Our primary use case is to build and bundle applications.
Principal DevOps Engineer at Guavus
Excellent simulation feature, realized scalability, with community support forums
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is that it gives you the same environment as on a developer machine as well as a production machine relevant to specifications, with binaries and dependencies all bundled together in a similar fashion in both places."
- "I would like to see better management layers."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is that it gives you the same environment as on a developer machine as well as a production machine relevant to specifications. The binaries and dependencies are all bundled together and they are in a similar fashion in both places.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see better management layers. One example of this would be binary shipping. I would also like to see Docker utilize a concept like Red Hat Family.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Docker for three to four years.
Buyer's Guide
Docker
October 2026
Learn what your peers think about Docker. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2026.
920,043 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is excellent. Sometimes, memory management can be tricky.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Docker is scalable on both community and commercial levels. I am using the community version. There are around one hundred to one hundred and twenty of us using Docker on a daily basis.
How are customer service and support?
For customer support, we are using the documentation on the forums and they are suitable.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very simple and straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
You can use either an in-house or vendor team. We simply downloaded Docker into our organizational environment.
What other advice do I have?
There are a sufficient number of YouTube videos and best practices to build Docker. I would encourage a potential user to investigate those videos. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Docker a nine.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Technical Architect at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Excellent scalability, easy to understand and follow, most widely accepted
Pros and Cons
- "Docker is easy to understand and follow, and it provides good scalability to the application."
- "I would like to see a single package image orchestration bundled together. Although Docker has ways to implement, it is not as flexible as Kubernetes."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is to build images for all of our microservices and UI applications. We are building an enterprise-grade application where there are a lot of integrations. We have around forty to fifty different microservices which we are deploying using Docker and all of the orchestration through Kubernetes.
What is most valuable?
Docker is easy to understand and follow. It provides good scalability to the application.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see a single package image orchestration bundled together. Although Docker has ways to implement, it is not as flexible as Kubernetes.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Docker for the past six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Docker is currently stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There is definitely scalability with Docker. We have more than two thousand working on products.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is both open source for public projects and a licensed solution.
When you are talking in terms of a dedicated technical support team you may need to purchase a support license.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Docker is the most widely accepted image-building tool. It has a large support base and community.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend having good POC's because there are certain niche cases that you might not consider while just doing a POC. There are a lot of activities, that need to be considered, and how this application is going to be consumed by other applications. I would rate Docker a nine on a scale of one to ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Docker
October 2026
Learn what your peers think about Docker. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2026.
920,043 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior Consultant and Trainer at Foreach Code Factory
Open source containerization platform that removes environment dependancies and can be deployed anywhere at any time
Pros and Cons
- "There are ways of using Docker where you have absolutely no dependencies on the environment that you work in, which allows us to deploy Docker anywhere anytime and has been most valuable because it removes any dependencies when it comes to deployment."
- "There are elements of stability that are problematic. One of the most recent upgrades created a major incident on our cloud, whereby the containers were not restarting automatically."
- "There are elements of stability that are problematic."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution for our web applications and websites for automatic deployment. We also have a cloud based solution that we sell as a product and we offer cloud hosting, which is Docker based. Our clients have access to a graphic user interface where they can deploy their websites with one click and we use Docker in the back end to make that possible.
Docker is an entirely containerized cloud solution that supports different types of applications running on the cloud including websites, web applications, APIs and some Lambda functions. We have a whole bunch of stuff running on the cloud. We have thousands of users supported by this solution.
What is most valuable?
There are ways of using Docker where you have absolutely no dependencies on the environment that you work in. This allows us to deploy Docker anywhere anytime and this has been most valuable.
Docker removes any dependancies when it comes to deployment. We can ship it between different devices and different locations without our clients being impacted or aware. In once instance, we redeployed a client's container without losing any of their data.
What needs improvement?
There are elements of stability that are problematic. One of the most recent upgrades created a major incident on our cloud, whereby the containers were not restarting automatically. Docker is a fairly new application and has matured and improved since 2016 but still needs improvement on stability.
Prior to using Docker, we used a CH root and jailing process. Essentially, Docker is a CH root on steroids combined with an image management system that is based out of git code. When you're dealing with such low level technology, there should not be issues with stability.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution since 2016.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable solution
How was the initial setup?
The setup on the most recent versions of Windows is pretty straightforward. The setup on Mac is also pretty straightforward, but there are networking problems. Docker, it doesn't play well with the Mac virtual hypervisor. There are some issues on that side. On Linux, well, it's less straightforward, you have to know how to work it out. There are no performance or networking issues.
