Should I use Dokku or Docker for production in a single DigitalOcean droplet ($5/pm) for multiple web applications?

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I don’t think this is a good way forward, but maybe it’s just because I’m part of the old school that understands what problem Docker is really angling to solve.

So, if you want to save money and run multiple web applications on one machine, there’s only one architecture that’s really geared for that sort of thing, PHP. If you’re using PHP, then Docker is just going to get in the way. Because PHP solved the multi-tenancy problem a long time ago.

If you’re not using PHP, then it is my opinion that container technology like Docker is just not good enough to provide decent multi-tenancy and even if it was, $5 a month is just too cheap to risk on your production apps. You’ll spend more time than it’s worth trying to figure out how Docker works and you’ll spend more time troubleshooting multi-tenancy issues.

If you’re using PHP, do what everyone else does and just use your web server configuration to enable multi-tenancy.

If not, just use multiple droplets. $5 a month is not a lot of money. If you’re hosting 10 apps, you should consider consolidating the architecture so that all those apps are just one. That’s a better use of your time than getting multi-tenancy working.

But this is just the opinion of an old salt. I used to think Vagrant was a stupid idea, now I’m seriously considering it for new projects. If you really really want to try to save the money, throw two days into it. If you can’t get it working after two days, then seek out another way. If two days seems like too much work, then you should just take my old man advice and don’t try to skimp out where it counts.