Podman

A daemonless, rootless container engine.

Open sourceFreeSelf-hostedContainers

Podman runs OCI containers without a central daemon and supports rootless mode by default, improving security. Its CLI is Docker-compatible, so most docker commands work by simply swapping the binary.

Key features

Daemonless architecture
Rootless by default
Docker-compatible CLI
Kubernetes YAML support

Pros

More secure default posture
No background daemon
systemd integration

Cons

Smaller ecosystem than Docker
Compose support is less mature

Operating system

LinuxDocker

Alternatives

Docker

The standard way to run self-hosted apps in containers.

Open sourceFreemiumSelf-hosted