What about the implementation team?
We have done in house deployments and we have also used other tools like Kubernetes or Docker Compose. We have our own PHP library that can deploy Docker containers, which is called Linux for Composer. It is oriented towards helping PHP developers to use Docker to make things more simple.
What was our ROI?
We have definitely experienced ROI because it cuts down on development time. There are no surprises when it comes to deployment. It cuts down on development, deployment and it cuts down on staff. There are multiple advantages including on the financial side.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We've had a look at other possible solutions such as KVM and Pod Man. Pod Man is not very mature right now. There are a lot of things that we're used to being able to do with Docker that we can't do right now with Pod Man.
We're not excluding the possibility of using Pod Man. There is also an equivalent to Docker which is the Windows subsystem for Linux, WSL two. We've used that for a few projects in Windows environments, and we are considering putting our Linux distribution on WSL two.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise others not to use Docker as a virtual machine or to think of it as being similar to VMware or Virtual Box. It has an entirely different use case. They have to think about it as a system that is used on an ad hoc basis.
If you build thinking that it is temporary in nature, you will have the full benefits of Docker.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Software Development Team Lead at asa com
Easy to learn, secure environment, with excellent pricing
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is Docker has a fast learning curve."
- "This makes our publisher fast and our containers are isolated from each other."
- "One item that could be improved is the overall stability of Docker."
- "For the most part, Windows is stable, but sometimes the application crashes and we have to have an error fixed in order for the stability to remain."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use is to deploy the applications in a secure environment. We prefer that our developer and the Docker files can make the images. After we have captured the images we use our CI/CD tool and deploy our applications. This makes our publisher fast and our containers are isolated from each other. We increase our security by using Docker.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is Docker has a fast learning curve. There are a lot of default options that when you use Docker you do not need to customize or configure it in a way that it slows you down. The user interface is very nice as well. Docker has good security.
What needs improvement?
One item that could be improved is the overall stability of Docker.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Docker for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
For the most part, Windows is stable, but sometimes the application crashes and we have to have an error fixed in order for the stability to remain. When it comes to Linux it is not so compatible.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
The reason why the company decided to use Docker is that it is easy to learn.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is easy and straightforward. The Docker site is comprehensive, and you can find all of the documentation, API, details, and comments you need to deploy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The current cost for us is nothing as an open source.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend they use the online videos and tutorials and after a week they are going to be ready to start. I would recommend it to anyone to use. I would rate Docker an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Manager Dev Ops at Accenture
Great lift and shift feature creates lightweight images; unfortunately, documentation is lacking
Pros and Cons
- "The lift and shift creates a lightweight image."
- "Docker has relieved a lot of the pressure, including the fact that I no longer have to provide everything from scratch."
- "The documentation could be improved."
- "That said, Docker has some limitations and Kubernetes has discontinued using it."
What is our primary use case?
I use Docker to create dev stacks, usually for developers to plug and play their applications, and in cases where they don't need to be bothered with complex architectures and decoupling services. We create a simple Docker compose file and provision it. We are customers of Docker and I'm a DevOps engineer.
What is most valuable?
The lift and shift is valuable because you create a lightweight image that can be accessed by anyone who has installed Docker.
What needs improvement?
I'd like to see improvement in some of the documentation because there are currently errors and it requires a thorough check and deep dive to make sure it's correct. If they were to incorporate what the community offers into the documentation, it would be beneficial.
Many people use multiple containers for their workload and it would be great to have pre-deployed solutions for typical deployments like WordPress and multiple CMS which would encourage more developers to use Docker. I would love to see the solution with pre-baked, ready-to-go capabilities for multi-container solutions.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for five years.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't found such complex issues that I need to contact customer support. I found most of the answers through the community or using a work around.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very easy. You just need some basic understanding of the system, and how containerization works. Images are already prepared so if the user doesn't have the images on his local system, Docker pulls it from the repository and it's good to go. It's much faster if the images are downloaded. As a DevOps engineer, I generally carry out the deployment myself.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend learning about containerization prior to using this solution starting with basic deployments. Take the opportunity to test it out and check the components. Docker has relieved a lot of the pressure, including the fact that I no longer have to provide everything from scratch. I know I just have to install the Docker community edition, make Docker images and get going. That said, Docker has some limitations and Kubernetes has discontinued using it. It's compatibility is reduced as a result and many organizations are moving towards Kubernetes and other orchestration services.
