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I tried to use podman desktop for a bit but I ran into some screwy compatibility issues. It just wasn't as smooth as docker. I really really want an alternativ

by bmurphy1976 8mo ago

I tried to use podman desktop for a bit but I ran into some screwy compatibility issues. It just wasn't as smooth as docker. I really really want an alternative to docker desktop. I don't like the path they're going down. I don't like the AI crap in the UI. The licensing is crazy. It just doesn't feel right. So I've been lately using rancher by SuSE. Surprisingly, it's been all right. So far it just works. I'm using this on Mac OS. If anybody's looking for an alternative that's one worth considering.

cdrage 8mo ago
What sort of compatibility issues were you encountering? (disclaimer: I'm on the Podman Desktop team) If it was compose + docker compatibility issues, that's on the roadmap for improvement :). Compose support is flakey at times (it's essentially a wrapper around the open source binary https://github.com/docker/compose https://github.com/docker/compose)
- enlightens 8mo ago
  The most common one I run into is with volumes, when the full path doesn't already exist. Docker will just make the path, Podman throws an error. It's been called a "bug" in docker but the fact is everyone just expects the paths to be created. I want it to just work, not make everyone in the industry redo their dockerfiles to be "correct." https://github.com/containers/podman/issues/6234 https://github.com/containers/podman/issues/6234 It looks like there was some work done to resolve this in 2023 and 2024 but I know this was still happening for me in mid 2025. Podman is technically correct here but functionally broken in a way that keeps pushing me away because I don't have time to deal with that :(
  - lukeschlather 8mo ago
    Running a docker container having side effects on the host seems bad. You've just convinced me a little bit I want podman, and not docker.
    - newsoftheday 8mo ago
      Not me, docker is the standard, works great for me, if it didn't, I'd look at alternatives.
      - dizhn 8mo ago
        Podman also works great but one has to stop trying to use it as if it were docker.
- amluto 8mo ago
  I’ve encountered this one: https://github.com/containers/buildah/issues/6460 https://github.com/containers/buildah/issues/6460 Also, there’s Podman’s decision to drop CNI support. Sure, I get that they want to support the full stack, but netavark is really not especially capable, and CNI allows all kinds of interesting (and frequently overcomplicated) things.
  - amluto 8mo ago
    > https://github.com/containers/buildah/issues/6460 https://github.com/containers/buildah/issues/6460 This was just fixed today :)
- fodkodrasz 8mo ago
  I had issues with performance/power management, and had to abandon Podman Desktop on Windows. Have not checked out recently, but my issues may possibly be solved by https://github.com/podman-desktop/podman-desktop/issues/10356#issuecomment-3391079515 https://github.com/podman-desktop/podman-desktop/issues/1035... Basically I had a 5 second periodic CPU spike after some update. Also I had some compose issues, and some issue with Fedora based WSL. These together were blockers for me at that point, but I'm using podman on my pet Fedora server, and it works (using quadlets there) perfectly there, and will retry it on Windows also when I get the time.
- jph 8mo ago
  If you're open to questions, I'm switching my teams from Docker to Podman on macOS. I'm hitting blockers for multi-user setups i.e. each developer has a non-admin account on the machine, whereas brew runs in its own account with admin permissions. I would love a way to have Podman installable in userspace meaning in a non-admin account, or installable without brew, or with a dependency list such as QEMU or whatever else needs to be installed by an admin ahead of time, or with a sudousers config list, etc. I know this is an atypical setup. Any advice from anyone here is much appreciated about multi-user non-admin macOS container setup for Podman or Docker or equivalent.
- silverwind 8mo ago
  No watch support in compose: https://github.com/containers/podman-compose/issues/792 https://github.com/containers/podman-compose/issues/792
- bmurphy1976 8mo ago
  It's been a couple months so I don't remember the details. I am however a heavy compose user to this so promising. I don't any ill will towards the project, just waiting for it to fit my needs.
mrbluecoat 8mo ago
I also like that Rancher Desktop supports nerdctl. Colima is another similar project.
- amluto 8mo ago
  I imagine that OrbStack has containerd buried inside somewhere and could support ctr and (awkwardly) nerdctl, but if so it’s pretty well hidden.
  - chuckadams 8mo ago
    I build containers for multiple platforms using orbstack, and that requires the containerd backend. So yes, it's in there somewhere.
    - amluto 8mo ago
      Huh. Are you actually talking to containerd directly or are you just doing something via the docker frontend that requires containerd to function?
      - chuckadams 8mo ago
        Presumably it's talking to the docker daemon which itself farms some piece out to containerd? I'm really not sure how the integration works.
