Apache Maven vs Docker

Overview

Docker

Stacks194.2K

Followers143.8K

Votes3.9K

Apache Maven

Stacks3.4K

Followers1.7K

Votes414

GitHub Stars4.8K

Forks2.8K

Apache Maven vs Docker: What are the differences?

Introduction: This article will discuss the key differences between Apache Maven and Docker.

Dependency Management and Build Tool: Apache Maven is primarily used as a build automation tool and dependency management solution for Java projects. It provides a robust way to manage project dependencies, including the ability to automatically download and include the required libraries in the build process. Docker, on the other hand, is a containerization platform that allows developers to package applications and their dependencies into a lightweight and portable container. It focuses on providing a consistent runtime environment for applications across different platforms and infrastructures.
Granularity and Portability: Maven operates at the level of individual Java projects, providing a way to manage dependencies and build the projects independently. It is often used in the context of a single application or module. Docker, on the other hand, operates at a higher level, allowing developers to package entire applications, including the operating system, runtime environment, and dependencies, into a single container. This makes Docker more suitable for deploying and running applications across different environments and platforms.
Virtualization vs. Containerization: Maven relies on virtualization technologies, such as virtual machines, to provide a consistent environment for building and executing Java projects. It creates an isolated virtual environment for each build process, which can be resource-intensive. Docker, on the other hand, uses containerization technologies, such as Linux containers, to provide lightweight and isolated runtime environments. Containers share the same host operating system, which makes them more efficient and lightweight compared to virtual machines.
Reproducibility and Version Control: Maven ensures reproducibility by using a declarative approach, where project dependencies and build configurations are defined in a pom.xml file. This file can be version controlled and shared with other developers, making it easy to reproduce the exact build process. Docker takes a similar approach, allowing developers to define the application's runtime environment and dependencies in a Dockerfile. The Dockerfile can be version controlled and shared, ensuring reproducibility across different environments.
Scalability and Orchestration: Maven does not have built-in support for scaling and orchestrating applications. It primarily focuses on building and packaging individual projects. Docker, on the other hand, provides tools and features for scaling and orchestrating containerized applications. Docker Swarm and Kubernetes are popular container orchestration platforms that can be used to manage and scale applications running in Docker containers.
Tool Ecosystem and Integration: Maven has a mature and extensive ecosystem of plugins and integrations with other Java development tools and frameworks. It integrates well with version control systems, testing frameworks, and IDEs. Docker also has a growing ecosystem of tools and integrations, but it is more focused on containerization-related tasks such as container orchestration, image management, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.

In Summary, Apache Maven and Docker have key differences in terms of their focus (dependency management vs. containerization), granularity, virtualization vs. containerization, reproducibility, scalability/orchestration, and tool ecosystem/integration.

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Advice on Docker, Apache Maven

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.

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Detailed Comparison

Docker	Apache Maven
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	Maven allows a project to build using its project object model (POM) and a set of plugins that are shared by all projects using Maven, providing a uniform build system. Once you familiarize yourself with how one Maven project builds you automatically know how all Maven projects build saving you immense amounts of time when trying to navigate many projects.
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	Simple project setup that follows best practices - get a new project or module started in seconds;Consistent usage across all projects means no ramp up time for new developers coming onto a project;Superior dependency management including automatic updating, dependency closures (also known as transitive dependencies);Able to easily work with multiple projects at the same time;A large and growing repository of libraries and metadata to use out of the box, and arrangements in place with the largest Open Source projects for real-time availability of their latest releases;Extensible, with the ability to easily write plugins in Java or scripting languages;Instant access to new features with little or no extra configuration;Ant tasks for dependency management and deployment outside of Maven
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 4.8K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 2.8K
Stacks 194.2K	Stacks 3.4K
Followers 143.8K	Followers 1.7K
Votes 3.9K	Votes 414
Pros & Cons
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	Pros 138 Dependency management 70 Necessary evil 60 I’d rather code my app, not my build 48 Publishing packaged artifacts 43 Convention over configuration Cons 6 Complex 1 Inconsistent buillds 0 Not many plugin-alternatives
Integrations
Java Docker Compose VirtualBox Linux Amazon EC2 Container Service Docker Swarm boot2docker Kubernetes Docker Machine Vagrant	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Docker, Apache Maven?

