Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Apache Mesos VS Podman

Compare Apache Mesos VS Podman and see what are their differences

Apache Mesos logo Apache Mesos

Apache Mesos abstracts resources away from machines, enabling fault-tolerant and elastic distributed systems to easily be built and run effectively.

Podman logo Podman

Simple debugging tool for pods and images
  • Apache Mesos Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30
  • Podman Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-30

Apache Mesos features and specs

  • Scalability
    Apache Mesos is designed to scale to thousands of nodes, making it ideal for large-scale distributed systems.
  • Resource Isolation
    Mesos uses containerization techniques (like Docker and Mesos containers) to provide resource isolation, ensuring applications run in their own secure environments.
  • Fault Tolerance
    The framework is built with fault tolerance in mind. It continuously monitors the health of all nodes and can move tasks from failing nodes to healthy ones.
  • Multi-Framework Support
    Mesos can manage multiple types of workloads through different frameworks like Apache Spark, Apache Hadoop, and Kubernetes simultaneously on the same cluster.
  • Resource Efficient
    It provides fine-grained resource allocation, allowing multiple applications to share a single cluster, which leads to more efficient resource utilization.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Mesos

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Setting up and managing a Mesos cluster can be complex and requires a thorough understanding of the framework and its components.
  • Operational Complexity
    Mesos requires additional components like Marathon (for container orchestration) which adds to the operational overhead.
  • Maturity
    While Mesos is a robust system, it may not be as mature or feature-rich as some cloud-native solutions like Kubernetes, which have seen wider adoption.
  • Community Support
    As Mesos is somewhat overshadowed by Kubernetes, it has a smaller community and fewer third-party integrations compared to more popular orchestration tools.
  • Ecosystem Integration
    Many new-age DevOps tools and CI/CD pipelines are primarily designed with Kubernetes in mind, which might result in limited integration capabilities with Mesos.

Podman features and specs

  • Daemonless Architecture
    Podman does not require a daemon to run containers, which simplifies its architecture and minimizes the potential attack surface.
  • Rootless Containers
    Podman allows running containers as a non-root user, enhancing security by reducing the risk associated with running processes as the root user.
  • Kubernetes Support
    Podman has built-in support for Kubernetes, enabling easier transition and orchestration of containers at scale.
  • Compatibility with Docker CLI
    Podman provides a Docker-compatible command line interface, making it easy for users to migrate from Docker with minimal changes to their workflows.
  • Enhanced Security
    With features like user namespaces and no central daemon, Podman offers improved security compared to traditional container runtimes.
  • Open Source
    Podman is an open-source project, which provides transparency and community-driven development.

Possible disadvantages of Podman

  • Limited Ecosystem
    The ecosystem around Podman is not as extensive as that of Docker, potentially limiting the availability of third-party tools and integrations.
  • Learning Curve
    Users familiar with Docker may face a learning curve when adapting to some of Podmanโ€™s unique features and CLI differences.
  • Performance Overhead
    Running rootless containers can introduce some performance overhead due to the additional layers of user namespace translation.
  • Less Mature
    Podman is relatively newer compared to Docker, which means it might not be as battle-tested in enterprise environments.
  • Inconsistent Behavior
    Certain Podman features may behave differently than Docker, which might lead to unexpected issues during container management and automation.

Analysis of Apache Mesos

Overall verdict

  • Apache Mesos is a strong choice for organizations looking for a scalable and flexible resource management system, especially if they have diverse workloads that require efficient orchestration. However, its complexity might pose a challenge for smaller teams or use cases that do not require such extensive features.

Why this product is good

  • Apache Mesos is known for its ability to abstract the entire data center into a single pool of resources, thus simplifying resource management and allocation for distributed systems. It allows for efficient sharing of resources across different applications and offers strong support for container orchestration, microservices, and big data applications. Mesos is highly adaptable and can work with a variety of different workload types, making it suitable for diverse environments.

Recommended for

  • Large organizations with complex infrastructure needs.
  • Teams that require high scalability and flexibility.
  • Projects that involve big data frameworks like Apache Spark or Hadoop.
  • Development environments necessitating custom resource scheduling.