I rate this solution seven out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Linux System Administrator at Dana Energy
Integrates well, scalable, and useful online support
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of Docker is its integration with other solutions, such as KVM and AlmaLinux."
- "Docker could improve by providing the ability to use the GPU for parallel processing. If there was the capability of using the GPU it would improve the machine learning that I want to use."
What is our primary use case?
I am using Docker for the containers as a method for parallel processing for the software.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Docker is its integration with other solutions, such as KVM and AlmaLinux.
What needs improvement?
Docker could improve by providing the ability to use the GPU for parallel processing. If there was the capability of using the GPU it would improve the machine learning that I want to use.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Docker for a couple of years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of Docker is good, but approximately one year ago it was not good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Docker is scalable.
We have approximately 30 seismic processor users using the solution. The solution is used on a daily basis.
How are customer service and support?
We do not have support from Docker. However, there is documentation available online that is useful.
How was the initial setup?
Docker is simple to implement. It is a lot easier than other solutions to implement.
I rate the initial setup of Docker a five out of five.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Docker is a free open-source solution.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Docker an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Technical Lead at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Has great customization features and helps our organization with proofing designs
Pros and Cons
- "It is neat and very flexible."
- "We have found the customization feature most valuable, as Docker is used for customizing images and is a self-hosted or self-managed application that is neat and very flexible, letting you have all your applications and dependencies in one image that you can use in different applications and run off other applications."
- "Unfortunately, base images are not currently available."
What is our primary use case?
Docker is a POC setup and a proof of concept. Therefore, we work closely with other clients and proof some designs.
What is most valuable?
We have found the customization feature most valuable. Docker is used for customizing images and is a self-hosted or self-managed application. It is neat and very flexible, and you can have all your applications and dependencies in one image. You can use that image in different applications and run it off other applications. You only need a registry to put them in, and you can leverage it. Kubernetes helps with orchestration.
What needs improvement?
The product could be improved by providing more documentation and detailed tutorials for the initial setup. Additionally, in the next release, I would love them to add the latest base image for DPN. They can look closely into upgrading their base images to assist some of our clients in looking for specific base images to build their applications. Unfortunately, base images are not currently available.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for approximately two years.
How are customer service and support?
Our experience with technical support has been decent. It falls in line with the general support aspect of Docker. It depends on the plan we are using. So if you have a higher goal, you get full support. I rate our experience with customer service and support an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have not worked with other similar solutions.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. I rate it a six out of ten.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I cannot comment on licensing costs as I don't have access to that information.
What other advice do I have?
I rate this solution nine out of ten. The solution is good and easy to use but can be improved by including more documentation and detailed tutorials for the initial setup.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Specialist - Cloud Services and Software at NRG Energy, Inc.
Reliable, scalable, and useful application vitalization
Pros and Cons
- "The scalability of Docker is good."
- "Previously we had to set everything up for small deployments in the environment, but with Docker, we can directly run the application in a container and pull any images."
- "Docker could improve by having security vulnerability reports."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Docker in our Java pipeline which is based on DevOps.
We use Docker because we do not have to set up an environment to let people try applications.
What needs improvement?
Docker could improve by having security vulnerability reports.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Docker for approximately two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Docker is a stable solution, but there are some security vulnerabilities and that's why we are using security tools to point out if any vulnerabilities arise.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Docker is good.
We have most of our application running using Docker in our organization and there are over 1,000 people using the applications.
How are customer service and support?
I have not contacted the support from Docker.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have previously used Prisma but I found Docker has more features.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Docker can be easy. However, it depends on the network you have Docker on.
What about the implementation team?
We have Docker configured everywhere and it took approximately one hour.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is a license needed to use Docker.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others is they should use this solution. Previously we had to set everything up for small deployments in the environment, but with Docker, we can directly run the application in a container and pull any images. We don't need to set it up. We can use an image and we can directly set it up.
I rate Docker an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Unix/Linux Systems Administrator at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Detailed documentation, simple to use, but vertical scaling could improve
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of Docker are its security, detailed documentation, and ease of use, and the Docker Swarm is not as complex as Kubernetes."
- "If you install Docker on a host, it creates its own firewalls. It can become an issue. Usually, when you want to install Docker, you need to restart the firewall or restart the active tables on the machine, but this is not the case with Kubernetes. It uses the default set up by the next administrator, but with Docker, you have to restart the firewall and restart Docker before the firewall on the system will be okay. If you do not the rules will not be created."
