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Dokku vs Rancher: What are the differences?

Introduction: In the realm of container management platforms, Dokku and Rancher are two popular options that serve different purposes and offer unique features. Understanding their key differences will help users make an informed decision when choosing the right platform for their needs.

  1. Architecture: Dokku is a simple yet powerful platform that runs on a single server and leverages Docker to deploy applications. In contrast, Rancher is a more complex platform that uses Kubernetes for orchestration, allowing for multi-node clusters and advanced management capabilities.

  2. Ease of Use: Dokku is praised for its simplicity and ease of setup, making it ideal for small projects and developers looking for a straightforward solution. On the other hand, Rancher's feature-rich interface and advanced functionalities cater to more complex deployments and organizations requiring scalability and versatility.

  3. Scalability: While Dokku is limited to single-server deployments, Rancher offers scalability through its support for multi-node clusters and advanced container orchestration with Kubernetes. This makes Rancher a better choice for large-scale projects and enterprises requiring high availability and load balancing.

  4. Community and Support: Dokku has a smaller but dedicated community, with a focus on simplicity and minimalism. Rancher, being a more comprehensive platform, has a larger community and robust support system, offering resources and expertise for users tackling complex deployment challenges.

  5. Integration and Compatibility: Dokku integrates seamlessly with Git, allowing for easy application deployments directly from version control. Rancher, on the other hand, offers a wide range of integrations with various cloud providers and external tools, enhancing its compatibility and extensibility.

  6. Security Features: Rancher provides advanced security features such as role-based access control (RBAC), network policies, and encryption at rest, ensuring a high level of security for containerized applications. Dokku, while simple and lightweight, may lack some of these advanced security measures, requiring additional setup for securing deployments.

In Summary, understanding the key differences between Dokku and Rancher is crucial for determining the best fit for your specific container management needs, whether you prioritize simplicity, scalability, advanced features, or community support.

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Pros of Dokku
Pros of Rancher
  • 23
    Simple
  • 12
    Open Source
  • 11
    Built on Docker
  • 11
    Free
  • 4
    Yay, it works like a charm
  • 4
    Git deploy
  • 2
    HTTP proxy from public hostname to container IP address
  • 2
    Zero downtime deploys
  • 103
    Easy to use
  • 79
    Open source and totally free
  • 63
    Multi-host docker-compose support
  • 58
    Load balancing and health check included
  • 58
    Simple
  • 44
    Rolling upgrades, green/blue upgrades feature
  • 42
    Dns and service discovery out-of-the-box
  • 37
    Only requires docker
  • 34
    Multitenant and permission management
  • 29
    Easy to use and feature rich
  • 11
    Cross cloud compatible
  • 11
    Does everything needed for a docker infrastructure
  • 8
    Simple and powerful
  • 8
    Next-gen platform
  • 7
    Very Docker-friendly
  • 6
    Support Kubernetes and Swarm
  • 6
    Application catalogs with stack templates (wizards)
  • 6
    Supports Apache Mesos, Docker Swarm, and Kubernetes
  • 6
    Rolling and blue/green upgrades deployments
  • 6
    High Availability service: keeps your app up 24/7
  • 5
    Easy to use service catalog
  • 4
    Very intuitive UI
  • 4
    IaaS-vendor independent, supports hybrid/multi-cloud
  • 4
    Awesome support
  • 3
    Scalable
  • 2
    Requires less infrastructure requirements

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Cons of Dokku
Cons of Rancher
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    • 10
      Hosting Rancher can be complicated

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    What is Dokku?

    It is an extensible, open source Platform as a Service that runs on a single server of your choice. It helps you build and manage the lifecycle of applications from building to scaling.

    What is 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.

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    What companies use Dokku?
    What companies use Rancher?
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    What tools integrate with Dokku?
    What tools integrate with Rancher?

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    What are some alternatives to Dokku and Rancher?
    Heroku
    Heroku is a cloud application platform – a new way of building and deploying web apps. Heroku lets app developers spend 100% of their time on their application code, not managing servers, deployment, ongoing operations, or scaling.
    Flynn
    Flynn lets you deploy apps with git push and containers. Developers can deploy any app to any cluster in seconds.
    Docker
    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
    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.
    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.
    See all alternatives