Podman is a daemon-less container runtime for managing containers, pods, and container images. It is intended as a counterpart to CRI-O, to provide low-level debugging not available through the CRI interface used by Kubernetes.
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The Best Open Source Docker AlternativesTop Virtualization Tools and other similar apps like Docker
The best open source alternative to Docker is Podman. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 25 alternatives to Docker and many of them is open source so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternatives to Docker are Portainer, Linux Containers (LXC), Distrobox and Podman Desktop.
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Docker alternatives are mainly Virtualization Tools, but if you're looking for Cloud Computing Services or Docker Managers you can filter on that. Other popular filters include FreeBSD, Windows + Open Source, Free, Windows, Open Source and Mac. You can also filter by region, for example EU-based alternatives if you prefer software developed in the European Union. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Docker.
Alternatives list
15 Podman alternatives
38 Portainer alternativesPortainer Community Edition is a lightweight service delivery platform for containerized applications that can be used to manage Docker, Swarm, and Kubernetes environments. It is designed to be as simple to deploy as it is to use.
Cost / License
- Free Personal
- Open Source (Zlib)
Application type
Platforms
- Windows
- Linux
- Docker
- Self-Hosted
- Kubernetes
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13 Linux Containers (LXC) alternativesContainers which offer an environment as close as possible as the one you'd get from a VM but without the overhead that comes with running a separate kernel and simulating all the hardware.
12 Distrobox alternativesUse any Linux distribution inside your terminal. Enable both backward and forward compatibility with software and freedom to use whatever distribution you’re more comfortable with. Distrobox uses podman or docker to create containers using the Linux distribution of your choice.
12 Podman Desktop alternativesThis tool allows to browse, manage lifecycle of containers, inspect containers, images from different container engines. It includes a tray icon support. It can connect to multiple engines at the same time and provides an unified interface.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source (Apache-2.0)
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Flathub
rkt is the next-generation container manager for Linux clusters. Designed for security, simplicity, and composability within modern cluster architectures, rkt discovers, verifies, fetches, and executes application containers with pluggable isolation.
47 BitNami Application Stacks alternativesBitNami Stacks make it incredibly easy to deploy your favorite open source software. BitNami Stacks include an open source application and all of the other software necessary to run it, such as Apache, MySQL, PHP or Ruby.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Online
50 Rancher Desktop alternativesRancher Desktop is an open-source desktop application for Mac, Windows and Linux. It provides Kubernetes and container management. You can choose the version of Kubernetes you want to run. You can build, push, pull, and run container images.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source (Apache-2.0)
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
Native macOS GUI for ArcBox — containers, VMs, and sandboxes at your fingertips. Open Source alternative to OrbStack and Docker Desktop.
An industry-standard container runtime with an emphasis on simplicity, robustness and portability
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source (Apache-2.0)
Platforms
- Linux
- Go (Programming Language)
- Windows
- Mac
- Alpine Linux
- CentOS
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- Gentoo
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CRI-O is an implementation of the Kubernetes CRI (Container Runtime Interface) to enable using OCI (Open Container Initiative) compatible runtimes. It is a lightweight alternative to using Docker as the runtime for kubernetes.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Platforms
- Linux
New Zealand
Italy
EU
Same syntax, runs without socket, more secure