Docker Machine vs Portainer

Overview

Docker Machine

Stacks430

Followers518

Votes12

Portainer

Stacks506

Followers842

Votes146

Docker Machine vs Portainer: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Docker Machine and Portainer

Docker Machine and Portainer are both popular tools used in the containerization ecosystem, but they differ in their features and functionalities. Here are the key differences between Docker Machine and Portainer:

Architecture and Purpose: Docker Machine is a command-line tool that helps users to provision and manage multiple Docker hosts on different platforms, making it easier to create and manage Docker environments. Portainer, on the other hand, is a web-based graphical user interface (GUI) tool that provides a simple and intuitive way to manage Docker environments.
User Interface: One major difference between Docker Machine and Portainer is the user interface they offer. Docker Machine operates through the command-line interface (CLI), which provides more control and flexibility but requires users to have a certain level of technical expertise. Portainer, on the other hand, provides a user-friendly graphical interface with visual representations of containers, images, networks, and volumes, making it easier for non-technical users to manage Docker environments.
Features and Functionality: Docker Machine primarily focuses on creating and managing Docker hosts. It supports various virtualization technologies, including VirtualBox, VMware, and Azure. It also provides features to manage network settings, SSH keys, and TLS certificates for the created hosts. Portainer, on the other hand, offers a broader range of features. It allows users to manage containers, images, networks, volumes, and Docker Compose stacks. It also provides features like user authentication, role-based access control, and container logs viewer.
Ease of Installation: Docker Machine requires manual installation on each individual machine, and the process can be complex depending on the platform. Portainer, on the other hand, provides a straightforward installation process. It can be deployed as a Docker container itself or installed using a single-line command using Docker Compose.
Community Support: Docker Machine is an official Docker project and has a large base of active contributors and community support. It has been widely adopted and has a well-established documentation and community forums for assistancet. Portainer also has an active community and offers good support, but being a third-party tool, it may not have the same level of overall community support and resources as Docker Machine.
Flexibility and Extensibility: Docker Machine provides more flexibility in terms of choosing different virtualization technologies and cloud providers. It supports various platforms, making it suitable for diverse environments. Portainer, although primarily designed for managing Docker environments, offers limited extensibility as it is focused on providing a streamlined GUI interface.

In summary, Docker Machine is a command-line tool that helps provision and manage Docker hosts, while Portainer is a web-based GUI tool that provides a user-friendly interface to manage Docker environments with a broader range of features.

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Detailed Comparison

Docker Machine	Portainer
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.	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.
-	Docker management; Docker UI; Docker cluster management; Swarm visualizer; Authentication; User Access Control; Docker container management; Docker service management; Docker overview; Docker console; Docker swarm status; Docker image management; Docker network management; Docker dashboard; Remote HTTP API; Automation
Statistics
Stacks 430	Stacks 506
Followers 518	Followers 842
Votes 12	Votes 146
Pros & Cons
Pros 12 Easy docker hosts management	Pros 36 Simple 27 Great UI 19 Friendly 12 Easy to setup, gives a practical interface for Docker 11 Fully featured
Integrations
Docker	Docker Swarm Docker Secrets Auth0 Kubernetes Docker

What are some alternatives to Docker Machine, Portainer?

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 Compose

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 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.

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.

Kitematic

Simple Docker App management for Mac OS X

Related Comparisons

Docker Machine vs Portainer: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Docker Machine and Portainer

Architecture and Purpose: Docker Machine is a command-line tool that helps users to provision and manage multiple Docker hosts on different platforms, making it easier to create and manage Docker environments. Portainer, on the other hand, is a web-based graphical user interface (GUI) tool that provides a simple and intuitive way to manage Docker environments.
User Interface: One major difference between Docker Machine and Portainer is the user interface they offer. Docker Machine operates through the command-line interface (CLI), which provides more control and flexibility but requires users to have a certain level of technical expertise. Portainer, on the other hand, provides a user-friendly graphical interface with visual representations of containers, images, networks, and volumes, making it easier for non-technical users to manage Docker environments.
Features and Functionality: Docker Machine primarily focuses on creating and managing Docker hosts. It supports various virtualization technologies, including VirtualBox, VMware, and Azure. It also provides features to manage network settings, SSH keys, and TLS certificates for the created hosts. Portainer, on the other hand, offers a broader range of features. It allows users to manage containers, images, networks, volumes, and Docker Compose stacks. It also provides features like user authentication, role-based access control, and container logs viewer.
Ease of Installation: Docker Machine requires manual installation on each individual machine, and the process can be complex depending on the platform. Portainer, on the other hand, provides a straightforward installation process. It can be deployed as a Docker container itself or installed using a single-line command using Docker Compose.
Community Support: Docker Machine is an official Docker project and has a large base of active contributors and community support. It has been widely adopted and has a well-established documentation and community forums for assistancet. Portainer also has an active community and offers good support, but being a third-party tool, it may not have the same level of overall community support and resources as Docker Machine.
Flexibility and Extensibility: Docker Machine provides more flexibility in terms of choosing different virtualization technologies and cloud providers. It supports various platforms, making it suitable for diverse environments. Portainer, although primarily designed for managing Docker environments, offers limited extensibility as it is focused on providing a streamlined GUI interface.

Docker Machine vs Portainer

Overview

Docker Machine vs Portainer: What are the differences?