Docker Swarm vs Kong

Overview

Kong

Stacks671

Followers1.5K

Votes139

GitHub Stars42.1K

Forks5.0K

Docker Swarm

Stacks779

Followers990

Votes282

Docker Swarm vs Kong: What are the differences?

## Introduction

Key differences between Docker Swarm and Kong:

1. **Orchestration vs API Gateway**: Docker Swarm is a container orchestration tool used to manage a cluster of Docker hosts, while Kong is an API gateway that acts as a middle layer between clients and microservices, providing features like authentication, rate limiting, and logging.
2. **Scalability**: Docker Swarm is designed for large-scale deployments, allowing users to scale their services efficiently and manage a high number of containers across multiple hosts. On the other hand, Kong is more focused on handling API traffic and can be used in a distributed environment to handle high volumes of API requests.
3. **Resource Management**: Docker Swarm includes built-in resource management features, such as load balancing and service discovery, to ensure optimal utilization of resources within the cluster. Kong, on the other hand, prioritizes API traffic management, offering advanced routing capabilities and plugins for customizing the behavior of API endpoints.
4. **Deployment Flexibility**: Docker Swarm provides a simple and straightforward way to deploy and manage containerized applications using Docker Compose files or Docker CLI commands. Kong, on the other hand, offers more flexibility in terms of deployment options, supporting various deployment methods, including Docker containers, Kubernetes, and standalone setups.
5. **Security**: Docker Swarm includes built-in security features such as mutual TLS authentication and secrets management to secure communication between nodes and services in the cluster. Kong offers security-focused plugins and features like JWT authentication and OAuth 2.0 integration to protect API endpoints and control access to resources.
6. **Monitoring and Logging**: Docker Swarm provides basic monitoring and logging capabilities through integration with third-party tools like Prometheus and ELK stack. Kong offers built-in monitoring and logging features to track API performance, traffic patterns, and errors in real-time, helping developers and administrators troubleshoot issues and optimize API performance.

In Summary, Docker Swarm focuses on container orchestration and resource management, while Kong specializes in API traffic management and security, providing flexibility in deployment options and enhanced monitoring capabilities.

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Advice on Kong, Docker Swarm

Simon

Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH

Apr 27, 2020

Decidedon

GitHub

GitHub Pages

Markdown

Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:

@{GitHub}|tool:27| (incl. @{GitHub Pages}|tool:683|/@{Markdown}|tool:1147| for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
Respectively @{Git}|tool:1046| as revision control system
@{SourceTree}|tool:1599| as @{Git}|tool:1046| GUI
@{Visual Studio Code}|tool:4202| as IDE
@{CircleCI}|tool:190| for continuous integration (automatize development process)
@{Prettier}|tool:7035| / @{TSLint}|tool:5561| / @{ESLint}|tool:3337| as code linter
@{SonarQube}|tool:2638| as quality gate
@{Docker}|tool:586| as container management (incl. @{Docker Compose}|tool:3136| for multi-container application management)
@{VirtualBox}|tool:774| for operating system simulation tests
@{Kubernetes}|tool:1885| as cluster management for docker containers
@{Heroku}|tool:133| for deploying in test environments
@{nginx}|tool:1052| as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
@{SSLMate}|tool:2752| (using @{OpenSSL}|tool:3091|) for certificate management
@{Amazon EC2}|tool:18| (incl. @{Amazon S3}|tool:25|) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
@{PostgreSQL}|tool:1028| as preferred database system
@{Redis}|tool:1031| as preferred in-memory database/store (great for caching)

The main reason we have chosen Kubernetes over Docker Swarm is related to the following artifacts:

Key features: Easy and flexible installation, Clear dashboard, Great scaling operations, Monitoring is an integral part, Great load balancing concepts, Monitors the condition and ensures compensation in the event of failure.
Applications: An application can be deployed using a combination of pods, deployments, and services (or micro-services).
Functionality: Kubernetes as a complex installation and setup process, but it not as limited as Docker Swarm.
Monitoring: It supports multiple versions of logging and monitoring when the services are deployed within the cluster (Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK), Heapster/Grafana, Sysdig cloud integration).
Scalability: All-in-one framework for distributed systems.
Other Benefits: Kubernetes is backed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), huge community among container orchestration tools, it is an open source and modular tool that works with any OS.

12.8M views12.8M

Comments

Prateek

Mar 14, 2020

Decided

Istio based on powerful Envoy whereas Kong based on Nginx. Istio is K8S native as well it's actively developed when k8s was successfully accepted with production-ready apps whereas Kong slowly migrated to start leveraging K8s. Istio has an inbuilt turn-keyIstio based on powerful Envoy whereas Kong based on Nginx. Istio is K8S native as well it's actively developed when k8s was successfully accepted with production-ready apps whereas Kong slowly migrated to start leveraging K8s. Istio has an inbuilt turn key solution with Rancher whereas Kong completely lacks here. Traffic distribution in Istio can be done via canary, a/b, shadowing, HTTP headers, ACL, whitelist whereas in Kong it's limited to canary, ACL, blue-green, proxy caching. Istio has amazing community support which is visible via Github stars or releases when comparing both.

