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Multipass vs Macpine: catalog facts
Multipass	Macpine
Free Free and open source under the GPL, published by Canonical.	Free Free and open source under the Apache-2.0 license.
Windows, macOS, Linux	macOS, Command line
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	Creates lightweight Alpine Linux VMs Provides port forwarding and automatic file sharing
Ubuntu-focused; other distributions are not the use case The Homebrew cask is community-maintained and not officially supported	Requires macOS and QEMU.
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-3.0	License: Apache-2.0
No account needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 8, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.