- "If you install Docker on a host, it creates its own firewalls. It can become an issue."
What is our primary use case?
Docker is an open-source container runtime for running container images. We are using Docker Swarm which is similar to Kubernetes but from Docker.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Docker are its security, detailed documentation, and ease of use, and the Docker Swarm is not as complex as Kubernetes.
There is a feature called overlay network for orchestrating containers in Docker Swarm which makes everything easy. You don't need a load balancer, which makes everything easy for accessing in one container. Additionally, it has internal DNS, which is not in Kubernetes.
What needs improvement?
If you install Docker on a host, it creates its own firewalls. It can become an issue. Usually, when you want to install Docker, you need to restart the firewall or restart the active tables on the machine, but this is not the case with Kubernetes. It uses the default set up by the next administrator, but with Docker, you have to restart the firewall and restart Docker before the firewall on the system will be okay. If you do not the rules will not be created.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Docker for approximately six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The performance of Docker is good. We usually follow best practices before deploying Docker, we have not had any issues since deployment.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Docker is scalable. However, If you want to vertically scale, you have to do it manually. It doesn't have autoscaling.
We have seven people using Docker in my organization.
How are customer service and support?
The support from Docker is very good. The documentation is rich, any issue you face, somebody already faced and the information is available.
How was the initial setup?
The main reason we are using the Docker Swarm instead of using Kubernetes is you can set up Docker Swarm within five minutes. Docker is easy to set up. Once you install it, you can run it. In this case, the container runtime becomes Docker. The reason why we are using it is the vendor recommended Docker for bank sector purposes.
Setting up the master nodes in Docker is very easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Docker is a free open-source solution. However, there is the Docker Enterprise which is a paid solution.
What other advice do I have?
The founder of Docker decided to move to Docker Enterprise to make revenue. There are many people moving away from Docker.
My advice to others is if you are using legacy applications they do not run well with containers. The person wanting to use Docker has to ask themself questions about themselves to determine if this solution is best. For example, the application that they want to run has to be scalable. People think Docker or Kubernetes is going to solve their problems, but no. If you have problems, it's going to amplify them, but if you have easy, smooth applications, it's going to make your life easier. The application itself has to be scalable.
The application has to be container ready, such as login inputs, does it follow the 12-Factor principles of deployment, and has security. Even if you don't have security, Docker can help with security if you don't have application security.
You need to consider how you are going to patch the images or the applications and if it will work with languages on WiFi, such as Java, Python, or Ruby version. Those are requirements you need to meet before deploying Docker. You have to find answers to many questions.
I rate Docker a seven out of ten.
I gave my rating a seven out of ten because autoscaling is necessary for cloud-native applications and it is not available. However, it's easy to use, scalable, and straightforward. It was the defacto container runtime for a long time until they went to an enterprise. Docker is very good in CI/CD. Anybody building images is using Docker to build the images and it works well with CI/CD.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Containerization simplifies application deployment and integration with CI/CD tools
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the simple containerization."
- "The stability is excellent."
- "In terms of communication between services, perhaps the configuration within networks between containers could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
I use Docker primarily for backend services to containerize applications or for API communications.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the simple containerization. I can specify what I need to install in a shell to ensure the application runs. It's a straightforward and easy-to-use feature. I also use it with CI/CD tools, finding it a good solution for integration.
What needs improvement?
In terms of communication between services, perhaps the configuration within networks between containers could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Docker for about six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is excellent. I would rate it ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
By using Kubernetes, scalability is simple and can be done without issues.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Some developers might use virtualization solutions like VMware, however, Docker is much better because it is simple.
How was the initial setup?
Overall, the setup is simple.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I consider Docker's pricing to be affordable.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Some developers might consider virtualization solutions like VMware.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Docker for a wide range of users, from 50 to five million users, as it is simple to configure.
I rate the overall solution ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Docker Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: October 2026
Product Categories
Development Platforms Container Management Software Supply Chain Security AI Software DevelopmentPopular Comparisons
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Splunk Observability Cloud
Pega Platform
Red Hat OpenShift
VMware Tanzu Platform
JFrog Xray
Sonatype Lifecycle
Redis
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
Oracle Application Express (APEX)
Mend.io
Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management
Cursor
Aqua Cloud Security Platform
Amazon EKS
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Docker Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.






















