&gt;<i>I install node, postgres, and redis natively and it all works fine. What benefits does docker provide to my workflow?</i><p>Isn&#x27;t it obvious?<p>With docker (or vagrant, or at least a VM etc) you can have the SAME environment as the deployment one. If you run OS X or Windows your direct local installs with differ in numerous ways to your deployment. And same if you run Linux but not the same distro or the same release.<p>And that&#x27;s just the start.<p>Who said you&#x27;d be working in only one deployment&#x2F;app at the time? If you need two different environments -- it could be even while working on version 2.0 of the same web app with new technologies--, e.g. one with Node 4  and one with Node 5, or a different postgres version, etc, you suddenly have to juggle all of these in your desktop OS.<p>Now you need to add custom ways to switch between them (e.g. can&#x27;t have 2 postgres running on the same port at the same time), some will be incompatible to install together etc.<p>Without a vm&#x2F;docker you also don&#x27;t have snapshots (stored versions of the whole system installed, configured, and &quot;frozen&quot;)...