Docker vs Vagrant

Overview

Docker

Stacks194.2K

Followers143.8K

Votes3.9K

Vagrant

Stacks11.9K

Followers7.8K

Votes1.5K

Docker vs Vagrant: What are the differences?

Docker is a containerization platform that enables you to package and run applications in isolated environments called containers. Vagrant is a tool for creating and managing virtual development environments, providing a consistent and reproducible setup for developers working on different machines. Here are some key differences between Docker and Vagrant:

Virtualization vs Containerization: Vagrant is primarily a virtualization tool to create and manage lightweight, isolated virtual machines (VMs) for development and testing purposes. It uses providers like VirtualBox, VMware, or Hyper-V to create VMs and provisions them with the necessary software and configurations. Docker, on the other hand, is a containerization platform that allows for lightweight, isolated application packaging using containers. It provides a consistent runtime environment that encapsulates an application and its dependencies, making it portable and easily deployable.
Development vs Production Focus: Vagrant is mainly designed for local development environments. It provides reproducible development environments that closely resemble production setups. Developers can define the desired state of a VM through a configuration file, and Vagrant automatically creates and provisions the VM accordingly. Docker, on the other hand, is designed for both development and production environments. It emphasizes creating containerized applications that can run consistently across different environments, from local development to production deployment.
Complexity vs Simplicity: Vagrant offers more flexibility and control over VM configurations. This flexibility comes with a certain level of complexity, as managing VMs requires understanding the underlying virtualization technology and configuring the VM settings. Docker, in contrast, provides a simpler and more lightweight approach to application deployment using containers. It abstracts away much of the infrastructure complexity and offers standardized tools and workflows for building, distributing, and running containerized applications.
Resource Utilization: Vagrant creates full-fledged VMs, which require more resources in terms of disk space and memory compared to Docker containers. VMs have their own operating system, kernel, and hardware virtualization overhead, which can make them heavier in terms of resource utilization. Docker containers, on the other hand, share the host operating system and kernel, resulting in lower resource overhead and faster startup times. This makes Docker more suitable for lightweight and scalable deployments, especially in cloud-native and microservices architectures.

In summary, Vagrant focuses on creating and managing virtual machines for development environments, providing flexibility and reproducibility. Docker, on the other hand, specializes in lightweight application containerization, making it easier to package, distribute, and deploy applications consistently across different environments, from development to production.

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Advice on Docker, Vagrant

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	Vagrant
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	Vagrant provides the framework and configuration format to create and manage complete portable development environments. These development environments can live on your computer or in the cloud, and are portable between Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
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	Boxes;Up And SSH;Synced Folders;Provisioning;Networking;Share;Teardown;Rebuild;Providers
Statistics
Stacks 194.2K	Stacks 11.9K
Followers 143.8K	Followers 7.8K
Votes 3.9K	Votes 1.5K
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 Documentation not always in sync 6 Unreliable networking 4 Moves quickly 3 Not Secure	Pros 352 Development environments 290 Simple bootstraping 237 Free 139 Boxes 130 Provisioning Cons 2 Multiple VMs quickly eat up disk space 2 Can become v complex w prod. provisioner (Salt, etc.) 1 Development environment that kills your battery
Integrations
Java Docker Compose VirtualBox Linux Amazon EC2 Container Service Docker Swarm boot2docker Kubernetes Docker Machine Google Kubernetes Engine	Amazon EC2 Microsoft Azure DigitalOcean HP Cloud Compute Joyent Cloud Rackspace Cloud Servers SoftLayer VirtualBox

What are some alternatives to Docker, Vagrant?

boot2docker

boot2docker is a lightweight Linux distribution based on Tiny Core Linux made specifically to run Docker containers. It runs completely from RAM, weighs ~27MB and boots in ~5s (YMMV).

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.

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.

Otto

Otto automatically builds development environments without any configuration; it can detect your project type and has built-in knowledge of industry-standard tools to setup a development environment that is ready to go. When you're ready to deploy, otto builds and manages an infrastructure, sets up servers, builds, and deploys the application.

libvirt

It is an open-source API, daemon and management tool for managing platform virtualization. It can be used to manage KVM, Xen, VMware ESXi, QEMU and other virtualization technologies.

rkt

Rocket is a cli for running App Containers. The goal of rocket is to be composable, secure, and fast.

Azk

azk lets developers easily and quickly install and configure development environments on their computers.

Vagrant Cloud

Vagrant Cloud pairs with Vagrant to enable access, insight and collaboration across teams, as well as to bring exposure to community contributions and development environments.

Studio 3T

It's the only MongoDB tool that provides three ways to explore data alongside powerful features like query autocompletion, polyglot code generation, a stage-by-stage aggregation query builder, import and export, SQL query support and more.

XenServer

It is a leading virtualization management platform optimized for application, desktop and server virtualization infrastructures. It is used in the world's largest clouds and enterprises.

Related Comparisons

Virtualization vs Containerization: Vagrant is primarily a virtualization tool to create and manage lightweight, isolated virtual machines (VMs) for development and testing purposes. It uses providers like VirtualBox, VMware, or Hyper-V to create VMs and provisions them with the necessary software and configurations. Docker, on the other hand, is a containerization platform that allows for lightweight, isolated application packaging using containers. It provides a consistent runtime environment that encapsulates an application and its dependencies, making it portable and easily deployable.
Development vs Production Focus: Vagrant is mainly designed for local development environments. It provides reproducible development environments that closely resemble production setups. Developers can define the desired state of a VM through a configuration file, and Vagrant automatically creates and provisions the VM accordingly. Docker, on the other hand, is designed for both development and production environments. It emphasizes creating containerized applications that can run consistently across different environments, from local development to production deployment.
Complexity vs Simplicity: Vagrant offers more flexibility and control over VM configurations. This flexibility comes with a certain level of complexity, as managing VMs requires understanding the underlying virtualization technology and configuring the VM settings. Docker, in contrast, provides a simpler and more lightweight approach to application deployment using containers. It abstracts away much of the infrastructure complexity and offers standardized tools and workflows for building, distributing, and running containerized applications.
Resource Utilization: Vagrant creates full-fledged VMs, which require more resources in terms of disk space and memory compared to Docker containers. VMs have their own operating system, kernel, and hardware virtualization overhead, which can make them heavier in terms of resource utilization. Docker containers, on the other hand, share the host operating system and kernel, resulting in lower resource overhead and faster startup times. This makes Docker more suitable for lightweight and scalable deployments, especially in cloud-native and microservices architectures.

Docker vs Vagrant