The Best Docker Hosting Platforms of 2021

 

Compare Docker Hosting

Docker is the industry standard software for app development and deployment. While Docker is easy to use, it is also powerful, which means that not all web hosting platforms are up to the challenge of running the software. Generally speaking, Docker requires a VPS or dedicated server in order to reach its full potential, but which hosting platform is best for Docker? In this article, we will cover the basics of what Docker does, as well as give our recommendations, based on expert and customer reviews, for which web hosting platforms are ideal for web developers who use Docker.

The 15 Best Docker Hosting Platforms of 2021

• Amazon ECS
• Appfleet
• ASPHostPortal
• Docker
• Giant Swarm
• Google Kubernetes Engine
• HostForLIFE
• HostPresto
• IBM Cloud
• Jelastic
• Joyent Triton
• Kamatera
• Microsoft Azure
• Quay.io
• Sloppy.io

How Did We Pick the Best Docker Hosts?

We’ve gone through the hundreds of top web hosting companies and found the ones that offer powerful VPS and dedicated hosting with Docker either installed or easily installed.

We further narrowed down the choice by integrating our thousands of expert and customer reviews to find the top-10 Docker hosts.

Amazon ECS

Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) is trusted by brands as big as Samsung and GE for their most mission-critical applications. If it’s good enough for them, it should be good enough for your apps, too.

ECS provides you with access to the Amazon Fargate serverless compute engine. This eliminates the need to provision and manage servers, so you only pay for the exact amount of resources you use. It also improves security by default through application isolation.

Also, Amazon ECS supports Docker Compose, as well as any third-party hosted Docker image repository or accessible private Docker registry. Additional features include Elastic Load Balancing for traffic distribution, monitoring through Amazon CloudWatch, and logging through Amazon CloudTrail. 

Pros & Cons of Amazon ECS Docker Hosting

With Amazon ECS, you get the absolute best-in-class development tools for docker hosting. But one drawback is that there’s no live support. 

What Customers Are Saying

Customer reviews highlight that Amazon ECS’s scheduling features are another key benefit. “Fantastic, simple, and easy to use to get Docker container scheduling in the cloud,” wrote one user. “If you’re looking to get something running quick in a hosted environment (integrated with the rest of Amazon’s infrastructure), ECS makes it very easy to get started.”

Appfleet

Traditional cloud networks have all users connect to one location, which can result in slow speeds for some users and is vulnerable to outages with its potential single point of failure.

But with Appfleet’s global cloud network, you can host your code in all of Appfleet’s regions at the same time. This ensures your users have a fast connection no matter where they’re located, and it improves uptime as well. 

Appfleet’s prices start at $10 per month for 1 CPU core, 1 GB RAM, and 20 GB SSD storage. They go up to $640 per month for 16 CPU cores, 64 GB RAM, and 1.2 TB SSD storage. Also, bandwidth is $60 per TB. 

These plans all include cluster monitoring, custom health checks, API access, and GitHub integration. You can also purchase the Business add-on for another $500 per month, which includes SWIFT payments, single sign-on, and live chat features.

Pros & Cons of Appfleet Docker Hosting

While Appfleet does offer many useful features, it can be an expensive option when you consider the extra cost of bandwidth and the Business add-on.

What Customers Are Saying

The GitHub integration appears to be an especially helpful feature. “It’s very easy to deploy your containerized application and get your service hosted globally,” wrote one customer. “Also, it is straightforward to integrate Appfleet with GitHub and automatically trigger your deployments.”

ASPHostPortal

ASPHostPortal’s prices for docker hosting services start at $3.81 per month, which gets you 5 GB SSD storage, 60 GB of bandwidth, 2 SQL server databases, 1 GB SQL server space, 3 MySQL databases, and 1 GB MySQL server space.

The minimum specs of these servers include an Intel Xeon dual core processor, RAID-10 data protection, and 8 GB RAM. Unless you have particularly demanding development needs, that should be more than enough hardware for maintaining strong performance. 

And these plans also feature an easy-to-use control panel with one-click Docker installation, so you should have no problem with getting started and managing your account. 

Pros & Cons of ASPHostPortal Docker Hosting

With its low prices and intuitive interface, ASPHostPortal stands out as an excellent option for first-time Docker hosting users. But if you have demanding needs, you may need a more powerful solution. 

What Customers Are Saying

ASPHostPortal may not have live support, but apparently their ticket-based support system is quite effective. “I have been with ASPHostPortal for almost 8 years,” wrote one customer. “They always were knowledgeable and competent on any hosting or technical issue I needed addressed. Their support is the best I have ever seen and their people have honest to

goodness dedication which you don’t see in other companies.”

Docker

If you’re looking into docker hosting, you should certainly consider using the company that started it all. Originally known as dotCloud, this provider introduced the Docker Engine for containerization back in 2013. 

