colima
Container runtimes on macOS (and Linux) with minimal setup (by abiosoft)
orbstack
Fast, light, simple Docker containers & Linux machines (by orbstack)
| colima | orbstack | |
|---|---|---|
| 128 | 55 | |
| 23,034 | 6,861 | |
| 2.6% | 3.6% | |
| 8.7 | 2.8 | |
| 17 days ago | 9 months ago | |
| Go | Shell | |
| MIT License | MIT License |
The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.
colima
Posts with mentions or reviews of colima.
We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives
and similar projects. The last one was on 2025-06-09.
-
Apple Announces Foundation Models Framework for Developers to Leverage AI
I thought it's more like Colima than OrbStack
https://github.com/abiosoft/colima
- Colima: Container runtimes on macOS (and Linux) with minimal setup
-
Vagrant on Apple Silicon M4: KVM vs QEMU vs Libvirt – What Works Best?
Running Linux VMs on Apple Silicon (Colima, Lima, UTM)
- Development on Apple Silicon with UTM
-
Optimizing My Dev Workflow in 2025
I replaced Docker Desktop with Colima, a lightweight alternative that integrates with Docker CLI. It's easy to toggle on and off, uses less RAM, and doesn't drag down the system.
-
East, west, north, south: How to fix your local cluster routes
The setup described in this article, consists of several discrete parts. It is not a one-stop integrated solution. However, as illustrated above, it can be easily extended and adjusted, so that can be considered an advantage. If wanting to run Kind, Minikube, Rancher Desktop or Colima, a similar approach will work.
-
Docker limits unauthenticated pulls to 10/HR/IP from Docker Hub, from March 1
Or Colima https://github.com/abiosoft/colima
Free, open source, and has worked perfectly for me so far. (I think I briefly ran into issues with an Elastic Search container? so ymmv a bit)
-
Solving Permission Issues with PostgreSQL and Docker Compose on macOS Using Colima
Colima Documentation
-
Ultimate Guide to Containerized Development on Mac ARM Chips: Efficient Setup with Colima and Docker
Colima GitHub
orbstack
Posts with mentions or reviews of orbstack.
We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives
and similar projects. The last one was on 2025-06-09.
-
Apple Announces Foundation Models Framework for Developers to Leverage AI
One of the reasons OrbStack is so great is because they implement their own hypervisor: https://orbstack.dev/
Apple’s stack gives you low-level access to ARM virtualization features, and from there they have high-level convenience frameworks on top. OrbStack implements all of the high-level code themselves.
-
Setting Up Presto with Apache Superset using Docker 🐳 : Hands-On Guide
Docker Application (I am using OrbStack).
- Microsandbox: Virtual Machines that feel and perform like containers
-
Docker Management Is Evolving These 8 Tools Made My Life Easier
2. OrbStack — The Fastest Docker for Mac, Period
-
Docker limits unauthenticated pulls to 10/HR/IP from Docker Hub, from March 1
If you're on Mac worth checking out the commercial https://orbstack.dev/
Reasonable price for better dev efficiency. Free for personal use.
-
Build a data-intensive Next.js app with Tinybird and Cursor
This is a Docker image, so you just need a Docker runtime on your machine (if you're using MacOS, I recommend OrbStack).
-
VSCode's SSH Agent Is Bananas
https://github.com/orbstack/orbstack/issues/169
-
Troubleshooting Docker Desktop: Tips and Alternatives for Developers
OrbStack: Although it’s a paid tool, OrbStack promises faster, lighter, and simpler container and Linux management compared to Docker Desktop.
-
Docker Desktop Broken on Mac OS Update for over a Week
How can update like this even happen and I'm still waiting for the post mortem on this. [0] Quite frankly a very basic intern mistake but done by "seniors".
In the mean time, I'm using Orbstack. [1] Much faster, lightweight and native.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42695066
[1] https://orbstack.dev
-
5 Awesome Docker Tools To Make Your Life Easier
Orbstack is a Docker desktop alternative that I've been using for a while now. In my opinion the main selling point is that it's a native app for macOS and doesn't rely on Docker Machine to create VMs, meaning that its a lot faster and less resource intensive. It is still very new, so there are some rough edges, but I think it's worth a shot. I think its only supported on macOS at the moment, so that might be a problem for some of you 😔
What are some alternatives?
When comparing colima and orbstack you can also consider the following projects:
lima - Linux virtual machines, with a focus on running containers
Podman Desktop - Podman Desktop is the best free and open source tool to work with Containers and Kubernetes for developers. Get an intuitive and user-friendly interface to effortlessly build, manage, and deploy containers and Kubernetes — all from your desktop.
multipass - Multipass orchestrates virtual Ubuntu instances
podman - Podman: A tool for managing OCI containers and pods.
UTM - Virtual machines for iOS and macOS