Docker AlternativesOnly apps categorised as Virtualization Tools

The best Virtualization alternative to Docker is Podman, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 25 alternatives to Docker and 16 are Virtualization Tools so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Virtualization Tool alternatives to Docker are Portainer, Linux Containers (LXC), Distrobox and OrbStack.

filter to find the best alternatives

Docker alternatives are mainly Virtualization Tools, but if you're looking for Docker Managers or Operating Systems 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.
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Alternatives list

  1. Podman icon
     70 likes

    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.

    15 Podman alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Red Hat
     
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    2
  2. Portainer icon
     80 likes

    Portainer 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.

    38 Portainer alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free Personal
    • Open Source (Zlib)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Docker
    • Self-Hosted
    • Kubernetes
     
  3. Distrobox icon
     26 likes

    Use 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 Distrobox alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
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    1
  4. OrbStack icon
     15 likes

    OrbStack is an alternative to Docker Desktop for macOS, designed to offer improved performance for Docker and virtual machines on Linux running on Mac computers. It addresses performance issues that have been experienced in the past, particularly on models with Apple Silicon.

    14 OrbStack alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free Personal
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  5. rkt icon
     7 likes

    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.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  6. ArcBox icon
     4 likes

    Native macOS GUI for ArcBox — containers, VMs, and sandboxes at your fingertips. Open Source alternative to OrbStack and Docker Desktop.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  7. containerd icon
     6 likes

    An industry-standard container runtime with an emphasis on simplicity, robustness and portability

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Self-Hosted
     
  8. The FreeBSD jail mechanism is an implementation of operating system-level virtualization that allows system administrators to partition a FreeBSD-based computer system into several independent mini-systems called jails.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • BSD
    • FreeBSD
    • DragonFly BSD
     
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    1
  9. OpenVZ icon
     13 likes

    OpenVZ is container-based virtualization for Linux.

    OpenVZ creates multiple secure, isolated Linux containers (otherwise known as VEs or VPSs) on a single physical server enabling better server utilization and ensuring that applications do not conflict.

    Each container performs.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  10. Apache Mesos icon
     20 likes

    Apache Mesos is a cluster manager that simplifies the complexity of running applications on a shared pool of servers.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
     
12 of 16 Docker alternatives