Docker Swarm vs Kubernetes

Docker is just a containerization platform. Docker Swarm is a container orchestration platform, the same as Kubernetes.

What’s the difference between Docker and Kubernetes?
Docker and Kubernetes are complementary. Docker provides an open standard for packaging and distributing containerized applications, while Kubernetes provides for the orchestration and management of distributed, containerized applications created with Docker. In other words, Kubernetes provides the infrastructure needed to deploy and run applications built with Docker.

Container orchestration is the process that can typically deploy multiple containers to implement an application through automation. Platforms like Kubernetes and Docker Swarm are the container management and container orchestration engines that enable users to guide container deployment and automate updates, health monitoring, and failover procedures.

A feature summary compiled from multiple online articles -

	Docker Swarm	Kubernetes
Developed By	Docker Inc	Google
Year Released	2013	2014
When to use	Use Docker if, You are looking to initiate with a tool without spending much time on configuration and installation; You are looking to develop a basic and standard application which is sufficient enough with default docker image; Testing and running the same application on the different operating system is not an issue for you; You want zdocker API experience and compatibility.	Use Kubernetes if: You are looking for mature deployment and monitoring option You are looking for fast and reliable response times You are looking to develop a complex application and requires high resource computing without restrictions You have a pretty big cluster
Controller	Manager	Master
Storage	Volumes	Persistent and Ephermal
Compatibility	Less extensive and customizable	More extensive and highly customizable
Installation	Easy to set up	Takes time for installation
Tolerance ratio	Low Fault Tolerance	High fault tolerance
Large Clusters	Speed is considered for the strong cluster states	Provides container deployment and scaling even in large clusters without considering the speed
Load Balancing	Provides load balancing when pods in the container are defined as service	Provides automated internal load balancing through any node in the cluster
Deployment unit	Task	Pod
Port	Published Port	Endpoint
Network	Overlay	Flat Networking space
Community	Active user base that regularly updates images for various application	Enjoys strong support from open source communities and big companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM
Weakness	No certification plan for vendors. Most organization need commercially certified version	Inclined towards developers than central IT
Strengths	Mostly controlled by a single vendor who can decide product direction	Clear market leader; largest adoption and interest
Slave	Worker	Nodes
Container set up	Functionality is provided and limited by Docker API	Client API and YAML are unique in Kubernetes
Scalability	Quick container deployment and scaling even in large containers	Provides strong guarantees to the cluster states at expense of speed
Constraints	- An application which is designed to run in a Docker container on Windows can’t run on Linux and vice versa.	Installation process is tedious if any public cloud provider like Azure, Google or AWS is not used.

Docker Enterprise Edition manages Kubernetes and Swarm transparently, side by side