nerdctl VS kind

Compare nerdctl vs kind and see what are their differences.

nerdctl

contaiNERD CTL - Docker-compatible CLI for containerd, with support for Compose, Rootless, eStargz, OCIcrypt, IPFS, ... (by containerd)

kind

Kubernetes IN Docker - local clusters for testing Kubernetes (by kubernetes-sigs)
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nerdctl kind
33 182
7,384 12,750
2.5% 1.4%
9.6 8.8
2 days ago 9 days ago
Go Go
Apache License 2.0 Apache License 2.0
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.

nerdctl

Posts with mentions or reviews of nerdctl. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-04-16.
  • Colima k8s nix setup
    4 projects | dev.to | 16 Apr 2024
    What about the docker-cli? colima also ships with a docker-compatible cli to interact with containerd called nerdctl. We can execute the same docker cli commands like:
  • Nerdctl v2 Beta
    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 1 Feb 2024
  • Nginx Unit – Universal web app server
    17 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 10 Sep 2023
    Using nerdctl: https://github.com/containerd/nerdctl

    I'd really disagree that compose files are somehow one-shot, or blindly modified. To the contrary, really, we have them checked in with the source code. Upon deployment to the cluster, the (running) services will be intelligently updated or replaced (in a rolling manner, causing zero downtime). LXC might be more elegant, but I have no idea what simple, file-based format I could use to let engineers describe the environment their app should run in without compose.

    I need something that even junior devs can start up with a single command, that can be placed in the VCS along with the code, and that will not require deep Linux knowledge to get running. Open for suggestions here, really.

  • Jenkins Agents On Kubernetes
    7 projects | dev.to | 4 Sep 2023
    Now since Kubernetes works off of containerd I'll be taking a different approach on handling container builds by using nerdctl and the buildkit that comes bundled with it. I'll do this on the amd64 control plane node since it's beefier than my Raspberry Pi workers for handling builds and build related services. Go ahead and download and unpack the latest nerdctl release as of writing (make sure to check the release page in case there's a new one):
  • Going through a Kubernetes training with autogenerated captions and about half are coming up like this.
    1 project | /r/kubernetes | 29 Jun 2023
    That's why nerdctl, their cli binary, is so well named.
  • Python + containerd? Who might be interested?
    2 projects | /r/Python | 27 Apr 2023
    Well, it is indeed a good option. However, containerd is a good alternative that is growing even among developers. Please see: https://github.com/containerd/nerdctl
  • How to own your own Docker Registry address
    5 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 17 Mar 2023
    Nerdctl/containerd has IPFS support :)

    https://github.com/containerd/nerdctl/blob/main/docs/ipfs.md

  • DockerHub replacement stratagy and options
    5 projects | /r/ipfs | 16 Mar 2023
    nerdctl supports IPFS for both image pulling and pushing, including encrypted images and eStargz lazy pulling. For building, the current method is a locally hosted translator so that the traditional pulls can be converted to work over IPFS. They even have docs on running it on k8s node, though if my reading is correct this isn't exactly a cloud native approach (running systemd services on each node...).
  • Docker's deleting Open Source images and here's what you need to know
    23 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 15 Mar 2023
  • Release v1.0.0 · containerd/nerdctl
    1 project | /r/devopsish | 21 Oct 2022

kind

Posts with mentions or reviews of kind. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-01-26.
  • How to distribute workloads using Open Cluster Management
    3 projects | dev.to | 26 Jan 2024
    To get started, you'll need to install clusteradm and kubectl and start up three Kubernetes clusters. To simplify cluster administration, this article starts up three kind clusters with the following names and purposes:
  • 15 Options To Build A Kubernetes Playground (with Pros and Cons)
    4 projects | dev.to | 25 Jan 2024
    Kind: is a tool for running local Kubernetes clusters using Docker container "nodes." It was primarily designed for testing Kubernetes itself but can also be used for local development or continuous integration.
  • Exploring OpenShift with CRC
    2 projects | dev.to | 13 Jan 2024
    Fortunately, just as projects like kind and Minikube enable developers to spin up a local Kubernetes environment in no time, CRC, also known as OpenShift Local and a recursive acronym for "CRC - Runs Containers", offers developers a local OpenShift environment by means of a pre-configured VM similar to how Minikube works under the hood.
  • K3s Traefik Ingress - configured for your homelab!
    3 projects | dev.to | 15 Dec 2023
    I recently purchased a used Lenovo M900 Think Centre (i7 with 32GB RAM) from eBay to expand my mini-homelab, which was just a single Synology DS218+ plugged into my ISP's router (yuck!). Since I've been spending a big chunk of time at work playing around with Kubernetes, I figured that I'd put my skills to the test and run a k3s node on the new server. While I was familiar with k3s before starting this project, I'd never actually run it before, opting for tools like kind (and minikube before that) to run small test clusters for my local development work.
  • Mykube - simple cli for single node K8S creatiom
    2 projects | /r/devops | 7 Dec 2023
    Features compared to https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/
  • Hacking in kind (Kubernetes in Docker)
    2 projects | dev.to | 18 Nov 2023
    Kind allows you to run a Kubernetes cluster inside Docker. This is incredibly useful for developing Helm charts, Operators, or even just testing out different k8s features in a safe way.
  • Choosing the Next Step: Docker Swarm or Kubernetes After Mastering Docker?
    1 project | /r/devops | 12 Nov 2023
    Check out KinD
  • K3s – Lightweight Kubernetes
    17 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 11 Oct 2023
    If you're just messing around, just use kind (https://kind.sigs.k8s.io) or minikube if you want VMs (https://minikube.sigs.k8s.io). Both work on ARM-based platforms.

    You can also use k3s; it's hella easy to get started with and it works great.

  • Two approaches to make your APIs more secure
    3 projects | dev.to | 29 Aug 2023
    We'll install APIClarity into a Kubernetes cluster to test our API documentation. We're using a Kind cluster for demonstration purposes. Of course, if you have another Kubernetes cluster up and running elsewhere, all steps also work there.
  • observing logs from Kubernetes pods without headaches
    2 projects | /r/kubernetes | 26 Aug 2023
    yes I know there is lens, but it does not allow me to see logs of multiple pods at same time and what is even more important it is not friendly for ephemeral clusters - in my case with help of kind I am recreating whole cluster each time from scratch

What are some alternatives?

When comparing nerdctl and kind you can also consider the following projects:

lima - Linux virtual machines, with a focus on running containers

minikube - Run Kubernetes locally

podman-compose - a script to run docker-compose.yml using podman

k3d - Little helper to run CNCF's k3s in Docker

kaniko - Build Container Images In Kubernetes

podman - Podman: A tool for managing OCI containers and pods.

vcluster - vCluster - Create fully functional virtual Kubernetes clusters - Each vcluster runs inside a namespace of the underlying k8s cluster. It's cheaper than creating separate full-blown clusters and it offers better multi-tenancy and isolation than regular namespaces.

Moby - The Moby Project - a collaborative project for the container ecosystem to assemble container-based systems

colima - Container runtimes on macOS (and Linux) with minimal setup

k3s - Lightweight Kubernetes