Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Homebrew VS Docker

Compare Homebrew VS Docker and see what are their differences

Homebrew logo Homebrew

The missing package manager for macOS

Docker logo Docker

Docker is an open platform that enables developers and system administrators to create distributed applications.
  • Homebrew Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-29
  • Docker Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-25

Docker

Website
docker.com
$ Details
Release Date
2013 January
Startup details
Country
United States
State
California
Founder(s)
Solomon Hykes
Employees
50 - 99

Homebrew features and specs

  • User-Friendly
    Homebrew provides an easy-to-use command-line interface that simplifies the installation and management of software packages.
  • Wide Range of Packages
    Homebrew offers a vast repository of software, covering a broad spectrum of utilities, languages, and applications.
  • Dependency Management
    Homebrew automatically handles dependencies, ensuring that all required packages are installed and up to date.
  • Community Support
    Homebrew has a strong community backing and regular contributions, which ensures frequent updates and a robust support system.
  • Cross-Platform
    Homebrew is available on macOS and Linux, allowing for consistent package management across different operating systems.
  • Customizability
    Users can create their own formulae to install software that isn’t available in the core repositories.

Possible disadvantages of Homebrew

  • Resource Intensive
    Some users find that Homebrew can be resource-intensive, particularly during installation of large packages or those with numerous dependencies.
  • Security Risks
    Because Homebrew allows for the installation of third-party software, there is a potential risk of downloading insecure or malicious packages.
  • Complexity for Beginners
    While user-friendly for most, beginners with no command-line experience might find the initial learning curve steep.
  • Duplication
    Users might accidentally install software that is already managed by other package managers or system libraries, leading to duplication.
  • Limited GUI Support
    Homebrew is primarily a command-line tool and lacks a graphical user interface, which could be a drawback for users who prefer GUI-based package management.

Docker features and specs

  • Portability
    Docker containers are designed to run consistently across different environments such as development, testing, and production, ensuring that software behaves the same regardless of where it's deployed.
  • Efficiency
    Docker containers share the host OS kernel and use fewer resources compared to traditional virtual machines, which allows for faster startups and reduced overhead.
  • Isolation
    Containers encapsulate the application and its dependencies in a separate environment, which minimizes conflicts between different applications' dependencies.
  • Scalability
    Docker makes it easier to scale applications quickly and manage resource allocation dynamically, which is particularly useful for microservices architectures.
  • Continuous Integration and Deployment
    Docker facilitates CI/CD processes by making it easier to automate the deployment pipeline, resulting in faster code releases and more frequent updates.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    A vast community and a rich ecosystem of tools and pre-built images in Docker Hub, enabling you to quickly find and reuse code and solutions.

Possible disadvantages of Docker

  • Complexity
    While Docker can simplify certain aspects of deployment, it adds a layer of complexity to the infrastructure that might require specialized knowledge and training.
  • Security
    Containers share the host OS kernel, which can pose security risks if an attacker gains access to the kernel. Proper isolation and security measures must be implemented.
  • Persistent Data
    Managing persistent data in Docker can be challenging, as containers are ephemeral and the default storage solutions are not always suitable for all applications.
  • Monitoring and Debugging
    Traditional monitoring and debugging tools might not work well with containerized applications, requiring specialized tools and approaches which can complicate troubleshooting.
  • Performance Overhead
    Although lighter than virtual machines, Docker containers can still introduce performance overheads, especially when multiple containers are running simultaneously.
  • Compatibility
    Not all software and systems are fully compatible with Docker, which can limit its use in certain legacy applications and complex environments.

