StackShareStackShare
Follow on
StackShare

Discover and share technology stacks from companies around the world.

Follow on

© 2025 StackShare. All rights reserved.

Product

  • Stacks
  • Tools
  • Feed

Company

  • About
  • Contact

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  1. Stackups
  2. Utilities
  3. Caching
  4. Web Cache
  5. Docker Compose vs Squid

Docker Compose vs Squid

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Squid
Squid
Stacks101
Followers205
Votes17
GitHub Stars2.7K
Forks594
Docker Compose
Docker Compose
Stacks22.3K
Followers16.5K
Votes501
GitHub Stars36.4K
Forks5.5K

Docker Compose vs Squid: What are the differences?

  1. 1. Configuration and Orchestration: Docker Compose is a tool used for defining and running multi-container Docker applications, while Squid is a caching proxy server. Docker Compose focuses on providing a way to define and coordinate multiple containers to work together as a single application, whereas Squid is specifically designed for caching web objects to improve the performance and speed of web requests.

  2. 2. Purpose: The main purpose of Docker Compose is to simplify the process of managing and deploying containerized applications by defining the services, networks, and volumes required for the application. Squid, on the other hand, is primarily used as a caching proxy server to enhance web browsing by storing frequently accessed web content locally.

  3. 3. Architecture: Docker Compose follows a microservices architecture, allowing users to define multiple services that can communicate with each other. It provides a way to create and manage containers, networks, and volumes. Squid, on the other hand, follows a client-server architecture, where it acts as a proxy server between the client and the web server. It caches the requested web content and serves it to the client if it exists in the cache.

  4. 4. Deployment: Docker Compose is used to deploy applications by defining the required services, networks, and volumes in a Compose file. It provides a single command to start the application, which takes care of creating and managing the containers and their dependencies. Squid, on the other hand, is deployed as a standalone server, which needs to be installed and configured on a machine or virtual server separately.

  5. 5. Scalability: Docker Compose provides built-in support for scaling services horizontally, which means increasing the number of containers running the same service. It allows easy scaling of individual services based on demand. Squid, on the other hand, focuses on caching web objects and does not provide built-in scaling capabilities like Docker Compose.

  6. 6. Use Cases: Docker Compose is commonly used for development, testing, and staging environments, where multiple services need to work together to run an application. It offers quick and easy setup for local development environments. Squid, on the other hand, is used as a caching proxy server in production environments to improve web browsing performance and reduce bandwidth usage.

In Summary, Docker Compose is a tool for managing multi-container Docker applications with a focus on configuration and orchestration, while Squid is a caching proxy server primarily used to enhance web browsing performance. Docker Compose follows a microservices architecture and provides scalability options, while Squid is designed for standalone server deployment and caching web objects.

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)
or
Manual

Detailed Comparison

Squid
Squid
Docker Compose
Docker Compose

Squid reduces bandwidth and improves response times by caching and reusing frequently-requested web pages. Squid has extensive access controls and makes a great server accelerator. It runs on most available operating systems, including Windows and is licensed under the GNU GPL.

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.

Statistics
GitHub Stars
2.7K
GitHub Stars
36.4K
GitHub Forks
594
GitHub Forks
5.5K
Stacks
101
Stacks
22.3K
Followers
205
Followers
16.5K
Votes
17
Votes
501
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 4
    Easy to config
  • 2
    Web application accelerator
  • 2
    Cluster
  • 2
    Very Fast
  • 1
    Widely Used
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
No integrations available
Docker
Docker

What are some alternatives to Squid, Docker Compose?

Kubernetes

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

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.

Varnish

Varnish

Varnish Cache is a web application accelerator also known as a caching HTTP reverse proxy. You install it in front of any server that speaks HTTP and configure it to cache the contents. Varnish Cache is really, really fast. It typically speeds up delivery with a factor of 300 - 1000x, depending on your architecture.

Docker Swarm

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

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

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.

Section

Section

Edge Compute Platform gives Dev and Ops engineers the access and control they need to run compute workloads on a distributed edge.

Codefresh

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

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

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

GitHub
Bitbucket

Bitbucket vs GitHub vs GitLab

GitHub
Bitbucket

AWS CodeCommit vs Bitbucket vs GitHub

Kubernetes
Rancher

Docker Swarm vs Kubernetes vs Rancher

gulp
Grunt

Grunt vs Webpack vs gulp

Graphite
Kibana

Grafana vs Graphite vs Kibana