Alternatives to Incus

Manage Linux system containers and virtual machines through one interface. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as Incus.

  • Proxmox VE

    A bare-metal server platform that runs KVM virtual machines and LXC containers from one web interface.

    FreemiumOpen sourceLinuxSelf-hosted

    Proxmox VE also manages virtual machines and containers together, but through a web interface on a dedicated bare-metal install, with backup and high-availability clustering included.

  • Harvester

    Hyper-converged infrastructure that runs virtual machines on top of Kubernetes.

    FreeOpen sourceLinuxSelf-hosted

    Harvester runs virtual machines and containers on Kubernetes, but installs on bare metal only and expects at least three nodes for a production cluster.

  • Virtual Machine Manager

    The standard desktop front end for KVM on Linux, plus the command line tools that go with it.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    Virtual Machine Manager handles KVM virtual machines through a Linux desktop interface and command line tools, but it does not manage system containers.

  • oVirt

    Centralised management platform for KVM virtual machines across a cluster.

    FreeOpen sourceLinuxWebSelf-hosted

    oVirt manages KVM virtual machines across a cluster from a web portal with live migration, but it expects enterprise shared storage and its development has slowed.

  • LXD

    Canonical's open-source manager for system containers and KVM virtual machines on Linux.

    FreeOpen sourceLinuxWebSelf-hostedCommand line

    LXD is Canonical's manager for system containers and KVM VMs with a web interface, licensed AGPL-3.0 instead of Apache-2.0 and most at home on Ubuntu.

  • SmartOS

    An open-source illumos-based hypervisor operating system that runs zones and KVM or bhyve virtual machines.

    FreeOpen sourceSelf-hosted

    SmartOS runs zones and KVM or bhyve VMs on an illumos base with ZFS and DTrace built in, which is less familiar than a Linux host.

Also worth comparing

These listings name Incus as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.

  • libvirt

    A toolkit, daemon and API for managing KVM, QEMU, Xen, LXC and other virtualization platforms.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxCommand line

    Incus manages Linux system containers and virtual machines through one interface, instead of acting as a general API layer across KVM, QEMU, Xen and LXC. It needs a Linux host.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.