Fleet vs Rancher Fleet: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this Markdown code, we will discuss the key differences between Fleet and Rancher Fleet. Fleet and Rancher Fleet are container management platforms that provide orchestration and deployment capabilities. While they share similarities in terms of functionality, there are notable differences that set them apart.

1. Installation and Deployment: Fleet requires manual installation on the host machines, making it suitable for self-managed deployments. On the other hand, Rancher Fleet is a component of the Rancher Kubernetes management platform and can be easily deployed and managed through the Rancher interface, facilitating centralized control and management.

2. Scalability and Cluster Management: Fleet is designed for managing a single cluster and lacks built-in support for managing multiple clusters. It provides a straightforward solution for orchestrating containers within a single environment. In contrast, Rancher Fleet provides advanced features for managing and scaling multiple Kubernetes clusters, allowing easy orchestration across different environments.

3. Supported Container Runtimes: Fleet primarily focuses on the Docker container runtime, providing extensive management capabilities for Docker containers. Rancher Fleet, being a component of Rancher, supports a broader range of container runtimes, including Docker, Containerd, and other compliant runtimes. This flexibility enables Rancher Fleet to deploy and manage containers across various runtimes.

4. UI and User Experience: Fleet has a minimalistic and simple user interface with a focus on command-line and YAML-based configuration. While it offers a lightweight and efficient user experience, it may require a steeper learning curve for less experienced users. Rancher Fleet, being a part of Rancher, provides a feature-rich web-based UI that offers intuitive visual controls and simplifies the user experience, making it more accessible to users with different skill levels.

5. Integration with External Services: Fleet's integration capabilities are more focused on core container management tasks, such as scheduling and deployment. It offers limited out-of-the-box integrations with external services. In contrast, Rancher Fleet extends the integration capabilities by providing a wide range of built-in integrations, including logging, monitoring, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) tools. This allows for seamless interaction with external tools to support a comprehensive container management workflow.

6. Support and Community: Fleet is an open-source project backed by a community of contributors, offering community-driven support and regular updates. Rancher Fleet, being a component of Rancher, benefits from the enterprise-level support and a larger user community. It receives regular updates, bug fixes, and enterprise-grade technical support, making it a robust choice for organizations requiring dedicated support and a strong community backing.

In summary, Fleet is focused on providing a lightweight and efficient container management solution for a single cluster, primarily leveraging Docker container runtime. On the other hand, Rancher Fleet, as a part of the Rancher Kubernetes management platform, offers advanced features for managing multiple Kubernetes clusters, supports multiple container runtimes, provides a rich web-based UI, extensive integrations, and benefits from enterprise-grade support and a larger user community.