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Rancher vs Red Hat OpenShift: What are the differences?
Introduction
Rancher and Red Hat OpenShift are both popular container management platforms. While they share some similarities, there are key differences that set them apart.
Architecture: Rancher follows a lightweight and modular architecture design, allowing it to work seamlessly with different container runtimes, such as Docker and Kubernetes. On the other hand, Red Hat OpenShift is built on top of Kubernetes, offering a more integrated and opinionated platform for containerized applications.
Ease of Use: Rancher provides a user-friendly web-based GUI for managing and orchestrating containers. It offers a simplified user experience with intuitive workflows and visualizations. In contrast, Red Hat OpenShift embraces a more developer-centric approach, focusing on CLI tools and command-driven interactions for greater flexibility and control.
Platform Maturity: Rancher has been in the market for a longer period of time and has gained a reputation for stability and reliability. Its users appreciate its robustness and battle-tested features. Red Hat OpenShift, being backed by a renowned enterprise software company, brings enterprise-grade support and additional security features to the table.
Commercial Support: Rancher offers commercial support plans, but it is primarily an open-source platform with a vibrant community. Red Hat OpenShift, on the other hand, is a commercial product that includes enterprise support from Red Hat. This support includes technical assistance, security updates, and access to training resources.
Scalability and Extensibility: Rancher is known for its scalability, allowing users to manage large-scale container deployments across multiple clusters and environments. It also offers a wide range of built-in integrations and plugins to extend its functionality. Red Hat OpenShift focuses on providing a comprehensive platform for building, deploying, and managing applications in a multi-cloud environment, with additional ecosystem tools and services.
Licensing: Rancher is an open-source project licensed under the Apache 2.0 license. This means users can freely modify and distribute the software. Red Hat OpenShift, however, is based on the Kubernetes open-source project but includes additional proprietary components. It follows a subscription-based licensing model.
In summary, Rancher offers a lightweight, modular, and user-friendly container management platform with strong community support. Red Hat OpenShift, backed by a renowned enterprise software company, provides a more integrated and mature platform with enterprise-grade support and additional security features for building, deploying, and managing containerized applications in a multi-cloud environment.
Pros of Rancher
- Easy to use103
- Open source and totally free79
- Multi-host docker-compose support63
- Load balancing and health check included58
- Simple58
- Rolling upgrades, green/blue upgrades feature44
- Dns and service discovery out-of-the-box42
- Only requires docker37
- Multitenant and permission management34
- Easy to use and feature rich29
- Cross cloud compatible11
- Does everything needed for a docker infrastructure11
- Simple and powerful8
- Next-gen platform8
- Very Docker-friendly7
- Support Kubernetes and Swarm6
- Application catalogs with stack templates (wizards)6
- Supports Apache Mesos, Docker Swarm, and Kubernetes6
- Rolling and blue/green upgrades deployments6
- High Availability service: keeps your app up 24/76
- Easy to use service catalog5
- Very intuitive UI4
- IaaS-vendor independent, supports hybrid/multi-cloud4
- Awesome support4
- Scalable3
- Requires less infrastructure requirements2
Pros of Red Hat OpenShift
- Good free plan99
- Open Source63
- Easy setup47
- Nodejs support43
- Well documented42
- Custom domains32
- Mongodb support28
- Clean and simple architecture27
- PHP support25
- Customizable environments21
- Ability to run CRON jobs11
- Easier than Heroku for a WordPress blog9
- Easy deployment8
- PostgreSQL support7
- Autoscaling7
- Good balance between Heroku and AWS for flexibility7
- Free, Easy Setup, Lot of Gear or D.I.Y Gear5
- Shell access to gears4
- Great Support3
- High Security3
- Logging & Metrics3
- Cloud Agnostic2
- Runs Anywhere - AWS, GCP, Azure2
- No credit card needed2
- Because it is easy to manage2
- Secure2
- Meteor support2
- Overly complicated and over engineered in majority of e2
- Golang support2
- Its free and offer custom domain usage2
- Autoscaling at a good price point1
- Easy setup and great customer support1
- MultiCloud1
- Great free plan with excellent support1
- This is the only free one among the three as of today1
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Cons of Rancher
- Hosting Rancher can be complicated10
Cons of Red Hat OpenShift
- Decisions are made for you, limiting your options2
- License cost2
- Behind, sometimes severely, the upstreams1
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