You can get all of Docker’s basic tools with the Free plan, which includes the Docker Engine, Docker CLI, Docker Compose, automatic updates, unlimited public repositories, one private repository, webhooks, GitHub integration, and Bitbucket integration.

Upgrading to the Pro version of Docker would provide you with unlimited data transfer, unlimited image retention, and email support. And with the Team version, you get features such as role-based access controls and unlimited teams.

Pros & Cons of Docker Hosting

Docker offers low prices and a generous amount of features. Users may also find it appealing that this is the company that developed docker hosting in the first place. 

What Customers Are Saying

The reviews show that Docker allows IT professionals to be more productive. “Docker is used by most of our teams as part of their development and deployment practice,” wrote one user. “For development, it enables engineers to build applications in the same environment without worrying about local configuration issues. Nearly all of our CI/CD and infrastructure runs in Docker containers as well, which makes debugging production issues (especially around deployment) as simple as pulling down the right image and poking at it locally.”

Giant Swarm

There are a number of benefits to using the Giant Swarm platform.

First of all, Giant Swarm is already one of the top platforms in terms of performance, and they’re constantly improving it with updates to components every week and a major platform upgrade every three months. It’s also one of your most secure options, as they perform an average of 12 post-mortems every week and release patches constantly. 

The support is yet another reason to choose Giant Swarm — each customer is assigned a go-to expert on a dedicated Slack channel who they can consult whenever they run into any issues.

Pros & Cons of Giant Swarm Docker Hosting

This is a high-performance docker hosting option that’s trusted by brands as big as Adidas and several other Fortune 500 companies. Another benefit is that live chat and phone support is available, although these support options are not available 24/7. 

What Customers Are Saying

Users like how much time and effort they’re able to save with the development tools provided by Giant Swarm. “Rather than wasting valuable time and effort trying to evaluate lots of new tools, Giant Swarm helps us design and manage our perfect container-based development stack,” wrote one customer.

Google Kubernetes Engine

In 2014, Google introduced the Kubernetes platform for managing containerized applications. 

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) takes a lot of stress out of the development process. You can set up clusters with a single click, and repairs and upgrades are handled automatically. 

Security is also one of GKE’s strong points. It features data encryption and automated vulnerability scanning of container images. Also, Google Site Reliability Engineers will constantly monitor your clusters and their computing resources.

Pros & Cons of GKE Docker Hosting

With GKE, you get a docker hosting solution from one of the biggest and most trusted names in tech. One significant concern is that, as with all Google Cloud products, you’ll need to pay at least an extra $100 per user per month for live support. 

What Customers Are Saying

Again, GKE makes app development much easier. “GKE is really managed entirely by Google,” wrote one customer. “This reduces the toil overhead for system administrators as well as allowing developers to remain focused on delivering app features.”

HostForLIFE

HostForLIFE’s prices for docker hosting start at $4.13 per month for their Classic plan, which includes unlimited SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, 2 SQL server databases, 1 GB SQL server space, 5 MySQL databases, and 1 GB MySQL server space.

Their docker hosting plans go up to $13.01 per month for the Business plan, which includes 10 SQL server databases, 20 GB SQL server space, 20 MySQL databases, and 20 GB MySQL server space.

And with data centers located in Seattle, Amsterdam, London, Paris, and Frankfurt, HostForLIFE is able to provide fast performance all across the United States and Europe. 

Pros & Cons of HostForLIFE Docker Hosting

HostForLIFE provides excellent value, as even their lowest-priced plan includes unlimited storage and bandwidth. But ideally, you would have access to live support in addition to their ticket-based system. 

What Customers Are Saying

HostForLIFE is another provider that shows you don’t necessarily need live chat or a phone line for helpful support. “The support team at HostForLIFE is fantastic,” wrote one customer. “They have a very quick response time, even on Sunday. They help you with almost any issue even if it isn’t their fault and will suggest solutions to your problem. I am very satisfied with the services of HostForLIFE.”

HostPresto

HostPresto’s docker hosting interface allows you to store your images centrally with a full update log. That means it’ll be easy for your team members to keep track of the latest updates and releases.

All of their hosting plans also include unlimited bandwidth, so you won’t need to worry about the usage of your containerized applications running into any limits or leading to any extra charges. 

And while HostPresto’s data center is based in London, all plans include free CloudFlare CDN to ensure your users experience optimal performance even if they’re on the other side of the world.

Pros & Cons of HostPresto Docker Hosting

With low prices and a solid set of features, HostPresto will be a good fit for many docker hosting users. But like many of the options covered in this guide, there’s no live support. 

