Docker vs Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform comparison

Docker and Red Hat are both solutions in the Container Management category. Docker is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.9, while Red Hat is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. Docker holds a 2.6% mindshare in CM, compared to Red Hat’s 21.3% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Docker users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Red Hat users who would recommend it.

Docker

Read 56 Docker reviews

1,212 Views
724 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Red Hat OpenShift Container...

Read 50 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform reviews

7,099 Views
4,988 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Docker

Red Hat OpenShift Container...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 13, 2024

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and Docker compete in the containerization and application deployment market. Based on feature set and enterprise focus, OpenShift seems to have the upper hand, particularly in complex enterprise environments.

Features: Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform provides advanced auto scalability, granular control of deployments, and enhanced security options. It offers comprehensive integration capabilities for smooth application development and deployment. Docker is known for its simplicity, detailed documentation, and straightforward containerization processes. It supports rapid deployment and portability, ensuring consistent application performance across various environments.

Room for Improvement: OpenShift could enhance its networking capabilities with IP whitelisting and simplifying deployment features. The complexity of cluster infrastructure and pricing are concerns. Docker could improve stability, expand documentation and tutorials for easier onboarding, and streamline integration with Microsoft Windows while enhancing its GUI.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: OpenShift supports hybrid and on-premises deployments, providing users flexibility but requires significant infrastructure. Red Hat's support is responsive but inconsistent. Docker offers straightforward deployments across public, private, and hybrid clouds due to its open-source nature. Docker's support is practical but limited compared to Red Hat's enterprise-level assistance.

Pricing and ROI: OpenShift has a high cost structure based on resource consumption, suited for large organizations with significant ROI through robust capabilities. Docker is a cost-effective alternative, being open-source with paid options. Its pricing and ROI are favorable, appealing to smaller enterprises or teams needing less complexity.

To learn more, read our detailed Docker vs. Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Docker vs. Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

June 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 (5th)

Red Hat OpenShift Container...

Ranking in Container Management

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Container Management category, the mindshare of Docker is 2.6%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform is 21.3%, up from 20.7% 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.

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Prasad Gupta

Software Engineer at IBM Software Labs

Efficient deployment with resource optimization and multi-region stability

There are several areas where OpenShift could improve. The interface has numerous UI bugs that need addressing. Furthermore, the latest version has deprecated the deployment config, which has its own advantages compared to the deployment container. Lastly, there is no built-in auto-scaling plugin at the OpenShift level; this needs to be addressed as it's available at the cloud provider level, like IBM Cloud.

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

"In our line of work, we've been involved in various sectors, such as industrial products, transportation, client engineering, telecom, and medical. For instance, we're currently developing an IT platform. One key use case we're tackling is device management."

"Feature-wise, Docker is very user-friendly...The solution's initial setup process was straightforward."

"The tool helps us in code versioning. I think it's pretty much easy to use and very straightforward. Even if someone is new to the tool, they can easily start using it with a little guidance or theoretical knowledge. Go through the tool and start using it without much struggle."

"We are using Docker to host applications."

"I think the best feature is to replicate anything in our local machine using a simple command."

"The solution is stable."

"It is a quite mature technology."

"We are able to stop our containers or stop the service with a single command."

More Docker pros

"The most valuable features of OpenShift include its advanced security, integrated DNS system, built-in pipeline management with Tekton, enhanced networking routes, and dedicated platforms for DataOps and MLOps."

"The platform has significantly improved our organization by enhancing productivity and reducing the time required to deploy applications."

"The software is user-friendly and straightforward to use, which is favorable to a developer."

"The solution's security throughout the stack and the software supply chain is very reliable. When it was on-prem, it was by default secured by our company firewalls and security tools, and now it's in the cloud, which has its security and systems in place. This provides stability to our infrastructure."

"The best feature is the management for the port life cycle, which automatically recycles, pulls, and scales up and down based on needs and requests."

"The banking transactions, inquiries, and account opening have been the most valuable."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is its scalability on demand, which allows for potentially lower costs, and Built-in resiliency."

"More tools are available in OpenShift Container Platform to maintain and manage the clusters."

More Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform pros

Cons

"One item that could be improved is the overall stability of Docker."

"I have encountered network issues while connecting with microservices. I want to optimize the application layers over the bucket. It should also have better documentation."

"The learning curve with Docker is huge and extensive"

"We'd like knowledge transfer to be easier."

