Podman Alternatives for Linux, Mac and Windows

Podman is Red Hat's daemonless, rootless container engine, and it is still under active development. The latest release is v6.1.4 from October 12, which fixed running under WSL and moved to Buildah 1.45.2. People usually leave for one of three reasons: a tool or Compose file that assumes the Docker daemon, a slow or fiddly podman machine VM on a Mac, or a need for full system containers or VMs that Podman does not manage.

The seven picks below are grouped by that need. Docker comes first because most tutorials and CI images still target it. Then come Mac and Windows desktop apps, then lower-level engines for Linux servers. Licence terms matter here more than price, since two of these apps charge only commercial users.

Prices below are as of November 6, 2026. Our method is on How we review tools.

Quick comparison

Docker Engine and Docker Desktop

Podman copies Docker's CLI, but the copy is never perfect. Tools that talk to /var/run/docker.sock, Testcontainers setups and some Compose features work best against the real daemon. On Linux, Docker Engine is open source and, per the pricing FAQ, "accessible for all" through the Moby project, so a server install costs nothing.

Docker Desktop is the paid part. The FAQ quotes the licence: free use is limited to non-commercial open source projects and companies with fewer than 250 employees and less than US $10 million in annual revenue. Government bodies must always buy a subscription.

Best for: Teams whose scripts, CI and docs assume the Docker daemon and Docker Desktop.

Pricing:

• Docker Engine on Linux: free, open source
• Personal: $0, 1 user
• Pro: $9 per month billed yearly, $11 monthly
• Team: $15 per user per month yearly, $16 monthly, up to 100 users
• Business: $24 per user per month, billed yearly

Watch out for:

• Bigger companies cannot use Docker Desktop for free. The licence terms in the FAQ cover employee count and revenue, so check both before you install it at work.
• Docker runs a root daemon by default. Rootless mode exists, but Podman's rootless-first design is one thing you give up.

Official site: Docker Engine and Docker Desktop.

OrbStack

On a Mac, the most common complaint about Podman is the VM, and OrbStack is the app people try next. Its docs describe a native Swift app that runs Docker containers, Kubernetes and full Linux distributions, starts in 2 seconds and uses little CPU and disk. It also offers fast x86 emulation for amd64 images on Apple silicon.

The docs call it an alternative to Docker Desktop and say moving from Docker Desktop or Colima is "effortless". You keep the normal Docker CLI and Compose.

Best for: Mac developers who want the quickest Docker and Linux VM setup and do not mind paying for work use.

Pricing:

• Free: $0, personal non-commercial use
• Pro: $8 per user per month or $96 a year, required for business use
• Enterprise: contact sales, SAML SSO and invoicing

Watch out for:

• Commercial use needs Pro at $8 per user per month, per the pricing page. Podman is free for any use.
• The docs do not say OrbStack is open source; they link only to third-party licences.

Official site: OrbStack.

Rancher Desktop

Rancher Desktop is SUSE's open source desktop app for containers and local Kubernetes. Its site lets you choose the Kubernetes version and the engine, containerd with nerdctl or Docker with the Docker CLI. It runs on macOS (Apple silicon and Intel), Windows x64 through WSL 2, and Linux.

The 1.24 release from July bundles docker 29.6.2 and nerdctl 2.2.2. Podman Desktop users who mainly wanted a Kubernetes cluster on their laptop get one built in here, without a separate kind or minikube step.

Best for: Developers who need local Kubernetes and want to switch engines without changing apps.

Pricing:

• Free and open source, from the SUSE Rancher Engineering group
• No paid tier

Watch out for:

• Auto-update in 1.23.0 and 1.23.1 can fail when moving to 1.24.0, per the 1.24 notes. Version 1.24 fixes the updater, so you only install 1.24.0 by hand if that error appears.
• It is heavier than Colima because it runs a Kubernetes-ready VM even when you only want containers.

Official site: Rancher Desktop.

Colima

Colima, short for Containers on Lima, is a small CLI that starts a Linux VM on macOS and gives you Docker, containerd or Incus inside it. Add --kubernetes and you get a cluster too. The repository is MIT licensed with about 30.7k stars and supports Intel and Apple silicon Macs as well as Linux.

It installs through Homebrew, MacPorts, Nix or Mise. For the Docker runtime you add the Docker CLI with brew install docker, which keeps you on the real Docker client without Docker Desktop's licence.

Best for: Mac users at larger companies who want Docker commands without paying for Docker Desktop.

Pricing:

• Free, MIT licence

Watch out for:

• There is no GUI. Everything, including VM size and mounts, is set from the command line or a config file.
• Incus VMs inside Colima need an M3 or newer Apple silicon Mac, per the README.

Official site: Colima.

containerd with nerdctl

containerd is the runtime underneath Docker and most Kubernetes nodes, and nerdctl gives it a CLI with the "same UI/UX as docker", per its README. It supports nerdctl compose up, rootless mode and Apache 2.0 licensing. The nerdctl-full archive bundles CNI plugins, BuildKit and RootlessKit so one download gets you a working setup.

Some features go past both Docker and Podman: lazy pulling with Stargz, Nydus, OverlayBD or SOCI snapshotters, encrypted images through ocicrypt, Cosign signing and optional IPFS image sharing. It also runs FreeBSD jails.

Best for: Linux servers and Kubernetes nodes where you want the same runtime in dev and production.

Pricing:

• Free, Apache 2.0 (containerd and nerdctl)

Watch out for:

• No native Mac support. The README sends macOS users to Lima, and Windows containers are still experimental.
• Unlike Podman, it has no podman generate kube or Quadlet-style systemd integration out of the box.

Official site: containerd with nerdctl.

Incus

Podman runs application containers. Incus also runs system containers, which boot a full Linux userland on the host kernel, and real virtual machines with their own kernel, all from one CLI and REST API, per the project page. It is the community fork of Canonical's LXD, maintained by many of the people who originally built LXD.

The current LTS is Incus 6.0, supported until June 2029, and feature releases come about once a month. Clients run on Windows and macOS and talk to a Linux server.

Best for: Homelab and server users who want VMs and full-OS containers next to app containers.

Pricing:

• Free, Apache 2.0; no CLA required

Watch out for:

• Upstream ships no packages. The project page says you get Incus from your distribution or a third-party repository.
• The server is Linux only, so it does not help on a Mac or Windows laptop unless you run it inside a VM.

Official site: Incus.

Apple container

Apple now ships its own open source tool for Linux containers on the Mac. Written in Swift, container runs each workload in a lightweight Linux VM, pulls and pushes OCI images from standard registries, and is Apache 2.0 licensed. container run --rm alpine echo hello works much like the Podman or Docker equivalent.

The appeal for Podman users is that it uses Apple's own virtualization stack with no third-party VM manager in between.

Best for: Mac developers on macOS 26 who want a first-party, open source way to run OCI images.

Pricing:

• Free, Apache 2.0

Watch out for:

• Apple silicon and macOS 26 only. The README says older macOS versions are unsupported.
• It reached version 1.0 only in June 2026, so it is younger than the other tools here. The README does not mention Compose.

Official site: Apple container.

How to choose

When to stay with Podman

Stay on Podman if you run Fedora, RHEL or CentOS Stream, where it is the default engine, or if rootless containers and systemd units through Quadlet are part of your setup. It is free for any use, unlike Docker Desktop and OrbStack. If the only problem is a Compose file, try podman compose or the Docker-compatible socket before moving everything.

Frequently asked questions