systemd Alternatives

systemd is described as 'Suite of basic building blocks for a Linux system. It provides a system and service manager that runs as PID 1 and starts the rest of the system' and is an app in the network & admin category. There are more than 10 alternatives to systemd for a variety of platforms, including Linux, BSD, FreeBSD, Mac and OpenWrt apps. The best systemd alternative is OpenRC, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like systemd are runit, Launchd, s6 and sysvinit.

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Alternatives list

  1. OpenRC

     5 likes
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    OpenRC is a dependency-based init system that works with the system provided init program, normally /sbin/init. It is not a replacement for /sbin/init. OpenRC is 100% compatible with Gentoo init scripts, which means you can probably find one for the daemons you want to start in...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
     
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    1
    9
    Comments about OpenRC as an Alternative to systemd
    Guest
    Positive
    5

    There is a long list of technical arguments for why OpenRC is better than systemd. Popularity wise systemd seems to win these days. But as we've seen over centuries popularity served us wrong many times. Even Upstart was better, pretty bad it faded away.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    systemd Icon

    • Almost everyone thinks OpenRC is a great systemd alternative.

    • OpenRC is the most popular Linux alternative to systemd.

    • OpenRC is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to systemd.

    • OpenRC is Free and Open Sourcesystemd is also Free and Open Source
    • OpenRC is Lightweightsystemd is not according to our users

  2. runit

     7 likes
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    runit is a cross-platform Unix init scheme with service supervision, a replacement for sysvinit, and other init schemes. It runs on GNU/Linux, *BSD, MacOSX, Solaris, and can easily be adapted to other Unix operating systems.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
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    1
    Comments about runit as an Alternative to systemd
    Guest
    Positive
    3

    Simple, stable, hasn't updated in years, and works.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    systemd Icon

    • runit is the most popular Mac alternative to systemd.

    • runit is Free and Open Sourcesystemd is also Free and Open Source
  4. Launchd icon

    Launchd

     3 likes
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    a free system array created by Apple inc. For BSD - including macOS as macOS is based on the Darwin kernel of BSD

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • BSD
    • PC-BSD
    • FreeBSD
    • DragonFly BSD
    • FreeNAS
    • NetBSD
    • OpenBSD
     

  5. s6

     4 likes
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    s6 is a small suite of programs for UNIX, designed for process supervision. It can be used as an init system. You can also use all its programs separately.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
     
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    2
    Comments about s6 as an Alternative to systemd
    burnx50
    Positive
    1

    s6 is fully portable, properly modular, very small, and it has a moderate development pace - these things can't be said about systemd. Also s6 is a humble community project, it isn't developed by engineers from megacorporations :)

    Lazerbeak12345
    Positive
    0

    Reliable, multithreaded and sooooo fast.

    systemd Icon
    • s6 is Free and Open Sourcesystemd is also Free and Open Source
    • s6 is Minimalistic and Lightweightsystemd is not according to our users
  6. sysvinit icon

    sysvinit

     5 likes
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    The Sysvinit package contains programs for controlling the startup, running, and shutdown of the system.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  7. Supervisor icon

    Supervisor

     2 likes
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    Supervisor is a client/server system that allows its users to monitor and control a number of processes on UNIX-like operating systems.

    12 Supervisor alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    Supervisor screenshot 1
     

  9. Chaperone Process Manager

     2 likes
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    Chaperone is a lightweight alternative to process environment managers like systemd or upstart. Chaperone provides an extensive feature set, including dependency-based startup, syslog logging, zombie harvesting, and job scheduling.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Self-Hosted
    • Python
     

    • Chaperone Process Manager is the most popular Self-Hosted alternative to systemd.

    • Chaperone Process Manager is Free and Open Sourcesystemd is also Free and Open Source

  10. nosh

     3 likes
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    The nosh package is a suite of system-level utilities for initializing and running a BSD or Linux system, and for managing daemons.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
     

  11. finit

     2 likes
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    Finit is a small SysV init replacement with process supervision similar to that of daemontools and runit. Its focus is on small and embedded GNU/Linux systems, although fully functional on standard server and desktop installations.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    finit screenshot 1
     

  12. Bootchart

     1 like
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    Bootchart is a tool for performance analysis and visualization of the GNU/Linux boot process. It shows your boot behaviour including login as a PNG graphic and lets your analize possible bottlenecks. Resource utilization and process information are collected during the boot...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Bootchart screenshot 1
     
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    1
    Comments about Bootchart as an Alternative to systemd
    Guest
    Negative
    1

    Bootchart is not an init system or service supervisor.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    systemd Icon
    • Bootchart is Free and Open Sourcesystemd is also Free and Open Source
  13. systemE icon

    systemE

     1 like
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    Using the tooling in this repo, I am able to boot from linux to sinit as PID1, and from there to Emacs acting as PID2 using --script mode, performing all typical rc.boot system initialization using Emacs lisp until we hit the getty.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
     

  14. procd

     1 like
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    procd is a process and system init service for OpenWRT. It's less resource intensive as it's intended for embedded devices, works with busybox and uClib, hotplug2, libubox and ubus. It watches configuration files to start or restart services and init...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • OpenWrt
     
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