What Customers Are Saying

According to this customer, HostPresto makes up for the lack of live support by responding to tickets very quickly: “Their support is the best of any company I deal with — their ticket response time is usually minutes, no matter what time of day or night I’ve messaged them.”

IBM Cloud

In 2017, IBM and Docker developed a version of Docker Enterprise Edition that’s designed specifically for the IBM Cloud platform. This allows you to combine the benefits of the Docker engine with Watson and other signature IBM tools. 

IBM Cloud offers two pricing plans for storing and distributing Docker images: Lite and Standard. The Lite version of this platform is completely free, and it allows you to use up to 0.5 GB in storage and 5 GB in pull traffic. If your needs are more demanding than that, you’ll need to upgrade to the pay-as-you-go plan.

Both of these plans include advanced security features, such as vulnerability scanning, comprehensive risk assessment, and fine-grained access controls. 

Pros & Cons of IBM Cloud Docker Hosting

As with the Amazon and Google docker hosting platforms, a tech brand as prestigious as IBM can provide you with some peace of mind. You know you’re getting access to incredibly high-end infrastructure. The only drawback is that you’ll need to pay for a separate support plan for 24/7 live chat and phone support, which costs at least $200 per month.

What Customers Are Saying

This customer doesn’t have any complaints about their experience with IBM Cloud: “IBM Cloud is very fast and very secure. And the price is really affordable, not that costly. The support which IBM provides is also really impressive.”

Jelastic

The main reasons to use Jelastic for docker hosting are their intuitive interface and flexible pricing model. 

Indeed, the Jelastic control panel is particularly easy to navigate, and it includes features such as an interactive file manager, built-in stats, update logs, load alerts, access control, and collaboration tools. 

Jelastic’s pricing is based on cloudlets, which are units of 128 MB of RAM and 400 MHz of CPU. They will measure how many cloudlets are consumed in each of your containers and charge you for that exact amount. Also, you can set a scaling limit on cloudlets to ensure that you don’t accidentally break your budget. 

Pros & Cons of Jelastic Docker Hosting

With Jelastic’s user-friendly interface and low starting price, first-time docker hosting users should strongly consider this option. 

What Customers Are Saying

It’s no surprise that Jelastic’s interface and pricing receive a lot of praise in customer reviews. “What I like the best about them is their comprehensive UI and unique pay-as-you-use pricing model,” wrote one user. “Their product provides all necessary capabilities to automatically install, upgrade, and maintain our software stacks and applications.”

Joyent Triton

With Joyent Triton, you get a variety of security, monitoring, and access control features.

The security features include SSL encryption, firewalls, and a unique IP for each container. The monitoring features provide you with full visibility over every aspect of your infrastructure, containers, and apps, which allows you to detect and deal with issues before they affect your end users.

As for access control, the Joyent UI makes it easy to manage your accounts and create sub-users with restricted permissions. 

Pros & Cons of Joyent Docker Hosting

Joyent Triton offers many useful docker hosting features, but it’s also quite expensive and requires more of a financial commitment than many of your other options. 

What Customers Are Saying

Joyent’s support and performance have received a lot of positive feedback from their users. “It’s generally quite easy to get started and performance is great,” wrote one customer. “Their support is top notch and I have regularly dealt with engineer level support staff anytime there was a problem that popped up,” wrote another. 

Kamatera

With 13 data centers spread out across four continents, Kamatera’s network is built to provide constant availability and strong performance to users in every area on the map. 

Kamatera has also invested in the equipment needed for high-quality performance, such as Intel Xeon Platinum processors and SSD storage, resulting in a network with speeds of 40 Gbit/s per server. 

Docker hosting prices start at $4 per month for 1 CPU core, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB SSD storage, and 5 GB of traffic. For more power, the specs go all the way up to 8 CPU cores, 16 GB RAM, and 100 GB SSD storage for $96 per month.

Pros & Cons of Kamatera Docker Hosting

In addition to their high-end performance and low starting price, one significant reason to use Kamatera is that they offer 24/7 phone support at no additional cost.

What Customers Are Saying

On top of all the other benefits, customers found the 30-day free trial to be quite useful. “I am very satisfied with their service, the best cloud service provider I’ve encountered so far,” wrote one customer. “Their prices are the best in the market, the servers are powerful and reliable, and they have great customer support. But what I like most about them is their very convenient and user-friendly cloud management console. Also the fact that they offer a 30-day free trial is very helpful, as it allows you to set up your infrastructure and experiment with it.”

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure provides you with enterprise-grade infrastructure for developing your apps, and it’s not even particularly expensive. 

There are three plans for storing and managing container images: Basic, Standard, and Premium. 

The Basic plan includes 10 GB storage and two webhooks. The Standard plan includes 100 GB storage and 10 webhooks. And with the Premium plan, you get 500 GB storage, 500 webhooks, and geo-replication. You can also buy more storage for an extra daily charge of $0.003 per GB. 