nsbk 8mo ago
Another alternative (although Mac OS-only) is [0] OrbStack. Some devs in my team are running it as a more performant alternative to Docker Desktop for Mac and they are very happy so far. [0]: https://orbstack.dev https://orbstack.dev
chuckadams 8mo ago
OrbStack is a very compelling alternative on macOS. The GUI launches instantly due to being a Swift app and not Electron. Container filesystems are visible in Finder. You can spin up full-blown VMs with it (only Linux ones though). Storage is managed dynamically, so you don't have to reserve or resize the virtual disk. Free for personal use, with zero nags or upsells.
- moltar 8mo ago
  Orb is definitely the winner. It’s fast. It does the job well. Never had an issue with it in two years.
- ch1234 8mo ago
  How are you deploying? I’m on dokploy so I’m not sure of compatibility
  - chuckadams 8mo ago
    I use good old `docker compose`. It's 100% compatible, since it uses the same moby engine underneath. I've also run k3d on it, so I'm pretty sure it'll handle anything you throw at it.
- pratio 8mo ago
  I can attest, Orbstack has been a gamechanger. Happily paying for the pro license.
- Shebanator 8mo ago
  Does anyone know if the company is still active. Haven't seen any updates for a while now. I like the product a lot, but products like this need security updates at the very least.
  - chuckadams 8mo ago
    Last release was November 2025 which isn't that terribly long ago. https://docs.orbstack.dev/release-notes https://docs.orbstack.dev/release-notes. They do look to have stopped blogging on orbstack.dev for more than a year now. They have a discord channel, but I'm not up for dealing with discord to check on it.
trueismywork 8mo ago
Sorrt for may be a complete ignorant question but whats the use case of docker desktop as opposed docker cli
- dns_snek 8mo ago
  Docker Engine (the "CLI") only works on Linux. "Desktop" is supposed to offer a unified experience across platforms, it offers a GUI, ships Docker Engine inside a virtual machine so that it works on Windows and MacOS, and tries to make the VM as transparent/invisible as possible (with varying success) with filesystem mounts and network configuration.
- kkapelon 8mo ago
  It also includes a local k8s cluster. So you get 2 in 1 package.
  - normie3000 8mo ago
    Why would you want that?
    - kkapelon 8mo ago
      Because several developers that work with docker also deploy to Kubernetes. So docker-desktop is a one-click method to get both on your workstation and deploy locally.
zitterbewegung 8mo ago
I love rancher too and I have less issues of docker using all of my local disk. Learned about it at a local Python meetup.
blakesterz 8mo ago
I'll just add another vote for OrbStack. I found it way faster on M1 and M5 and never found any compatibility issues.
p0w3n3d 8mo ago
I got into problems with test containers on podman and I have no idea how to solve them. Have you fought with that by any chance?
scuff3d 8mo ago
I'm still confused by why anyone wants to use either Docker or Podman desktops. The the docker/Podman CLIs seem like a much better way to interact with containers/images. Maybe it's just my usecase.
- bityard 8mo ago
  I can't speak to docker, but the Podman desktop UI on MacOS doesn't really offer any functionality that the CLI doesn't. It's more like a status dashboard than anything else. I personally never look at it. I don't see how you can get very far managing containers, images, etc using _just_ the UI in any case.
  - scuff3d 8mo ago
    Agreed. To be honest I feel the same way about k8s. A bunch of people on my team get grumpy if we don't have k9s available or some other interface, but I prefer to just use kubectl
- mort96 8mo ago
  I personally use Docker Desktop because it was the easiest way to install Docker on my Mac. I launch Docker Desktop, close the window but keep the app running in the background, then use the docker tool on the command line :)
- dizhn 8mo ago
  The API is pretty extensive too. It works on a local socket that you can start on demand. (Lest people think there's a daemon or root requirement)
davidsainez 8mo ago
I put off podman for a while because of claims of compatibility issues, which is unfortunate because I've had an excellent experience since switching over. Can you point as specific issues you've had (not doubting, just curious)? I also have heard a lot of recommendations for OrbStack, but I haven't had problems with speed either. And I could never stomach using a proprietary system for such a core part of my workflow. For context I use containers for practically everything and I run some decently complex workflows on them: fullstack node codebases, networking, persistent volumes, mounting, watch mode, etc. Red Hat knocked it out of the park with podman!
- mort96 8mo ago
  I've had a ton of issues trying to use Podman instead of Docker on Fedora. SELinux keeps blocking Podman from doing stuff it needs to, while Docker just works. I've also experienced Podman "getting stuck" sometimes: it's just running a build, but ctrl+c somehow doesn't stop the build system and instead freezes Podman. Doesn't really happen with Docker.

