Today, both Docker and Kubernetes are leading container orchestration tools in the DevOps lifecycle.
Docker uses a containerization platform for configuring, building, and distributing containers, while Kubernetes is an Ecosystem for managing a cluster of Docker containers.
Since Docker and Kubernetes are much similar to each other, so before knowing the difference between Docker and Kubernetes, first, you should know about what is Docker? And what is Kubernetes?
What is Docker?
Docker provides a containerization platform which supports various operating systems such as Linux, Windows, and Mac.
It allows us to easily build applications, package them with all required dependencies, and ship it to run on other machines.
The advantage of using Docker is that it provides benefits for both developers as well as a system administrator.
For developers it focuses on writing the code without worrying about the system. For a system administrator, it provides flexibility to reduces the number of systems for testing the applications.
Docker includes various features such as easy and faster configuration, manages security, use Swarm, routing mesh, application isolation, and increase productivity.
What is Kubernetes?
Kubernetes (also known as k8s) is an open-source platform developed by Google.
It offers powerful, useful, and scalable tools for managing, deploying complicated containerized applications.
The advantage of using Kubernetes is that it provides the best solution for scaling up the containers.
Kubernetes includes various features such as runs everywhere, automated rollouts and rollback, storage orchestration, Batch execution, secret and configuration management, horizontal scaling, and offers additional services.
Docker vs. Kubernetes
The below table shows the difference between Docker and Kubernetes -
Docker Kubernetes
Docker is developed by Docker Inc. Kubernetes is developed by Google.
It was first released in 2013. It was first released in 2014.
It is a container based technology used to create isolated environment for applications. It is an infrastructure for managing multiple containers.
It allows us to use third-party tools like ELK for logging and monitoring. It allows us to use in-built tools for logging and monitoring.
Its public cloud service provider is only Azure. Its public cloud service providers are Google, Azure, and AWS.
It is less customizable. It is highly customizable.
Its container limit is 95000. Its container limit is 300000.
It is easy to install. It is complex to install.
It cannot do auto-scaling. It can do auto-scaling.
It does not provide any dashboard. It provides a Web UI dashboard.