Homebrew videos

Homebrew Review: Coopers Lager - Taste Test

More videos:

  • Review - Homebrew Review | Alchemist Class by Mage Hand Press (featuring Designer Mike Holik)
  • Review - Northern Brewer Cream Ale Homebrew Review Tasting

Docker videos

What is Docker in 5 minutes

More videos:

  • Tutorial - What is Docker? Why it's popular and how to use it to save money (tutorial)
  • Review - Real World PHP Dockerfile Review, from a #Docker Captain

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Homebrew and Docker)
Front End Package Manager
Developer Tools
34 34%
66% 66
Package Manager
100 100%
0% 0
Containers As A Service
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Homebrew and Docker

Homebrew Reviews

Top Homebrew Alternative: ServBay Becomes the Go-To for Developers
Homebrew is a highly popular package manager on macOS and Linux systems, enabling users to easily install, update, and uninstall command-line tools and applications. Its design philosophy focuses on simplifying the software installation process on macOS, eliminating the need for manual downloads and compilations of software packages.
Source: medium.com

Docker Reviews

Exploring 7 Efficient Alternatives to MAMP for Local Development Environments
Though not specifically designed for PHP development, Docker offers a containerized approach to create, deploy, and run applications. It enables easy installation of PHP, web servers, and databases within containers, facilitating quick and consistent development environment setups.
Source: medium.com
Top 6 Alternatives to XAMPP for Local Development Environments
Docker - A containerization platform that allows developers to package applications and their dependencies into containers. Docker Compose can be used to define multi-container application stacks, including web servers, databases, and other services. Features powerful portability and consistency, supports rapid building, sharing, and container management, suitable for...
Source: dev.to
The Top 7 Kubernetes Alternatives for Container Orchestration
Docker uses images as templates to create new containers using Docker engine commands such as Build -t or run -d.
Kubernetes Alternatives 2023: Top 8 Container Orchestration Tools
Docker is an open-source platform for building, managing, deploying containerized applications. Swarm is a native feature in Docker with a group of virtual or physical machines that lets you schedule, cluster, and run Docker applications. It is a Docker alternative for Kubernetes that provides high portability, agility, and high availability.
Top 12 Kubernetes Alternatives to Choose From in 2023
Docker Swarm is a native clustering and orchestration solution provided by Docker, the leading containerization platform.
Source: humalect.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Homebrew seems to be a lot more popular than Docker. While we know about 918 links to Homebrew, we've tracked only 73 mentions of Docker. 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.

Homebrew mentions (918)

  • How to for developers: Mastering your corporate MacBook Setup
    Homebrew is the go to for developer using MacOs to be able to install applications. It's the equivalent of Aptitude in Ubuntu. - Source: dev.to / 5 days ago
  • Connect to Unsupported Older Linux servers with VS Code Remote-SSH using Custom glibc & libstdc++
    Install glibc and patchelf using brew (Homebrew), or build from source, or use a prebuilt binary (if available). This guide uses brew. Also you can see this. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Dark Souls CRUD Arena - The Prisoner Approach
    In past personal projects, and in my most recent role, I've used Docker for dependency management to avoid the "works on my machine" scenario. I also just like keeping dependencies off my machine, but for this project I opted not to use containers given my lack of dependencies. I used Homebrew for all my needs :). - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Use the Amazon Q Developer CLI on AWS Graviton
    Install Homebrew if it's not already available on your computer. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • 5 Local Environment Mistakes I See Everywhere, and How to Fix Them Properly
    # ./launch.sh: #!/bin/bash if ! Command -v brew &> /dev/null; then echo "❌ Homebrew is not installed. Install it from https://brew.sh/" exit 1 fi if ! Command -v docker &> /dev/null; then echo "⚙️ Installing Docker..." brew install --cask docker fi if ! Command -v php &> /dev/null; then echo "🐘 Installing PHP..." brew install php@8.3 fi. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
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Docker mentions (73)

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Homebrew and Docker, you can also consider the following products

Chocolatey - The sane way to manage software on Windows.

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

iTerm2 - A terminal emulator for macOS that does amazing things.

Rancher - Open Source Platform for Running a Private Container Service

VS Code - Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

Apache Karaf - Apache Karaf is a lightweight, modern and polymorphic container powered by OSGi.