Docker vs minikube

Overview

Docker

Stacks194.2K

Followers143.8K

Votes3.9K

minikube

Stacks110

Followers262

Votes3

GitHub Stars31.1K

Forks5.1K

Docker vs minikube: What are the differences?

Docker vs Minikube

Docker and Minikube are both popular technologies used in containerization and orchestration of applications. Although they serve similar purposes, there are key differences between them:

Architecture: Docker is a containerization platform that allows applications to run in isolated environments called containers. It uses a client-server architecture where the Docker daemon manages the containers. In contrast, Minikube is a lightweight Kubernetes distribution that allows the deployment and management of Kubernetes clusters. It runs a single-node Kubernetes cluster inside a virtual machine.
Scope: Docker focuses on containerization at the application level, allowing developers to package and distribute applications along with their dependencies. On the other hand, Minikube extends Docker's capabilities by providing a local Kubernetes environment for development and testing purposes, allowing the deployment and orchestration of multiple containers in a cluster.
Portability: Docker containers can be easily shared and run on any system that has Docker installed, providing high portability and consistency across different environments. In contrast, Minikube focuses on providing a local development environment and is not typically used for production deployments. Kubernetes clusters created with Minikube are not easily transferable to other environments.
Scalability: Docker containers can be scaled horizontally by running multiple instances of the same container across different hosts. However, Docker does not provide built-in orchestration capabilities for scaling containers. On the other hand, Minikube leverages the power of Kubernetes to provide advanced container orchestration features, including scaling, load balancing, and self-healing for applications running in a cluster.
Networking: Docker uses its own networking model, allowing containers to communicate with each other using internal IP addresses. This makes it easy to link containers within the same Docker host. In contrast, Minikube leverages Kubernetes networking concepts and provides a cluster-level network, allowing containers to communicate with each other across different hosts in the cluster.
Application Deployment: Docker provides a simple and straightforward way to package and deploy applications using Docker images. Developers can define the application's dependencies, configurations, and runtime environment within the Docker image. On the other hand, Minikube uses Kubernetes manifests to define the desired state of the application, including the number of replicas, resource requirements, and networking configurations. Kubernetes then takes care of orchestrating the deployment based on these manifests.

In summary, Docker is primarily focused on containerization at the application level, providing portability and isolation, while Minikube extends Docker's capabilities by offering a local Kubernetes environment for development and testing, providing advanced container orchestration features.

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Advice on Docker, minikube

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	minikube
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	It implements a local Kubernetes cluster on macOS, Linux, and Windows. Its goal is to be the tool for local Kubernetes application development and to support all Kubernetes features that fit.
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	Local Kubernetes; LoadBalancer; Multi-cluster
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 31.1K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 5.1K
Stacks 194.2K	Stacks 110
Followers 143.8K	Followers 262
Votes 3.9K	Votes 3
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 Unreliable networking 6 Documentation not always in sync 4 Moves quickly 3 Not Secure	Pros 1 Can use same yaml config I'll use for prod deployment 1 Easy setup 1 Let's me test k8s config locally
Integrations
Java Docker Compose VirtualBox Linux Amazon EC2 Container Service Docker Swarm boot2docker Kubernetes Docker Machine Vagrant	Windows Linux macOS

What are some alternatives to Docker, minikube?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Related Comparisons

Docker vs minikube: What are the differences?

Docker vs Minikube

Docker and Minikube are both popular technologies used in containerization and orchestration of applications. Although they serve similar purposes, there are key differences between them:

Architecture: Docker is a containerization platform that allows applications to run in isolated environments called containers. It uses a client-server architecture where the Docker daemon manages the containers. In contrast, Minikube is a lightweight Kubernetes distribution that allows the deployment and management of Kubernetes clusters. It runs a single-node Kubernetes cluster inside a virtual machine.
Scope: Docker focuses on containerization at the application level, allowing developers to package and distribute applications along with their dependencies. On the other hand, Minikube extends Docker's capabilities by providing a local Kubernetes environment for development and testing purposes, allowing the deployment and orchestration of multiple containers in a cluster.
Portability: Docker containers can be easily shared and run on any system that has Docker installed, providing high portability and consistency across different environments. In contrast, Minikube focuses on providing a local development environment and is not typically used for production deployments. Kubernetes clusters created with Minikube are not easily transferable to other environments.
Scalability: Docker containers can be scaled horizontally by running multiple instances of the same container across different hosts. However, Docker does not provide built-in orchestration capabilities for scaling containers. On the other hand, Minikube leverages the power of Kubernetes to provide advanced container orchestration features, including scaling, load balancing, and self-healing for applications running in a cluster.
Networking: Docker uses its own networking model, allowing containers to communicate with each other using internal IP addresses. This makes it easy to link containers within the same Docker host. In contrast, Minikube leverages Kubernetes networking concepts and provides a cluster-level network, allowing containers to communicate with each other across different hosts in the cluster.
Application Deployment: Docker provides a simple and straightforward way to package and deploy applications using Docker images. Developers can define the application's dependencies, configurations, and runtime environment within the Docker image. On the other hand, Minikube uses Kubernetes manifests to define the desired state of the application, including the number of replicas, resource requirements, and networking configurations. Kubernetes then takes care of orchestrating the deployment based on these manifests.

Docker vs minikube

Overview

Docker vs minikube: What are the differences?