Alternatives to Apptainer
An open-source container platform, formerly Singularity, built for running applications on HPC clusters. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Apptainer
An open-source container platform, formerly Singularity, built for running applications on HPC clusters.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Apptainer.
Podman
Daemonless container engine with a Docker-compatible command line.
Podman also runs rootless containers without a daemon, but it targets general use with a Docker-compatible command line rather than HPC clusters and single-file SIF images.
Docker Engine
The container runtime that builds, packages and runs applications in Docker containers.
Docker Engine is the standard runtime for container images on servers, but it lacks Apptainer's HPC focus, single-file SIF images and encrypted containers.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Buildah
A command-line tool for building OCI container images without a running daemon.
Skopeo
A command-line tool for inspecting, copying and signing container images in remote registries.
gVisor
An application kernel that sandboxes containers to isolate them from the host Linux kernel.
Kata Containers
An open-source container runtime that runs each container inside a lightweight virtual machine for stronger isolation.
Sysbox
A container runtime that lets rootless containers run systemd, Docker and Kubernetes like virtual machines.
Kubernetes
An open-source system for automating deployment, scaling and management of containerized applications across machines.
