Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Docker vs Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 13, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Docker
Ranking in Container Management
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Development Platforms (1st), Software Supply Chain Security (5th)
Red Hat OpenShift Container...
Ranking in Container Management
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
48
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Container Management category, the mindshare of Docker is 3.4%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform is 31.5%, up from 26.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Container Management
 

Featured Reviews

Renat Babin - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to deploy with an impressive networking feature
The volumes for persistent storage could be more user friendly right out of the box. I would like an option to just use it as local storage or some kind of NSF or CIF. Or to mount the volume straight to a Google Drive or through a particular cloud storage. It's not that these things are impossible, but you have to do some extra work or configurations.
Vlado Velkovski - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides automation that speeds up our process by 30% and helps us achieve zero downtime
OpenShift has a pretty steep learning curve. It's not an easy tool to use. It's not only OpenShift but Kubernetes itself. The good thing is that Red Hat provides specific targeted training. There are five or six pieces of training where you can get certifications. The licenses for OpenShift are pretty expensive, so they could be cheaper because the competition isn't sleeping, and Red Hat must take that into account. There are a few versions of OpenShift. There is the normal OpenShift and an OpenShift Plus license. Red Hat could think of how to connect those two subscriptions because, with Red Hat Plus, you have one tool called ACM (Advanced Cluster Management), where you can manage multiple clusters from one place. We deployed this functionality by ourselves, but if you don't pay the license for Red Hat OpenShift Plus, you'll lack this functionality. If you have a multi-cloud environment and you have a lot of work to do, it would be a plus if the Red Had OpenShift Plus license came in a bundle with the regular solutions. This ACM tool should be available in the normal subscription, not just the Plus version. There are new versions on an almost weekly basis. I found myself that the upgrading of OpenShift clusters is not a task that will successfully finish every time. It's a simple and quick, but not reliable process. That's why we use multiple clusters. We use v4.10.3, but we want to move to v4.12.X. The upgrade process itself can fail, and we don't have backups of our OpenShift cluster because we have backups of all the Kubernetes manifests on GitHub. We destroy the cluster, bring up a new one quickly, and apply those scripts. The upgrade itself could be more resilient for us as administrators of OpenShift to be sure that it'll succeed and not occasionally fail. They can improve the reliability of their upgrade process. They also have implementations of some Red Hat-verified operators for a lot of products like Elasticsearch. They're good enough for development purposes, but some of the OpenShift operators still lack resilient production-grade configurations. Red Hat says that we have a few hundred operators, but I believe that only half of them are production-grade ready at this moment. They need to work much more on those operators to become more flexible because you can deploy all of them in development mode, but when we go to production grade and want to make specific changes to the operator and configuration, we lack those possibilities.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Docker is its integration with other solutions, such as KVM and AlmaLinux."
"The most valuable feature of Docker is that it provides a containerized environment. The isolation between the environments is beneficial. Additionally, the solution is easy to use."
"The most valuable feature is that it gives you the same environment as on a developer machine as well as a production machine relevant to specifications."
"Docker is easy to understand and follow. It provides good scalability to the application."
"The solution's most valuable feature is the Dockerfile, which makes the life of developers easy. Developers get a real understanding of container creation."
"The solution helps save costs."
"We find the auto scaling and auto healing functionality of this solution very good."
"Docker's containerization property is its main selling point."
"Technical support is good; they are fast and reliable."
"I have found the ability to scale up is most valuable."
"The architecture is the best. The solution is scalable if you are on a container-based solution."
"The most valuable feature is that the solution can be deployed in the cloud which removes the expense of a server."
"Dashboards... give us all the details we need to see about the microservices."
"OpenShift integrates seamlessly with our CI/CD pipelines, offering robust automation and deployment capabilities."
"The banking transactions, inquiries, and account opening have been the most valuable."
"Everything is packaged into OpenShift Container Platform."
 