cdrage 8mo ago

What sort of compatibility issues were you encountering? (disclaimer: I'm on the Podman Desktop team) If it was compose + docker compatibility issues, that's on the roadmap for improvement :). Compose support is flakey at times (it's essentially a wrapper around the open source binary https://github.com/docker/compose https://github.com/docker/compose)

enlightens 8mo ago
The most common one I run into is with volumes, when the full path doesn't already exist. Docker will just make the path, Podman throws an error. It's been called a "bug" in docker but the fact is everyone just expects the paths to be created. I want it to just work, not make everyone in the industry redo their dockerfiles to be "correct." https://github.com/containers/podman/issues/6234 https://github.com/containers/podman/issues/6234 It looks like there was some work done to resolve this in 2023 and 2024 but I know this was still happening for me in mid 2025. Podman is technically correct here but functionally broken in a way that keeps pushing me away because I don't have time to deal with that :(
- lukeschlather 8mo ago
  Running a docker container having side effects on the host seems bad. You've just convinced me a little bit I want podman, and not docker.
  - newsoftheday 8mo ago
    Not me, docker is the standard, works great for me, if it didn't, I'd look at alternatives.
    - dizhn 8mo ago
      Podman also works great but one has to stop trying to use it as if it were docker.
amluto 8mo ago
I’ve encountered this one: https://github.com/containers/buildah/issues/6460 https://github.com/containers/buildah/issues/6460 Also, there’s Podman’s decision to drop CNI support. Sure, I get that they want to support the full stack, but netavark is really not especially capable, and CNI allows all kinds of interesting (and frequently overcomplicated) things.
- amluto 8mo ago
  > https://github.com/containers/buildah/issues/6460 https://github.com/containers/buildah/issues/6460 This was just fixed today :)
fodkodrasz 8mo ago
I had issues with performance/power management, and had to abandon Podman Desktop on Windows. Have not checked out recently, but my issues may possibly be solved by https://github.com/podman-desktop/podman-desktop/issues/10356#issuecomment-3391079515 https://github.com/podman-desktop/podman-desktop/issues/1035... Basically I had a 5 second periodic CPU spike after some update. Also I had some compose issues, and some issue with Fedora based WSL. These together were blockers for me at that point, but I'm using podman on my pet Fedora server, and it works (using quadlets there) perfectly there, and will retry it on Windows also when I get the time.
jph 8mo ago
If you're open to questions, I'm switching my teams from Docker to Podman on macOS. I'm hitting blockers for multi-user setups i.e. each developer has a non-admin account on the machine, whereas brew runs in its own account with admin permissions. I would love a way to have Podman installable in userspace meaning in a non-admin account, or installable without brew, or with a dependency list such as QEMU or whatever else needs to be installed by an admin ahead of time, or with a sudousers config list, etc. I know this is an atypical setup. Any advice from anyone here is much appreciated about multi-user non-admin macOS container setup for Podman or Docker or equivalent.
silverwind 8mo ago
No watch support in compose: https://github.com/containers/podman-compose/issues/792 https://github.com/containers/podman-compose/issues/792
bmurphy1976 8mo ago
It's been a couple months so I don't remember the details. I am however a heavy compose user to this so promising. I don't any ill will towards the project, just waiting for it to fit my needs.

mrbluecoat 8mo ago

I also like that Rancher Desktop supports nerdctl. Colima is another similar project.

amluto 8mo ago
I imagine that OrbStack has containerd buried inside somewhere and could support ctr and (awkwardly) nerdctl, but if so it’s pretty well hidden.
- chuckadams 8mo ago
  I build containers for multiple platforms using orbstack, and that requires the containerd backend. So yes, it's in there somewhere.
  - amluto 8mo ago
    Huh. Are you actually talking to containerd directly or are you just doing something via the docker frontend that requires containerd to function?
    - chuckadams 8mo ago
      Presumably it's talking to the docker daemon which itself farms some piece out to containerd? I'm really not sure how the integration works.

