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MacpineMultipass

Best for: Mac users who need small Linux VMs for testing or container workloads

Best for: Spinning up a disposable Ubuntu machine for testing without touching a cloud account

Free

Free and open source under the Apache-2.0 license.

 Free

Free and open source under the GPL, published by Canonical.

macOS, Command line Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Creates lightweight Alpine Linux VMs
  • Provides port forwarding and automatic file sharing
All 3 strengths
  • Creates lightweight Alpine Linux VMs
  • Provides port forwarding and automatic file sharing
  • Supports aarch64 and x86_64 emulation
  • One command for a fresh Ubuntu VM, with images fetched and kept updated for you
  • Uses the native hypervisor on each platform for minimal overhead
All 4 strengths
  • One command for a fresh Ubuntu VM, with images fetched and kept updated for you
  • Uses the native hypervisor on each platform for minimal overhead
  • cloud-init support, so you can test real provisioning configuration locally
  • Officially supported by Canonical rather than a side project
  • Requires macOS and QEMU.
  • Ubuntu-focused; other distributions are not the use case
  • The Homebrew cask is community-maintained and not officially supported
All 4 limitations
  • Ubuntu-focused; other distributions are not the use case
  • The Homebrew cask is community-maintained and not officially supported
  • On macOS you may need to disable the firewall to launch an instance
  • Requires elevated privileges during installation and for some operations
Downloadable app Downloadable app
Open source Open source
License: Apache-2.0 License: GPL-3.0
Not stated if an account is needed No account needed
Not stated if it works offline Offline features available
Sources

Catalog checked October 8, 2026
Sources

Catalog checked September 21, 2026

“Not stated” means we have not confirmed it. Features can vary by device and plan.