"I advise new users to review their website, commands, and the steps for creating images."

"The vendor should release a monitoring tool or include monitoring capabilities in Docker"

"The volumes for persistent storage could be more user friendly right out of the box."

"Marketing of Docker is one area that needs to improve."

More Docker cons

"One area for product improvement is the support limitations within the subscription models, particularly the restricted support hours for lower-tier subscriptions."

"There should be a simplification of the overall cluster environment. It should require fewer resources. Just to run a simple Hello World app, it requires about seven servers, and that's just crazy. I understand that it is fully redundant, but it's prohibitively expensive to get something simple going."

"The UI could be more user-friendly to drive tasks more effectively through the interface."

"The stability needs improvement."

"Whenever we onboard or deploy services that talk to Oracle Database, they take a lot of time to become active and serve the incoming request, so it would be good to see some improvement here. This could be an OpenShift issue or an internal network problem within our organization."

"The setup process is not great."

"OpenShift Container Platform is an expensive solution, and its pricing could be improved."

"There are some occasions when support from Red Hat is not what we expect; in instances of outages, it sometimes takes a substantial amount of time to resolve issues."

More Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution offers an open-source version that is free and includes a lot of functionality."

"The current cost for us is nothing as an open source."

"Customers pay for the license through a yearly subscription model, where they pay per license. This means that the license is based on a subscription, and the customer pays annually for each license they use."

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

"We are using the open-source version of the solution."

"The solution is an open-source technology and not a commercial product. However, you will have to pay sometimes. The tool's pricing depends on the vendor."

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

"There is a license needed to use Docker."

More Docker pricing and cost advice

"OpenShift with Red Hat support is pretty costly. We have done a comparison between AWS EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Services) which provides fully managed services from AWS. It's built on open-source-based Kubernetes clusters and it is much cheaper compared to Red Hat, but it is a little expensive compared to ECS provided by AWS."

"I'm not familiar with pricing or financial aspects. In terms of effort versus benefit, it's worth it."

"The pricing and licensing are handled on an upper management level, and I'm not involved in that, but I understand the solution to be somewhat pricey."

"OpenShift pricing varies by region. For example, a simple cluster with three nodes in DAL-10 might cost around $560 to $580 per month, subject to specific configurations like memory and CPU cores."

"The license to use the OpenShift Container Platform is free. If you are capable with Java you can modify it."

"Its price is a bit high because it's a premium product, but as long as the business is ready to pay for that, it's okay."

"Its licensing is completely incomprehensible. We have special people within our company. They discuss with Red Hat subscription managers. It is too complex, and I do not understand it. We are from the government, and we are trying to be as cheap as possible. Sometimes, I am just amazed at the amount of money that we have to pay. It is crazy."

"OpenShift Container Platform is highly-priced."

More Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Insurance Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

23%

Computer Software Company

11%

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

Which is better - OpenShift Container Platform or VMware Tanzu Mission Control?

Red Hat Openshift is ideal for organizations using microservices and cloud environments. I like that the platform is auto-scalable, which saves overhead time for developers. I think Openshift can b...

See all answers

What do you like most about OpenShift Container Platform?

The tool's most valuable features include high availability, scalability, and security. Other features like advanced cluster management, advanced cluster security, and Red Hat Quay make it powerful...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OpenShift Container Platform?

The current licensing cost for this solution is around $23,000 per year, per month. Regarding the current licensing cost, I would rate my satisfaction around seven or seven and a half; there's alwa...

See all answers

Comparisons

VMware Tanzu Platform vs Docker

Compared 27% of the time

Mirantis Container Runtime vs Docker

Compared 13% of the time

Codespaces vs Docker

Compared 13% of the time

Rancher Labs vs Docker

Compared 11% of the time

Chainguard vs Docker

Compared 4% of the time

More Docker Competitors

Amazon EKS vs Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

Compared 45% of the time

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE vs Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

Compared 16% of the time

Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) vs Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

Compared 7% of the time

VMware Tanzu Platform vs Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

Compared 7% of the time

More Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Docker

June 2025

Download Docker product report

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

May 2025

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform report

Download Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform product report

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

Red Hat® OpenShift® offers a consistent hybrid cloud foundation for building and scaling containerized applications. Benefit from streamlined platform installation and upgrades from one of the enterprise Kubernetes leaders.

Red Hat

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Edenor, BMW, Ford, Argentine Ministry of Health

Buyer's Guide

Docker vs. Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform

June 2025

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