Docker Compose vs VirtualBox

Overview

VirtualBox

Stacks31.1K

Followers25.6K

Votes1.1K

Docker Compose

Stacks22.3K

Followers16.5K

Votes501

GitHub Stars36.4K

Forks5.5K

Docker Compose vs VirtualBox: What are the differences?

Developers describe Docker Compose 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. On the other hand, VirtualBox is detailed as "Run nearly any operating system on a single machine and to freely switch between OS instances running simultaneously". VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2.

Docker Compose belongs to "Container Tools" category of the tech stack, while VirtualBox can be primarily classified under "Virtualization Platform".

"Multi-container descriptor", "Fast development environment setup" and "Easy linking of containers" are the key factors why developers consider Docker Compose; whereas "Free", "Easy" and "Default for vagrant" are the primary reasons why VirtualBox 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, VirtualBox has a broader approval, being mentioned in 724 company stacks & 976 developers stacks; compared to Docker Compose, which is listed in 796 company stacks and 626 developer stacks.

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Detailed Comparison

VirtualBox	Docker Compose
VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2.	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.
Portability;No hardware virtualization required;Guest Additions: shared folders, seamless windows, 3D virtualization;Great hardware support;Multigeneration branched snapshots;VM groups;Clean architecture; unprecedented modularity;Remote machine display	-
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 36.4K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 5.5K
Stacks 31.1K	Stacks 22.3K
Followers 25.6K	Followers 16.5K
Votes 1.1K	Votes 501
Pros & Cons
Pros 358 Free 231 Easy 169 Default for vagrant 110 Fast 73 Starts quickly	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

What are some alternatives to VirtualBox, 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.

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.

Proxmox VE

It is a complete open-source platform for all-inclusive enterprise virtualization that tightly integrates KVM hypervisor and LXC containers, software-defined storage and networking functionality on a single platform, and easily manages high availability clusters and disaster recovery tools with the built-in web management interface.

VMware vSphere

vSphere is the world’s leading server virtualization platform. Run fewer servers and reduce capital and operating costs using VMware vSphere to build a cloud computing infrastructure.

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.

Docker Compose vs VirtualBox