Docker vs VirtualBox

Overview

Docker

Stacks194.2K

Followers143.8K

Votes3.9K

VirtualBox

Stacks31.1K

Followers25.6K

Votes1.1K

Docker vs VirtualBox: What are the differences?

Introduction

In the world of virtualization, Docker and VirtualBox are commonly used tools. While they serve similar purposes, there are key differences between the two that set them apart.

Resource Overhead: Docker uses the host system's kernel and shares the resources of the operating system, resulting in lower overhead compared to VirtualBox, which requires a full virtualized operating system for each instance.
Isolation Level: Docker containers provide lightweight isolation through namespaces and cgroups, making them faster and more efficient than VirtualBox VMs, which require complete separation of resources.
Portability: Docker containers are highly portable as they can run on any system with Docker installed, whereas VirtualBox VMs are more restricted in terms of portability due to the necessary virtual machine setup.
Startup Time: Docker containers have significantly faster startup times compared to VirtualBox VMs since they do not need to boot an entire operating system.
Image Size: Docker images are usually smaller in size compared to VirtualBox VM images because they only contain the necessary components and dependencies for the application to run.
Use Case: Docker is typically used for microservices architecture and application containerization, while VirtualBox is more suitable for running multiple operating systems concurrently for purposes like testing or development.

In Summary, Docker and VirtualBox have distinct differences in terms of resource overhead, isolation level, portability, startup time, image size, and use case.

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Advice on Docker, VirtualBox

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	VirtualBox
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	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.
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	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
Stacks 194.2K	Stacks 31.1K
Followers 143.8K	Followers 25.6K
Votes 3.9K	Votes 1.1K
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 358 Free 231 Easy 169 Default for vagrant 110 Fast 73 Starts quickly
Integrations
Java Docker Compose Linux Amazon EC2 Container Service Docker Swarm boot2docker Kubernetes Docker Machine Vagrant Google Kubernetes Engine	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Docker, VirtualBox?

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.

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.

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.

rkt

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

KVM

KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V).

Qemu

When used as a machine emulator, it can run OSes and programs made for one machine (e.g. an ARM board) on a different machine (e.g. your own PC). By using dynamic translation, it achieves very good performance. When used as a virtualizer, it achieves near native performance by executing the guest code directly on the host CPU. it supports virtualization when executing under the Xen hypervisor or using the KVM kernel module in Linux. When using KVM, it can virtualize x86, server and embedded PowerPC, 64-bit POWER, S390, 32-bit and 64-bit ARM, and MIPS guests.

Parallels Desktop

Parallels Desktop for Mac allows you to seamlessly run both Windows and MacOS applications side-by-side with speed, control and confidence.

Vagrant Cloud

Vagrant Cloud pairs with Vagrant to enable access, insight and collaboration across teams, as well as to bring exposure to community contributions and development environments.

Parallels

It is an application and desktop virtualization software vendor that offers management and delivery platforms for Apple macOS and Microsoft Windows desktop deployments.

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Docker vs VirtualBox: What are the differences?

Introduction

In the world of virtualization, Docker and VirtualBox are commonly used tools. While they serve similar purposes, there are key differences between the two that set them apart.

Resource Overhead: Docker uses the host system's kernel and shares the resources of the operating system, resulting in lower overhead compared to VirtualBox, which requires a full virtualized operating system for each instance.
Isolation Level: Docker containers provide lightweight isolation through namespaces and cgroups, making them faster and more efficient than VirtualBox VMs, which require complete separation of resources.
Portability: Docker containers are highly portable as they can run on any system with Docker installed, whereas VirtualBox VMs are more restricted in terms of portability due to the necessary virtual machine setup.
Startup Time: Docker containers have significantly faster startup times compared to VirtualBox VMs since they do not need to boot an entire operating system.
Image Size: Docker images are usually smaller in size compared to VirtualBox VM images because they only contain the necessary components and dependencies for the application to run.
Use Case: Docker is typically used for microservices architecture and application containerization, while VirtualBox is more suitable for running multiple operating systems concurrently for purposes like testing or development.

In Summary, Docker and VirtualBox have distinct differences in terms of resource overhead, isolation level, portability, startup time, image size, and use case.