auto-scaling and load balancing. It can automatically scale the application based on predefined metrics and distribute traffic across multiple instances. Docker, on the other hand, requires the use of additional tools like Docker Swarm or Kubernetes to achieve auto-scaling and load balancing functionality. While Docker provides more flexibility in choosing the scaling approach, it also requires additional configuration and management.
Monitoring and Logging: AWS Elastic Beanstalk provides integrated monitoring and logging features, allowing developers to easily track the performance and health of their applications. It collects and presents metrics such as CPU utilization, memory usage, and response times. Docker, being a containerization platform, does not provide built-in monitoring and logging capabilities. Developers need to use external tools like Prometheus or ELK stack to monitor and collect logs from Docker containers.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk vs Docker

Overview