Docker vs Kubernetes comparison

Docker and Kubernetes are both solutions in the Container Management category. Docker is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.9, while Kubernetes is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.4. Docker holds a 2.7% mindshare in CM, compared to Kubernetes’s 5.1% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Docker users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Kubernetes users who would recommend it.

Docker

Read 56 Docker reviews

1,293 Views
1,017 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Kubernetes

Read 78 Kubernetes reviews

3,433 Views
2,270 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Docker

Kubernetes

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 13, 2024

Docker and Kubernetes are key competitors in the container orchestration category. Kubernetes has a competitive edge due to its robust scalability features and widespread cloud provider support.

Features: Kubernetes is known for its scalability, autoscaling features, and resilience. It integrates well with cloud providers such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure. Kubernetes also offers high availability and storage orchestration, which are essential for building cloud infrastructures. Docker, on the other hand, is valued for its simplicity and ease of use. It provides efficient container management with robust security features and straightforward integration, making it accessible to developers.

Room for Improvement: Kubernetes encounters challenges with complex setup procedures, integration, and user-friendly access. Improving debugging interfaces and security features without third-party reliance is necessary. Docker, while user-friendly, could enhance stability and management features. Better documentation and integration with tools like Docker Swarm could improve its scalability and security.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Kubernetes offers deployment flexibility across hybrid, public, and private clouds. However, the initial setup can be complex, with varying support levels depending on distribution. Docker is recognized for its ease of scaling containers across clouds, but users note issues with support effectiveness and documentation. Both platforms benefit from strong community support.

Pricing and ROI: Kubernetes, being open-source, has no licensing fees but requires investments in infrastructure, affecting costs. Efficient management can significantly improve ROI through optimized container use. Docker's open-source nature provides initial cost-effectiveness, but scaling with Docker Swarm can increase expenses. Both can deliver substantial ROI by implementing agile systems for faster time-to-market and cost savings.

To learn more, read our detailed Docker vs. Kubernetes Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Docker vs. Kubernetes

April 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Docker

Ranking in Container Management

5th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Development Platforms (1st), Software Supply Chain Security (6th)

Kubernetes

Ranking in Container Management

4th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Container Management category, the mindshare of Docker is 2.7%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kubernetes is 5.1%, down from 9.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Container Management

Featured Reviews

Rikin Parekh

Backend Engineer at Northeastern University

Useful to create sandbox environments to run applications and makes it easy to test them

Overall, setting up the Docker environment is quite easy. Many methods exist, such as using Docker Compose and Docker networks to communicate between containers. The main challenge lies in designing the architecture and integrating different frameworks and microservices. I would rate the ease of setting up the tool at around nine out of ten. The time it takes to deploy depends on the scale of the system. For the early-stage startup I'm currently working with, it doesn't take much time. It's just me handling the deployment. In our early-stage startup, we have a couple of teams with around four to five backend APIs and two front-end services. Deploying these doesn't take much time. My focus is more on minimizing costs due to our lean startup structure.

Read full review

Venu Boddu

AWS DevOps Engineer at Hexaware Technologies Limited

Manage infrastructure automation and smooth application deployment with robust auto-scaling capabilities

Kubernetes is highly valuable for its node-based setup, which allows for the running of multiple pods. This feature is essential for infrastructure automation and application deployment. Kubernetes also offers rollback control and auto-scaling capabilities, which are crucial for maintaining an application's availability even if nodes or pods go down. Additionally, Kubernetes supports load balancing to distribute traffic efficiently across multiple pods.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Docker is very reliable. It's easy to scale, and it's very stable."

"The deployment is quite fast, which is beneficial."

"The solution helps save costs."

"The solution is stable."

"The solution offers speed and flexibility."

"The most valuable feature is Docker has a fast learning curve."