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Comments

Detailed Comparison

Kong	Docker Swarm
Kong is a scalable, open source API Layer (also known as an API Gateway, or API Middleware). Kong controls layer 4 and 7 traffic and is extended through Plugins, which provide extra functionality and services beyond the core platform.	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.
Logging: Log requests and responses to your system over TCP, UDP or to disk; OAuth2.0: Add easily an OAuth2.0 authentication to your APIs; Monitoring: Live monitoring provides key load and performance server metrics; IP-restriction: Whitelist or blacklist IPs that can make requests; Authentication: Manage consumer credentials query string and header tokens; Rate-limiting: Block and throttle requests based on IP or authentication; Transformations: Add, remove or manipulate HTTP params and headers on-the-fly; CORS: Enable cross-origin requests to your APIs that would otherwise be blocked; Anything: Need custom functionality? Extend Kong with your own Lua plugins;	-
Statistics
GitHub Stars 42.1K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 5.0K	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 671	Stacks 779
Followers 1.5K	Followers 990
Votes 139	Votes 282
Pros & Cons
Pros 37 Easy to maintain 32 Easy to install 26 Flexible 21 Great performance 7 Api blueprint	Pros 55 Docker friendly 46 Easy to setup 40 Standard Docker API 38 Easy to use 23 Native Cons 9 Low adoption
Integrations
Cassandra Docker Prometheus Kubernetes PostgreSQL NGINX Vagrant	Docker

What are some alternatives to Kong, Docker Swarm?

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.

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.

Amazon API Gateway

Amazon API Gateway handles all the tasks involved in accepting and processing up to hundreds of thousands of concurrent API calls, including traffic management, authorization and access control, monitoring, and API version management.

Tyk Cloud

Tyk is a leading Open Source API Gateway and Management Platform, featuring an API gateway, analytics, developer portal and dashboard. We power billions of transactions for thousands of innovative organisations.

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 Swarm vs Kong: What are the differences?

## Introduction

Key differences between Docker Swarm and Kong:

1. **Orchestration vs API Gateway**: Docker Swarm is a container orchestration tool used to manage a cluster of Docker hosts, while Kong is an API gateway that acts as a middle layer between clients and microservices, providing features like authentication, rate limiting, and logging.
2. **Scalability**: Docker Swarm is designed for large-scale deployments, allowing users to scale their services efficiently and manage a high number of containers across multiple hosts. On the other hand, Kong is more focused on handling API traffic and can be used in a distributed environment to handle high volumes of API requests.
3. **Resource Management**: Docker Swarm includes built-in resource management features, such as load balancing and service discovery, to ensure optimal utilization of resources within the cluster. Kong, on the other hand, prioritizes API traffic management, offering advanced routing capabilities and plugins for customizing the behavior of API endpoints.
4. **Deployment Flexibility**: Docker Swarm provides a simple and straightforward way to deploy and manage containerized applications using Docker Compose files or Docker CLI commands. Kong, on the other hand, offers more flexibility in terms of deployment options, supporting various deployment methods, including Docker containers, Kubernetes, and standalone setups.
5. **Security**: Docker Swarm includes built-in security features such as mutual TLS authentication and secrets management to secure communication between nodes and services in the cluster. Kong offers security-focused plugins and features like JWT authentication and OAuth 2.0 integration to protect API endpoints and control access to resources.
6. **Monitoring and Logging**: Docker Swarm provides basic monitoring and logging capabilities through integration with third-party tools like Prometheus and ELK stack. Kong offers built-in monitoring and logging features to track API performance, traffic patterns, and errors in real-time, helping developers and administrators troubleshoot issues and optimize API performance.

In Summary, Docker Swarm focuses on container orchestration and resource management, while Kong specializes in API traffic management and security, providing flexibility in deployment options and enhanced monitoring capabilities.

Docker Swarm vs Kong

Overview

Docker Swarm vs Kong: What are the differences?

Share your Stack

Advice on Kong, Docker Swarm

Detailed Comparison

What are some alternatives to Kong, Docker Swarm?

Kubernetes

Rancher

Docker Compose

Tutum

Portainer

Codefresh

Amazon API Gateway

Tyk Cloud

CAST.AI

k3s

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Docker Swarm vs Kong

Overview

Docker Swarm vs Kong: What are the differences?

Share your Stack

Advice on Kong, Docker Swarm

Detailed Comparison

What are some alternatives to Kong, Docker Swarm?

Kubernetes

Rancher

Docker Compose

Tutum

Portainer

Codefresh

Amazon API Gateway

Tyk Cloud

CAST.AI

k3s

Related Comparisons

Bitbucket vs GitHub vs GitLab

AWS CodeCommit vs Bitbucket vs GitHub

Docker Swarm vs Kubernetes vs Rancher

Postman vs Swagger UI

Grunt vs Webpack vs gulp