Pros & Cons of Microsoft Azure Docker Hosting

With Microsoft Azure, you get access to some of the most advanced IT infrastructure in the world. But again, support doesn’t come cheap with these top tech companies — for 24/7 live chat and phone support, you’ll need to pay at least another $100 per month.

What Customers Are Saying

Microsoft Azure’s interface also appears to be a big benefit. “The Azure portal is very intuitive, developers of different skill sets or even non-developers can easily spin a website or SQL server setup in a matter of minutes,” wrote one customer. 

Quay.io

The Red Hat product Quay.io offers plenty of useful docker hosting features, including security scanning, container build automation, GitHub integration, and Bitbucket integration. 

Prices start at $15 per month for the Developer plan, which includes 5 private repositories and unlimited public repositories. Enterprises can purchase as many as 2,000 private repositories, which would cost you $3,100 per month. 

All plans also include team-based permissions, SSL encryption, and audit logging.

Pros & Cons of Quay.io Docker Hosting

Quay.io isn’t the most affordable option, but with the features and support that come included with all their plans you very well might find it worth the cost.

What Customers Are Saying

Customers find that Quay.io has a very intuitive interface. “It is a great place to manage and store docker images,” wrote one user. “Also, everything is well organized and centralized, thanks to its flexible and pleasant interface, which provides a better user experience.”

Sloppy.io

One of Sloppy.io’s best features is the detailed analytics that they allow you to review for your account. 24 hours of usage statistics are available, which includes graphs for CPU, memory, incoming traffic, and outgoing traffic.

Another benefit is that their data center is located in Frankfurt. Strict European privacy laws guarantee that your data will be kept highly secure on their servers. 

They offer three plans for docker hosting: Basic, Professional, and Business. With the Basic plan, you get 2 GB RAM, 48 GB storage, and one private registry. Upgrading from the Basic plan would provide you with better tech specs and extra features such as health checks, webhooks, and unlimited private registries. 

Pros & Cons of Sloppy.io Docker Hosting

Sloppy.io offers pretty much all the docker hosting features you could ask for, but it’s a little pricey and there’s no live support. 

What Customers Are Saying

According to the user reviews, Sloppy.io offers excellent performance as well. “I hosted my app on Sloppy.io, and it performed well,” wrote one customer. “The download speed was about 100Mb+/sec, which is insane.”

Comparing Docker Hosting

What You’ll Learn

Simply put, I will be teaching you about the ups, the downs and the general good-to-knows about Docker Hosting. Aside from the ability to pick the bests hosts with Docker in mind, you’ll also learn about this popular application development and deployment tool.

Understanding of application deployment in containers is a useful function to be clear with. Docker runs on Linux, which I will cover further in-depth as we get into more detail.

An Introduction to Docker

Docker is a tool used to create containers, which allow developers to package and send all the pieces needed to make an application run smoothly. A container means they don’t have to worry that the settings on the computer used to deploy the application creating conflicts.

Arguably the largest container open-source project, Docker is leading the charge toward a more efficient online world. Supporting everything from version control systems to Minecraft servers, containerization has long been shaking the app development world.

Don’t Virtual Machines do the Same Thing?

The days of dealing with bulky, resource-hogging virtual machines just to run a handful of small applications are over. Now, those apps work in a small, contained environment. Free from software conflicts, this is a perfect solution for app developers in need of stable testing grounds — but the uses of Docker are endless.

Is Docker free?

Docker currently offers three plans, including a free option designed primarily for individuals. They also offer a Pro plan for individuals with advanced needs, and a Team plan with advanced collaboration and management tools. The free plan comes with nearly all of the features of the paid plans, so it is typically sufficient for most individual needs. However, you should review all of the Docker’s plan options to find the one that is best for you.

What is Containerization?

Containerization is something like a middle-ground between the mess of natural computing environments and rigidly segmented virtual machines.

Containerization in Layman Terms

The Docker website is filled with details of its containerization features.

There’s a perfect analogy here to shipping. On the one hand is a giant cargo ship in which each small piece of cargo is packed into the hold and everything can slam into everything else and it all has to be loaded and unloaded by hand.

On the other hand is a multitude of individual boats, one boat for each piece of cargo. The best solution is somewhere between these two: interchangeable, self-contained storage and shipping units which can be loaded easily onto many different types of transportation, from giant cargo ship to railroad.

How Software Containers Work

A software container has a copy of the primary application, as well all dependencies — libraries, languages, frameworks, and everything else. The containerization system provides APIs to the operating system so that the interface between the container and the OS on one machine is the same as the interface between them on another machine.

This means that an app that runs in a container on a local development machine can be deployed easily onto another server by simply copyin

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