"The most valuable feature of Docker is that it revolutionized virtualization by providing a new approach with containers that completely nullified the time it used to take to deploy applications on virtual servers, resulting in deployment times that can be as quick as milliseconds, unless it is a heavy application, such as Java. Additionally, resource utilization has greatly improved with Docker, allowing for more resources to be allocated to other tasks. These are a few key features that make Docker a preferred choice."

"I think that with Docker, it is easy to deploy it on different platforms."

More Docker pros

"The most valuable feature of the platform is the ability to load some of the containers that were previously managed by humans."

"The cloud-managed Kubernetes allow us to take care of a big system and deployment and container management without having a big operational team."

"The most valuable feature of Kubernetes is the integration with other solutions, such as Formative and Grafana."

"Kubernetes has everything. Its design structure is quite advanced, and its offerings are extensive. The practical feature was the seamless failover."

"The most valuable feature is the support for Docker containers."

"The deployment is one of the most valuable feature."

"Kubernetes' most valuable features include scalability and deployment."

"Kubernetes' most valuable features are scaling, deployment, and container management."

More Kubernetes pros

Cons

"Unfortunately, base images are not currently available."

"We would like to see improvement in adding the node into the Docker Swarm cluster, as at present it is a little tricky and requires a lot of manual steps."

"The documentation could be improved."

"Stability is an area with a shortcoming."

"There can be challenges with port mapping, however, that's not related to Docker itself."

"Docker could improve by having more advanced features."

"I would like to see a more UI-based tool so that students can easily understand it rather than memorizing all of the Docker commands."

"Sometimes, we have sync-up issues where the build doesn't get processed due to these sync issues, causing the build to fail. That's one of the drawbacks I see. When we did a huge sync-up, we faced a couple of issues. It takes some time for us to complete the sync-up. For frequent, smaller updates, we haven't had any issues. However, challenges can arise for those who prefer doing everything in one go. This might not necessarily be due to the tool itself but because of the approach of doing everything in a single batch."

More Docker cons

"They should update Kubernetes more regularly."

"We would like to see more validation tools added to this solution, this would provide pre-deployment analysis that developers could use before publishing their infrastructure."

"There is not a large ecosystem surrounding Kubernetes, making it difficult to identify the right problem due to the vast number of solutions."

"Kubernetes can be complicated to understand. Improved documentation would help in gaining scalable knowledge and making it more understandable."

"It would be useful to have a basic and stable interface for monitoring and quick deployment purposes, especially when the deployments are big like a proof of concept or proof of technology. Currently, you need to use the Kubernetes console for all functionalities. It is not a quick-to-learn product if you are not from a Linux background. You need to be very skilled at Linux to learn it quickly. It took me two to three months because I mostly work with Microsoft products. For people who are not from a Linux background, the learning curve is a little bit longer."

"Kubernetes is a bit complex, and there's a steep learning curve. At the same time, I cannot imagine how it could be easier. You need many add-ons to it, and the commercial releases of Kubernetes should address that."

"The solution has some issues regarding availability during high loads. Worker nodes are sometimes unavailable, affecting the overall availability of the applications. This is a bug or underlying problem with the tool, and Azure and other providers are looking into improving this by releasing new versions of Kubernetes that fix some of the platform's issues."

"The solution can be quite complex for many users."

More Kubernetes cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Since Docker is an open-source solution, it is free of cost."

"Docker's price is good."

"Docker is a free tool."

"Its convenience edition is free of cost."

"Docker is open source. To use a Docker enterprise model, we would need to pay for it."

"Docker has made some changes and there is an enterprise version that is affordable."

"The offering and service are quite free."

"We use the open-source version."

More Docker pricing and cost advice

"You need to pay for a license if you buy branded products. For example, if you take the services from Azure, AWS, or Google, the price of the Kubernetes cluster is inclusive of the service that's being offered to us on a pay-and-use model."

"The price of Kubernetes could be lower. However, it is less expensive than VMware Tanzu. Additionally, technical support is expensive. The overall cost of the solution is approximately $1,000 annually."

