Are you looking for an alternative for Kubernetes? Then, you have come to the right place.
Kubernetes is a popular solution for deploying, scaling and managing containerized applications. It is used by most of the big companies, including Comcast, Goldman Sachs, The Times Now, and others to manage their servers. Even Yahoo Japan is using Kubernetes and using it to their advantages. However, it is not the only containerized solution out there.
If you are looking for the best alternative for Kubernetes, then you have come to the right place. We will go through the top 5 best alternatives for Kubernetes. Before we get started, let’s understand the basics of orchestration.
What is orchestration?
Orchestration is the basics of proper containerization. An excellent orchestration platform needs to have some key features to perform its duty. For example, it needs to have excellent service discovery, the ability to load balance requests, or other high-level orchestration duties. Not only that, the orchestration platform depends heavily on the infrastructure you are using.
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Top 5 Best Alternative for Kubernetes
Docker Swarm
Docker Swarm is a popular alternative to Kubernetes. The orchestration tool works on top of the Docker engine and enables anyone to utilize their networking and APIs. It is an open-source orchestration platform that works natively to Docker’s clustering engine. This also means that the command line for Docker works well for the Docker Swarms. Swarms are a cluster of nodes that work in tandem. They consist of manager nodes, services, worker nodes, and tasks. Just like Kubernetes, you do not need to configure every small detail. It also offers proper scaling and ensures that you can manage your containers effectively and efficiently.
Docker Swarm is also open-source, which means that it can be integrated with other cloud infrastructure. It’s the capability to turn a swarm of Docker or containers into a single virtual host makes it extremely useful when managing the orchestrated environments.
When to use Docker Swarm?
If you are managing a less complex orchestration, then Docker Swarm can be a good choice as it offers a simple solution. It offers a fast, simplistic approach and faster deployment. However, it does have a different approach when compared to Kubernetes.
Key features of Docker Swarm
- Decentralized design
- Cluster management with Docker Engine
- Scaling
- Service discovery
- Load balancing
- Multi-host network
And much more!
Nomad
As we already know, Kubernetes is mainly aimed at platforms that require full orchestration control. However, not all projects have the same requirement and can work with something minimalistic and easy-to-use. Meet Nomad, a flexible, easy-to-use, and workload orchestration that can be used to deploy batch, microservice, non-containerized, and containerized applications. With Nomad, it is also easy to scale, integrate — all through a native console.
Key features of Nomad
- Proper plan change implementation
- Declare jobs
- Run applications
- Monitor progress
- Supports flexible workloads
- Supports multiple OS
When to use Nomad?
Nomad is mainly aimed for general purpose use. It supports different types of applications, including standalone, virtualized, and containerized. It is also architecturally simple, which makes it an excellent choice for simple projects. However, it can also be used for a cluster size of more than 10,000 nodes!
Amazon ECS
Amazon is one of the well-known players when it comes to the cloud platform. This also means that they offer excellent orchestration service. Their Amazon Elastic Container Service(ECS) provides orchestration services. It supports not only containerized applications on AWS, but also Docker as well. With Amazon ECS, you can manage your containerized applications with the ability to scale them as well. It works well with virtual machines as well.
Key features of Amazon ECS
- Secure
- Containers without servers thanks to AWS Fargate
- Containerize everything
- AWS Integration
- Performance at scale
- Docker support
- Task definitions, scheduling
- Proper security and networking
- Load balancing
- Monitoring and logging
When to use Amazon ECS?
Amazon ECS is ideal for a diverse types of projects. For example, you can use it to deploy microservices applications that are natively integrated within the AWS service. It also allows for continuous deployment and integration(CICD). Other than that, you can also do batch processing, application cloud migration, machine learning, and so on. Many big customers use Amazon ECS to their advantage, including GoPro, Ubisoft, TIBCO, and so on!
Apache Marathon
Apache Marathon is a container orchestration platform for the data center operating system and Mesos. It is production-grade, which can be used to manage containers. It works in tandem with Apache Mesos, which abstracts memory, CPU, storage, or other resources that are used by machines — creating a robust and elastic distributed system. Apache Marathon comes with a fantastic user interface. It also comes with DC/OS features such as Virtual IP routing and authorization.
Apache Marathon offers to scale out of the box. Moreover, it also supports fault recovery gives your project 100% uptime.
Apache Marathon Features
- Excellent availability with 100% uptime
- Multiple container runtimes
- Powerful and user-friendly UI
- Health checks
- Constraints
- Load Balancing and Service Discovery
- Deprecated Metrics
- Metrics
- Event Subscription
- Complete REST APIs
- Excellent documentation
When to use Apache Marathon?
If you are using Apache Mesos, then you should use Apache Marathon. It also comes with complete REST APIs, which means it can also be used with other infrastructure and cloud solutions. All you need to do it ensure that you integrate it properly. Also, it requires you to use Java 8 JVM, JDK 1.8+, and Apache Zookeeper and Apache Mesos 1.0.1+.
In short, Marathon is one of the frameworks that is currently being available within Mesos. Marathon makes it easy to manage not only apps but also frameworks. Overall, a great alternative to Kubernetes is capable of self-healing and scaling containerized workloads. It also scales well and can be used in a production environment.
Helios
Helios is an open-source, free-to-use orchestration that aims to provide an orchestration solution without any single point of failure. Helios is highly scalable but does come up with some dependencies that you need to take care of. It can manage a single machine instance and as well as several machines, both locally or on the cloud. Other key features of Helios include its ability to identify problems with a container and highlight it as soon as possible. Moreover, it is highly scalable and offers an excellent track record when managing real-world applications.
Helios Features
- Easy to set up and run
- Manage multiple containers at once
- Only a few dependencies
Why use Helios?
There are many reasons why you would prefer Helios. The reasons include the following
- Helios is a pragmatic solution for orchestration
- It is a rock-solid orchestration solution that lets you manage your resources and also do CI/CD
- It is not highly dependent on other aspects of the project including choice of infrastructure
- Highly scalable
Conclusion
This leads us to the end of the top 5 best alternatives for Kubernetes. We listed both free and paid Kubernetes alternative, and we hope that you have found your right alternative. Also, the list is not exhaustive, and there are other alternatives as well. If you did, then do not forget to comment below and let us know. We are listening! Also, if you think that a particular orchestration platform should have made into the list, then also let us know in the comment section below.