Overview

Docker

Stacks179.0K

Followers143.8K

Votes3.9K

k3s

Stacks100

Followers252

Votes16

Docker vs k3s: What are the differences?

Introduction

Docker and k3s are both containerization platforms that allow developers to build, deploy, and manage applications within containers. While they have some similarities, there are key differences between the two.

Architecture: Docker is a full-fledged containerization platform that comprises a daemon, client, and container runtime. It is designed to be easily installed and run on various operating systems. On the other hand, k3s is a lightweight and certified Kubernetes distribution that is optimized for resource-constrained environments. It is specifically designed for edge computing, IoT, and other low-resource scenarios.
Resource Footprint: Docker has a heavier resource footprint compared to k3s. Docker runs its own virtualization layer and requires a dedicated kernel. In contrast, k3s leverages the lightweight container orchestration capabilities of Kubernetes, making it more efficient and consuming fewer resources.
Ease of Installation: Docker is relatively easy to install and setup, especially on individual machines or development environments. It provides a user-friendly interface and documentation. Conversely, k3s is designed for simplicity and ease of deployment in resource-constrained environments. It requires fewer system dependencies and can be installed with a single command.
Management and Features: Docker provides a robust set of management tools and features that enable developers to build, test, and deploy applications seamlessly. It supports container networking, storage management, and image registry. Meanwhile, k3s extends the functionality of Kubernetes by providing a lightweight and simplified Kubernetes distribution, ensuring compatibility while optimizing resource usage.
Community Support: Docker benefits from a large and active community, resulting in a vast ecosystem of plugins, tools, and resources. It has been widely adopted in the industry, and developers can find extensive documentation and community support. While k3s is a relatively newer project, it is gaining popularity and has an active community contributing to its development.
Use Case Focus: Docker focuses on enabling developers to package and distribute applications as containers, regardless of the underlying infrastructure. It is useful for development teams working on various platforms. Conversely, k3s specifically targets resource-constrained environments, edge computing, and IoT use cases. It is designed to be lightweight and efficient, enabling Kubernetes to run on low-resource devices.

In Summary, Docker is a full-fledged containerization platform with a larger ecosystem and focus on enabling containerized application development, while k3s is a lightweight Kubernetes distribution optimized for resource-constrained environments such as edge computing and IoT.

Advice on Docker, k3s

Florian

IT DevOp at Agitos GmbH

Oct 22, 2019

Decided

lxd/lxc and Docker aren't congruent so this comparison needs a more detailed look; but in short I can say: the lxd-integrated administration of storage including zfs with its snapshot capabilities as well as the system container (multi-process) approach of lxc vs. the limited single-process container approach of Docker is the main reason I chose lxd over Docker.

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Detailed Comparison

Docker	k3s
The Docker Platform is the industry-leading container platform for continuous, high-velocity innovation, enabling organizations to seamlessly build and share any application — from legacy to what comes next — and securely run them anywhere	Certified Kubernetes distribution designed for production workloads in unattended, resource-constrained, remote locations or inside IoT appliances. Supports something as small as a Raspberry Pi or as large as an AWS a1.4xlarge 32GiB server.
Integrated developer tools; open, portable images; shareable, reusable apps; framework-aware builds; standardized templates; multi-environment support; remote registry management; simple setup for Docker and Kubernetes; certified Kubernetes; application templates; enterprise controls; secure software supply chain; industry-leading container runtime; image scanning; access controls; image signing; caching and mirroring; image lifecycle; policy-based image promotion	ARM64 and ARMv7 support; Simplified installation; SQLite3 support; etcd support; Automatic Manifest and Helm Chart management; containerd, CoreDNS, Flannel support
Statistics
Stacks 179.0K	Stacks 100
Followers 143.8K	Followers 252
Votes 3.9K	Votes 16
Pros & Cons
Pros 823 Rapid integration and build up 692 Isolation 521 Open source 505 Testability and reproducibility 460 Lightweight Cons 8 New versions == broken features 6 Unreliable networking 6 Documentation not always in sync 4 Moves quickly 3 Not Secure	Pros 6 Lightweight 4 Easy 2 Replication Controller 2 Open Source 2 Scale Services
Integrations
Java Docker Compose VirtualBox Linux Amazon EC2 Container Service Docker Swarm boot2docker Kubernetes Docker Machine Vagrant	Kubernetes SQLite

What are some alternatives to Docker, k3s?

Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.

Rancher

Rancher is an open source container management platform that includes full distributions of Kubernetes, Apache Mesos and Docker Swarm, and makes it simple to operate container clusters on any cloud or infrastructure platform.

Docker Compose

With Compose, you define a multi-container application in a single file, then spin your application up in a single command which does everything that needs to be done to get it running.

Docker Swarm

Swarm serves the standard Docker API, so any tool which already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to transparently scale to multiple hosts: Dokku, Compose, Krane, Deis, DockerUI, Shipyard, Drone, Jenkins... and, of course, the Docker client itself.

Tutum

Tutum lets developers easily manage and run lightweight, portable, self-sufficient containers from any application. AWS-like control, Heroku-like ease. The same container that a developer builds and tests on a laptop can run at scale in Tutum.

Portainer

It is a universal container management tool. It works with Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Swarm and Azure ACI. It allows you to manage containers without needing to know platform-specific code.

LXD

LXD isn't a rewrite of LXC, in fact it's building on top of LXC to provide a new, better user experience. Under the hood, LXD uses LXC through liblxc and its Go binding to create and manage the containers. It's basically an alternative to LXC's tools and distribution template system with the added features that come from being controllable over the network.

Codefresh

Automate and parallelize testing. Codefresh allows teams to spin up on-demand compositions to run unit and integration tests as part of the continuous integration process. Jenkins integration allows more complex pipelines.

LXC

LXC is a userspace interface for the Linux kernel containment features. Through a powerful API and simple tools, it lets Linux users easily create and manage system or application containers.