SaaSHub helps you find the best software and product alternatives Learn more →
Toolbox Alternatives
Similar projects and alternatives to toolbox
-
-
InfluxDB
InfluxDB – Built for High-Performance Time Series Workloads. InfluxDB 3 OSS is now GA. Transform, enrich, and act on time series data directly in the database. Automate critical tasks and eliminate the need to move data externally. Download now.
-
-
-
distrobox
Use any linux distribution inside your terminal. Enable both backward and forward compatibility with software and freedom to use whatever distribution you’re more comfortable with. Mirror available at: https://gitlab.com/89luca89/distrobox
-
-
-
alnoda-workspaces
:fireworks: Flexible and extendable containerized workspaces. Now. with free offline chat GPT!!! 🚀🚀🚀
-
SaaSHub
SaaSHub - Software Alternatives and Reviews. SaaSHub helps you find the best software and product alternatives
-
-
-
openvscode-server
Run upstream VS Code on a remote machine with access through a modern web browser from any device, anywhere.
-
-
-
-
-
-
devpod
Codespaces but open-source, client-only and unopinionated: Works with any IDE and lets you use any cloud, kubernetes or just localhost docker.
-
-
-
-
SaaSHub
SaaSHub - Software Alternatives and Reviews. SaaSHub helps you find the best software and product alternatives
NOTE:
The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives.
Hence, a higher number means a better toolbox alternative or higher similarity.
toolbox discussion
toolbox reviews and mentions
Posts with mentions or reviews of toolbox.
We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives
and similar projects. The last one was on 2025-05-19.
-
The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source
How is it easier to setup a linux dev environment in WSL than in https://containertoolbx.org/ or https://distrobox.it/ or just in Linux directly?
-
docker2exe: Convert a Docker image to an executable
CoreOS had a toolbox container that worked similarly to the one you have (the Podman people took over its maintenance): https://github.com/containers/toolbox
-
A CLI to quickly launch VSCode/cursor devcontainers
I'm currently experimenting with toolbox [0] on fedora, and it's great. There's not much isolation going on, but if I wanted that, I'd go with a virtual machine (which I do on macOS). It uses basic images so you can create one that have all your tools installed. I prefer installing core production dependencies via the package manager instead of using tools like NVM.
The main benefit is actual containerization of the project dependencies (apart from tools that love to download stuff in $HOME). So I can wipe them and recreate them in seconds. And you can use different distros for different workflows.
[0]: https://containertoolbx.org/
- Show HN: Box – a script-based interactive container manager
-
We're Leaving Kubernetes
I strongly recommend just switching the Dev environment over to Linux and taking advantage of tools like "distrobox" and "toolbx".
https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox
https://containertoolbx.org/
It is sorta like Vagrant, but instead of using virtualbox virtual machines you use podman containers. This way you get to use OCI images for your "dev environment" that integrates directly into your desktop.
https://podman.io/
There is some challenges related to usermode networking for non-root-managed controllers and desktop integration has some additional complications. But besides that it has almost no overhead and you can have unfettered access to things like GPUs.
Also it is usually pretty easy to convert your normal docker or kubernetes containers over to something you can run on your desktop.
Also it is possible to use things like Kubernetes pods definitions to deploy sets of containers with podman and manage it with systemd and such things. So you can have "clouds of containers" that your dev container needs access to locally.
If there is a corporate need for window-specific applications then running Windows VMs or doing remote applications over RDP is a possible work around.
If everything you are targeting as a deployment is going to be Linux anything then it doesn't make a lot of sense to jump through a bunch of hoops and cause a bunch of headaches just to avoid having it as workstation OS.
- Toolbx: Tool for interactive command line environments on Linux
- Toolbx
- ChromeOS is Linux with Google’s desktop environment
-
Introduction to Immutable Linux Systems
I'm really, really happy with my current setup of Fedora immutable + toolbox [0]. This tool lets you create containers that are fully integrated with the system, so you have acces to the entire Fedora repos, can run graphical apps, etc. while still having everything inside a container in your home directory. That means no Flatpak required. Highly recommended.
[0] https://containertoolbx.org
- Toolbox
-
A note from our sponsor - SaaSHub
www.saashub.com | 23 May 2025
Stats
Basic toolbox repo stats
114
2,829
9.2
11 days ago
containers/toolbox is an open source project licensed under Apache License 2.0 which is an OSI approved license.
The primary programming language of toolbox is Shell.
Sponsored
InfluxDB – Built for High-Performance Time Series Workloads
InfluxDB 3 OSS is now GA. Transform, enrich, and act on time series data directly in the database. Automate critical tasks and eliminate the need to move data externally. Download now.
www.influxdata.com