Cons

"Docker needs to improve its pricing."
"The command line interface could be more intuitive. I constantly struggle with it."
"The product does not have an extensive documentation. The tool does not have good scenarios. We have to go through the GitHub repository and investigate similar scenarios. Also, if you are copying multiple things, then you can jeopardize the copy number. The copying aspect also lacks a UI part. We also need to limit the memory."
"I would like to see a single package image orchestration bundled together."
"Docker volumes. When I integrated volumes, I faced challenges. I have not essentially used add volumes to the existing instances."
"The learning curve with Docker is huge and extensive"
"Sometimes, we have sync-up issues where the build doesn't get processed due to these sync issues, causing the build to fail. That's one of the drawbacks I see. When we did a huge sync-up, we faced a couple of issues. It takes some time for us to complete the sync-up. For frequent, smaller updates, we haven't had any issues. However, challenges can arise for those who prefer doing everything in one go. This might not necessarily be due to the tool itself but because of the approach of doing everything in a single batch."
"Marketing of Docker is one area that needs to improve."
"The price must be improved."
"Things are there and the documentation is there, however, there still needs to be quick guides available."
"I believe OpenShift Container Platform can improve in networking, architecture, and cloud areas by reducing deployment time, lowering costs, and streamlining engineer resources"
"In my experience, the issues are not always simply technical. They do stem from technical challenges, but they struggle with the topic of adoption. When you encounter all of the customer pull, there are normally several tiers of your client pop that can adopt either the fundamental features or a little more advanced ones. The majority of the time, the challenge is determining how to drive adoption, how to sell the product to the customer, and how much time they can spend to really utilize those advanced features. If we get into much more detail, but this is from my perspective as the platform engineer and not the end customer, the ability of the end user to be able to debug potential issues with their application That is arguably the most important, let's say, work throughput in my area."
"It can take 10 to 15 minutes to deploy a microservice. The CI/CD process takes a long time, and if it's because of OCP, that is something that can be changed."
"We encounter difficulties while accessing the environment and managing the cluster. This particular area needs improvement."
"OpenShift needs to improve their container storage."
"The initial setup can be hard."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Docker is cost-effective and open-source."
"There is a license needed to use Docker."
"Docker is a free-to-use solution. However, Docker Enterprise is not free."
"We use the open-source version."
"The solution is an open-source technology and not a commercial product. However, you will have to pay sometimes. The tool's pricing depends on the vendor."
"Docker has made some changes and there is an enterprise version that is affordable."
"Docker is a free open-source solution. However, there is the Docker Enterprise which is a paid solution."
"Docker is a free open-source solution."
"Its price is a bit high because it's a premium product, but as long as the business is ready to pay for that, it's okay."
"The pricing and licensing are handled on an upper management level, and I'm not involved in that, but I understand the solution to be somewhat pricey."
"If you buy the product for a year or three, you get a lot of discounts...I feel that the product is worth its cost, especially since setting it up can be done with just a few clicks."
"OpenShift Container Platform is highly-priced."
"We paid for Cloud Pak for integration. It all depends on how many VMs or how many CPUs you are using. They do the licensing based on that."
"I'm not familiar with pricing or financial aspects. In terms of effort versus benefit, it's worth it."
"We have to pay for the license."
"The pricing is expensive for licensing."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Container Management solutions are best for your needs.
831,071 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Insurance Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Docker?
We are using Docker to host applications.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Docker?
Our customers buy the software and the prices are available on Docker Hub. The subscription is typically yearly, and customers will need to buy the subscription directly. They can purchase it thems...
What needs improvement with Docker?
Docker is a time-tested, proven solution with industry-wide applications. There can be challenges with port mapping, however, that's not related to Docker itself.
Which is better - OpenShift Container Platform or VMware Tanzu Mission Control?
Red Hat Openshift is ideal for organizations using microservices and cloud environments. I like that the platform is auto-scalable, which saves overhead time for developers. I think Openshift can b...
What do you like most about OpenShift Container Platform?
The tool's most valuable features include high availability, scalability, and security. Other features like advanced cluster management, advanced cluster security, and Red Hat Quay make it powerful...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OpenShift Container Platform?
OpenShift pricing varies by region. For example, a simple cluster with three nodes in DAL-10 might cost around $560 to $580 per month, subject to specific configurations like memory and CPU cores.
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Edenor, BMW, Ford, Argentine Ministry of Health
Find out what your peers are saying about Docker vs. Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
831,071 professionals have used our research since 2012.