I'm planning to host two WordPress websites on a VPS. Until now, I've always installed Linux, Apache or Nginx, MySQL, PHP, and WordPress directly on the server. I'm considering Docker because it seems to offer better isolation and portability. For a small setup like this, what are the practical advantages and disadvantages of using Docker instead of a native LAMP or LEMP installation?
2 Answers
For only one or two WordPress sites, a native LAMP or LEMP setup is often easier to manage. Configuration tools such as Ansible can keep the server reproducible without adding the complexity of containers. WordPress updates, plugins, themes, and uploaded media are all fairly dynamic, so you need to decide carefully what belongs in the image and what belongs in persistent volumes. Containerizing it cleanly usually works best when you also have a solid deployment pipeline and a consistent way to manage plugin and theme updates. Otherwise, Docker can add more maintenance than it removes.
It depends on the VPS and how comfortable you are with Docker. On a small server, installing the stack directly is probably the simplest and most resource-efficient choice. On a larger system, containers can provide cleaner separation between the web server, PHP, and database, and they make it easier to reproduce the setup elsewhere. Docker can also be a useful learning experience, but it is not automatically a better deployment method for a small WordPress installation.
Email delivery was another complication in my experience. Even basic mail functionality became more difficult to configure and troubleshoot inside the container than it was with a straightforward server installation.