Analysis of Podman

Overall verdict

  • Podman is a solid option for users seeking a secure, flexible, and rootless alternative to Docker. It performs efficiently and provides strong compatibility with existing container management workflows.

Why this product is good

  • Podman is considered a good tool due to its daemonless architecture, which enhances security and provides more flexibility in container management. Unlike Docker, Podman can run containers under rootless mode, allowing non-root users to manage containers and reducing the attack surface. Podman's compatibility with Docker command-line interface (CLI) and its ability to run in a Kubernetes-like environment using pods make it versatile for diverse container management tasks.

Recommended for

  • Developers and system administrators who require a rootless container management solution.
  • Teams focused on security and minimal permissions for container management.
  • Organizations looking to integrate container management closely with Kubernetes without relying on Docker.
  • Users who are comfortable with command-line interface tools and container technologies.

Apache Mesos videos

Reactive Stream Processing Using Apache Mesos

Podman videos

PODMAN vs DOCKER - should you switch now?

More videos:

  • Review - Actually, podman Might Be Better Than docker
  • Review - Container (Podman) Review - Kominfo PROA Training Lab 2

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache Mesos and Podman)
Developer Tools
37 37%
63% 63
Containers As A Service
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud Computing
0 0%
100% 100
DevOps Tools
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Apache Mesos and Podman

Apache Mesos Reviews

Docker Alternatives
Another Docker alternative is Apache Mesos. This tool is designed to leverage the features of modern kernels in order to carry out functions like resource isolation, prioritization, limiting & accounting. These functions are generally carried out by groups in the Linux or zones in the Solaris. What Mesos does is, it provides isolation for the Memory, I/O devices, file...
Source: www.educba.com

Podman Reviews

Podman vs Docker: Comparing the Two Containerization Tools
Rootless processes. Because of its daemonless architecture, Podman can perform truly rootless operations. Users do not have to be granted root privileges to run Podman commands, and Podman does not have to rely on a root-privileged process.
Source: www.linode.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Podman seems to be a lot more popular than Apache Mesos. While we know about 125 links to Podman, we've tracked only 11 mentions of Apache Mesos. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apache Mesos mentions (11)

  • Erlang's not about lightweight processes and message passing
    Erlang, OTP, and the BEAM offer much more than just behaviours. The VM is similar to a virtual kernel with supervisor, isolated processes, and distributed mode that treats multiple (physical or virtual) machines as a single pool of resources. OTP provides numerous useful modes, such as Mnesia (database) and atomic counters/ETS tables (for caching), among others. The runtime also supports bytecode hot-reloading, a... - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Kubernetes Simplified: A Comprehensive Introduction for Beginners
    Apache Mesos, a robust cluster manager, excels at handling diverse workloads beyond just containers, offering flexibility for organizations with varying needs. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Containers Orchestration and Kubernetes
    Even though this article will be focused on Kubernetes I want to mention that there are multiple container orchestration platforms such as Mesos, Docker Swarm, OpenShift, Rancher, Hashicorp Nomad, etc. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • eBPF, sidecars, and the future of the service mesh
    I worked at several Bay Area startups, mainly in NLP and machine learning roles. I was part of a company called PowerSet, which was building a natural language processing engine and was acquired by Microsoft. I then joined Twitter in its early days, around 2010, when it had about 200 employees. I started on the AI side but transitioned to infrastructure because I found it more satisfying and challenging. We were... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Upgrading Hundreds of Kubernetes Clusters
    When we adopted Kubernetes at Criteo, we encountered initial hurdles. In 2018, Kubernetes operators were still new, and there was internal competition from Mesos. We addressed these challenges by validating Kubernetes performance for our specific needs and building custom Chef recipes, StatefulSet hooks, and startup scripts. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
View more

Podman mentions (125)

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache Mesos and Podman, you can also consider the following products

Kubernetes - Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers

containerd - An industry-standard container runtime with an emphasis on simplicity, robustness and portability

Docker - Docker is an open platform that enables developers and system administrators to create distributed applications.

Charity Engine - Charity Engine takes enormous, expensive computing jobs and chops them into 1000s of small pieces...

Flox - Manage and share development environments with all the frameworks and libraries you need, then publish artifacts anywhere. Harness the power of Nix.

JPPF - The open source grid computing solution.