nsbk 8mo ago

Another alternative (although Mac OS-only) is [0] OrbStack. Some devs in my team are running it as a more performant alternative to Docker Desktop for Mac and they are very happy so far. [0]: https://orbstack.dev https://orbstack.dev

chuckadams 8mo ago

OrbStack is a very compelling alternative on macOS. The GUI launches instantly due to being a Swift app and not Electron. Container filesystems are visible in Finder. You can spin up full-blown VMs with it (only Linux ones though). Storage is managed dynamically, so you don't have to reserve or resize the virtual disk. Free for personal use, with zero nags or upsells.

moltar 8mo ago
Orb is definitely the winner. It’s fast. It does the job well. Never had an issue with it in two years.
ch1234 8mo ago
How are you deploying? I’m on dokploy so I’m not sure of compatibility
- chuckadams 8mo ago
  I use good old `docker compose`. It's 100% compatible, since it uses the same moby engine underneath. I've also run k3d on it, so I'm pretty sure it'll handle anything you throw at it.
pratio 8mo ago
I can attest, Orbstack has been a gamechanger. Happily paying for the pro license.
Shebanator 8mo ago
Does anyone know if the company is still active. Haven't seen any updates for a while now. I like the product a lot, but products like this need security updates at the very least.
- chuckadams 8mo ago
  Last release was November 2025 which isn't that terribly long ago. https://docs.orbstack.dev/release-notes https://docs.orbstack.dev/release-notes. They do look to have stopped blogging on orbstack.dev for more than a year now. They have a discord channel, but I'm not up for dealing with discord to check on it.

trueismywork 8mo ago

Sorrt for may be a complete ignorant question but whats the use case of docker desktop as opposed docker cli

dns_snek 8mo ago
Docker Engine (the "CLI") only works on Linux. "Desktop" is supposed to offer a unified experience across platforms, it offers a GUI, ships Docker Engine inside a virtual machine so that it works on Windows and MacOS, and tries to make the VM as transparent/invisible as possible (with varying success) with filesystem mounts and network configuration.
kkapelon 8mo ago
It also includes a local k8s cluster. So you get 2 in 1 package.
- normie3000 8mo ago
  Why would you want that?
  - kkapelon 8mo ago
    Because several developers that work with docker also deploy to Kubernetes. So docker-desktop is a one-click method to get both on your workstation and deploy locally.

zitterbewegung 8mo ago

I love rancher too and I have less issues of docker using all of my local disk. Learned about it at a local Python meetup.

blakesterz 8mo ago

I'll just add another vote for OrbStack. I found it way faster on M1 and M5 and never found any compatibility issues.

p0w3n3d 8mo ago

I got into problems with test containers on podman and I have no idea how to solve them. Have you fought with that by any chance?

scuff3d 8mo ago

I'm still confused by why anyone wants to use either Docker or Podman desktops. The the docker/Podman CLIs seem like a much better way to interact with containers/images. Maybe it's just my usecase.

bityard 8mo ago
I can't speak to docker, but the Podman desktop UI on MacOS doesn't really offer any functionality that the CLI doesn't. It's more like a status dashboard than anything else. I personally never look at it. I don't see how you can get very far managing containers, images, etc using _just_ the UI in any case.
- scuff3d 8mo ago
  Agreed. To be honest I feel the same way about k8s. A bunch of people on my team get grumpy if we don't have k9s available or some other interface, but I prefer to just use kubectl
mort96 8mo ago
I personally use Docker Desktop because it was the easiest way to install Docker on my Mac. I launch Docker Desktop, close the window but keep the app running in the background, then use the docker tool on the command line :)
dizhn 8mo ago
The API is pretty extensive too. It works on a local socket that you can start on demand. (Lest people think there's a daemon or root requirement)

davidsainez 8mo ago

I put off podman for a while because of claims of compatibility issues, which is unfortunate because I've had an excellent experience since switching over. Can you point as specific issues you've had (not doubting, just curious)? I also have heard a lot of recommendations for OrbStack, but I haven't had problems with speed either. And I could never stomach using a proprietary system for such a core part of my workflow. For context I use containers for practically everything and I run some decently complex workflows on them: fullstack node codebases, networking, persistent volumes, mounting, watch mode, etc. Red Hat knocked it out of the park with podman!

mort96 8mo ago
I've had a ton of issues trying to use Podman instead of Docker on Fedora. SELinux keeps blocking Podman from doing stuff it needs to, while Docker just works. I've also experienced Podman "getting stuck" sometimes: it's just running a build, but ctrl+c somehow doesn't stop the build system and instead freezes Podman. Doesn't really happen with Docker.