How to setup docker containers for 2 applications

Question

I have two teams first one writing backend on laravel second team writong front on react. How better orginize docker container. create 1 container for 2 projects or create 2 different containers?

Answer 1

I think creating 2 containers is better:

• You have your frontend completely seperated from your backend.
• You can redeploy your frontend / backend without the other part (only update frontend / only update backend)
• Your deploys are smaller
• Bugs should be easier to find (Was that system error in container A or B?)
• You can easier replace a container, for example when you want to show a maintenance screen while the api is running in the background. (replace the frontend container with the maintenance container eg)
• You can build, run and test only the frontend / only the backend and don't need both parts at anytime

But this only works when your react application is standalone (what it is if it's a react application), that means it should work "by itself" and only consume the API (REST / GraphQL / WebSocket) of the backend.

However, there are also some things to keep track of:

• If you make a breaking change to the interface (API etc.) you have to deploy both containers at once to prevent incompatibility errors / downtime