Vagrant is a workflow for development projects. Here is an excellent primer/tutorial on that subject if you want to learn more about how Docker fits into the larger development ecosystem. As you'll see, when we compare Docker to other tools (including Vagrant), it can be confusing to figure out the differences. Docker containers hold an application's components, including binaries, libraries, and configurations, as well as the application's dependencies. How is Docker Different from Vagrant?ĭocker is often described as 'lightweight,' because it simply provides containers within the host machine's Linux operating system. Where the two overlap the most is in the ability of each to solve the problems related to sharing environment setups so that multiple instances of the same application act in a predictable, repeatable manner. While the descriptions are divergent, there is similarity in the use cases.

Vagrant creates and configures lightweight, reproducible, and portable development environments.

Docker is an open platform for building, shipping, and running distributed applications.

Definitions can be touchy so we'll use the product description from the home pages for Docker and Vagrant right now. We thought it would be useful to revisit the topic again from a high level. Each community has grown quite a bit since then.

A little over two years ago we wrote that the lines between Vagrant and Docker were already blurring.

While not exactly competing tools, they are frequently used in the same sorts of conversations. One comparison we keep seeing is between Docker vs Vagrant. The number of tools available for developing, deploying, and managing applications continues to expand.

Docker for mac vagrant