KUBERNETES VS DOCKER: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE AND WHEN TO USE EACH?

Kubernetes vs Docker: What’s the Difference and When to Use Each?

Kubernetes vs Docker: What’s the Difference and When to Use Each?

Blog Article

In the world of modern DevOps and cloud-native applications, the debate of Kubernetes vs Docker often arises. While both technologies are widely used in containerization workflows, they serve different purposes and are not direct competitors. Understanding how they work—and how they can work together—is key to building scalable, resilient infrastructure.


At Kapstan, we help DevOps and platform teams simplify containerized deployments, whether they’re managing Docker images, orchestrating clusters with Kubernetes, or both.






What is Docker?


Docker is a platform designed to build, package, and run applications in lightweight, portable containers. Each Docker container includes the application code along with its dependencies, ensuring that it can run consistently across different environments—whether that’s your laptop, a testing server, or production infrastructure.


Docker revolutionized software delivery by making it easy to ship applications without the “it works on my machine” problem. Developers can define their application environments using Dockerfiles, version them, and share them with teams or deploy them via CI/CD pipelines.


However, Docker by itself doesn’t manage multiple containers or coordinate deployment across a cluster of machines. That’s where Kubernetes comes in.






What is Kubernetes?


Kubernetes, often referred to as K8s, is a container orchestration platform that manages the deployment, scaling, and lifecycle of containerized applications. Originally developed by Google, it has become the industry standard for running containers in production at scale.


Kubernetes allows you to define how containers should run, monitor their health, perform rolling updates, handle failover, and scale based on demand—all while abstracting away the underlying infrastructure.


It’s important to note that Kubernetes doesn’t build or run containers by itself. It needs container images to orchestrate, and those images are most often created using Docker.






Kubernetes vs Docker: Key Distinctions


The comparison between Kubernetes vs Docker isn’t about choosing one over the other; it’s about understanding their roles. Docker is used to create and run containers. Kubernetes is used to manage and orchestrate those containers across multiple environments or nodes.


Think of Docker as a way to package your application, and Kubernetes as the system that runs many of those packages in a coordinated, resilient manner.


While Docker simplifies development, Kubernetes ensures your applications are production-ready with scalability, high availability, and operational automation.






Why the Confusion?


Much of the confusion around Kubernetes vs Docker stems from changes in the container runtime ecosystem. For years, Kubernetes used Docker as its default runtime, but recent versions have transitioned to alternatives like containerd (which Docker also uses under the hood). Despite this change, Docker images remain fully compatible with Kubernetes.


So while Kubernetes no longer relies on the full Docker Engine to run containers, teams still build and push Docker images as part of their DevOps workflow.






How Kapstan Helps


Whether you’re building with Docker or orchestrating with Kubernetes, Kapstan helps you bridge the gap between development and production with standardized, automated workflows.





  • CI/CD integration: Automate Docker builds, tests, and deployments using best-in-class pipelines.




  • GitOps deployment: Use Git as the single source of truth for managing Kubernetes resources.




  • Environment consistency: Maintain consistent infrastructure definitions across dev, staging, and production environments.




  • Observability: Monitor both Docker-based services and Kubernetes clusters from a centralized dashboard.




Kapstan removes the complexity from managing modern containerized applications by offering clear workflows, reusable configurations, and environment-level insights—making Kubernetes and Docker easier to adopt and scale.






Final Thoughts


When evaluating Kubernetes vs Docker, the right approach isn’t either/or—it’s both. Docker simplifies how you package applications, while Kubernetes manages how they run at scale. Together, they form the foundation of today’s cloud-native stack.


At Kapstan, we help engineering teams streamline and automate this entire lifecycle—so you can focus on delivering features, not wrestling with infrastructure.

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