Gradle

Gradle is a build tool with a focus on build automation and support for multi-language development. If you are building, testing, publishing, and deploying software on any platform, Gradle offers a flexible model that can support the entire development lifecycle from compiling and packaging code to publishing web sites.

Bazel

Bazel is a build tool that builds code quickly and reliably. It is used to build the majority of Google's software, and thus it has been designed to handle build problems present in Google's development environment.

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.

Pants

Pants is a build system for Java, Scala and Python. It works particularly well for a source code repository that contains many distinct projects.

LXC

LXC is a userspace interface for the Linux kernel containment features. Through a powerful API and simple tools, it lets Linux users easily create and manage system or application containers.

JitPack

JitPack is an easy to use package repository for Gradle/Sbt and Maven projects. We build GitHub projects on demand and provides ready-to-use packages.

SBT

It is similar to Java's Maven and Ant. Its main features are: Native support for compiling Scala code and integrating with many Scala test frameworks.

rkt

Rocket is a cli for running App Containers. The goal of rocket is to be composable, secure, and fast.

Buck

Buck encourages the creation of small, reusable modules consisting of code and resources, and supports a variety of languages on many platforms.

Apache Ant

Ant is a Java-based build tool. In theory, it is kind of like Make, without Make's wrinkles and with the full portability of pure Java code.

Related Comparisons

Apache Maven vs Docker: What are the differences?

Introduction: This article will discuss the key differences between Apache Maven and Docker.

Dependency Management and Build Tool: Apache Maven is primarily used as a build automation tool and dependency management solution for Java projects. It provides a robust way to manage project dependencies, including the ability to automatically download and include the required libraries in the build process. Docker, on the other hand, is a containerization platform that allows developers to package applications and their dependencies into a lightweight and portable container. It focuses on providing a consistent runtime environment for applications across different platforms and infrastructures.
Granularity and Portability: Maven operates at the level of individual Java projects, providing a way to manage dependencies and build the projects independently. It is often used in the context of a single application or module. Docker, on the other hand, operates at a higher level, allowing developers to package entire applications, including the operating system, runtime environment, and dependencies, into a single container. This makes Docker more suitable for deploying and running applications across different environments and platforms.
Virtualization vs. Containerization: Maven relies on virtualization technologies, such as virtual machines, to provide a consistent environment for building and executing Java projects. It creates an isolated virtual environment for each build process, which can be resource-intensive. Docker, on the other hand, uses containerization technologies, such as Linux containers, to provide lightweight and isolated runtime environments. Containers share the same host operating system, which makes them more efficient and lightweight compared to virtual machines.
Reproducibility and Version Control: Maven ensures reproducibility by using a declarative approach, where project dependencies and build configurations are defined in a pom.xml file. This file can be version controlled and shared with other developers, making it easy to reproduce the exact build process. Docker takes a similar approach, allowing developers to define the application's runtime environment and dependencies in a Dockerfile. The Dockerfile can be version controlled and shared, ensuring reproducibility across different environments.
Scalability and Orchestration: Maven does not have built-in support for scaling and orchestrating applications. It primarily focuses on building and packaging individual projects. Docker, on the other hand, provides tools and features for scaling and orchestrating containerized applications. Docker Swarm and Kubernetes are popular container orchestration platforms that can be used to manage and scale applications running in Docker containers.
Tool Ecosystem and Integration: Maven has a mature and extensive ecosystem of plugins and integrations with other Java development tools and frameworks. It integrates well with version control systems, testing frameworks, and IDEs. Docker also has a growing ecosystem of tools and integrations, but it is more focused on containerization-related tasks such as container orchestration, image management, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.

Apache Maven vs Docker

Overview