"The solution is open source and has no fees."

"We use the solution's open-source version."

"Google Kubernetes Engine is free in the simplest setup, AWS Kubernetes Engine costs about $50 (depending on the region), in a three master setup, so it's almost the same as the cost of the EC2 instances and it's totally fine from my point of view."

"Kubernetes is free; it's open-source software."

"The solution requires a license to use it."

"There is a license to use Kubernetes."

More Kubernetes pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Insurance Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Docker?

We are using Docker to host applications.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Docker?

I consider Docker's pricing to be affordable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Docker?

In terms of communication between services, perhaps the configuration within networks between containers could be improved.

See all answers

What do you like most about Kubernetes?

There are many good features. I feel that the scale-out features, like replica sets, are very good. The number of running containers can be autoscaled.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kubernetes?

Since we use Kubernetes on-premises, the costs are related to our expertise and the personnel we hire.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Kubernetes?

Although we face issues when migrating to new versions of Kubernetes, such as misunderstandings on using new features or integration with proxy services, these issues can be addressed with proper p...

See all answers

Comparisons

VMware Tanzu Platform vs Docker

Compared 29% of the time

Rancher Labs vs Docker

Compared 14% of the time

Codespaces vs Docker

Compared 13% of the time

Mirantis Container Runtime vs Docker

Compared 13% of the time

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE vs Docker

Compared 8% of the time

More Docker Competitors

VMware Tanzu Platform vs Kubernetes

Compared 43% of the time

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE vs Kubernetes

Compared 19% of the time

Portainer vs Kubernetes

Compared 11% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform vs Kubernetes

Compared 6% of the time

Google Kubernetes Engine vs Kubernetes

Compared 4% of the time

More Kubernetes Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Docker

May 2025

Download Docker product report

Buyer's Guide

Kubernetes

April 2025

Download Kubernetes product report

Also Known As

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Overview

Docker is a versatile container platform used for running and deploying applications in isolated environments, ensuring consistency across development, testing, and production.

Docker offers solutions for containerizing applications, automating deployments, and managing infrastructure through its robust platform. It supports CI/CD workflows, provides a development platform for container management, and simplifies the setup by using streamlined tools. Organizations leverage Docker for building microservices, running UI applications, deploying web services, and setting up secure environments. It also facilitates managing containers via Kubernetes and creating development stacks for enhanced productivity.

What are Docker's key features?

Security: Offers containment and isolation of applications.
Easy Use: Simplifies the deployment and management of applications.
Documentation: Extensive resources to aid in understanding and implementation.
Customization: Flexible environment configurations.
Scalability: Efficiently handles applications irrespective of scale.
Internal DNS: Manages network configurations within the container ecosystem.
Overlay Networks: Facilitates seamless inter-container communication.
Resource Efficiency: Optimizes usage of system resources.

What benefits should users look for?

Consistency: Ensures homogeneous environments across development, testing, and production stages.
Portability: Allows applications to run consistently on any platform.
Cost-Effectiveness: Reduces overhead costs associated with application deployment.
Speed: Accelerates the build, test, and deployment cycles.
Flexibility: Supports various tools and integrations to adapt to different workflows.

Industries implement Docker for CI/CD pipelines, scaling services, and improving resource utilization. Tech companies use Docker for building and deploying their software in isolated environments. Finance and healthcare sectors deploy applications securely, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. Educational institutions set up consistent development environments for coding labs and training students in advanced technologies.

Docker

Kubernetes (K8s) is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
It groups containers that make up an application into logical units for easy management and discovery. Kubernetes builds upon 15 years of experience of running production workloads at Google, combined with best-of-breed ideas and practices from the community.

Kubernetes

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

China unicom, NetEase Cloud, Nav, AppDirect

Buyer's Guide

Docker vs. Kubernetes

April 2025

Free Report: Docker vs. Kubernetes

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