Container Orchestration

K3s33.0k★

K3s runs production Kubernetes in 100MB of RAM, packaged as a single binary under 70MB. Same Kubernetes API, same kubectl commands, same ecosystem, just without the components most people never touch. It runs on everything from a Raspberry Pi to production cloud servers. Fully free under Apache 2.0. No paid tier, no enterprise version, no feature gating. SUSE/Rancher maintains it, and they make money on Rancher (the multi-cluster management layer), not K3s itself. Installation is a one-liner: `curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | sh -`. You have a running Kubernetes cluster in under 60 seconds. Adding worker nodes is equally simple. It bundles containerd, Flannel (networking), CoreDNS, and Traefik (ingress) so you don't have to install them separately. Solo developers: this is the easiest way to run Kubernetes locally or on a single VPS. Small teams: production-ready for most workloads. Growing teams: use it. It's the same Kubernetes, just lighter. The catch: K3s uses SQLite by default instead of etcd, which means single-node setups aren't highly available. For HA, you'll switch to an external Postgres/MySQL database or embedded etcd, which adds complexity back. Also, some enterprise Kubernetes tools assume full K8s and might not work out of the box.

Podman31.6k★

Podman is the drop-in Docker replacement that doesn't need a daemon running in the background. Same commands (`podman run`, `podman build`, `podman pull`) but no daemon process, no root access required, and the security model is fundamentally better. Podman runs containers as your regular user by default (rootless). Each container is a child process of the podman command, not a daemon. If Podman crashes, your containers keep running. If Docker's daemon crashes, everything dies. The Docker CLI compatibility is nearly perfect. Most people alias `docker` to `podman` and never notice the difference. Podman Compose exists for docker-compose files. Podman can build Dockerfiles. It pushes to and pulls from the same registries. Podman's unique feature: pods. Like Kubernetes pods, you can group containers that share network and storage. This makes it a natural stepping stone from local development to Kubernetes deployment. The catch: "nearly perfect" Docker compatibility means occasionally you hit an edge case that works in Docker but not Podman. Rootless networking has quirks. Binding to ports below 1024 requires extra config. Docker Desktop's Kubernetes integration and extensions ecosystem doesn't exist in Podman. And some CI systems and dev tools assume Docker's socket API, requiring workarounds for Podman.

Dockge23.1k★

Dockge gives you a clean web UI for managing Docker Compose stacks: create, edit, start, stop, and monitor containers without touching the terminal. From the same developer who built Uptime Kuma, and it shows. The UI is clean, fast, and does exactly what you expect. TypeScript, MIT. Growing quickly. The design philosophy: one compose file per stack, edit them visually or in the built-in YAML editor, see real-time container logs, and manage everything through a browser. It converts `docker run` commands into compose files automatically. Fully free. No paid tier, no cloud version, no premium features behind a wall. Self-hosted only. Installation is a single docker-compose up. It manages your OTHER compose stacks, so it sits alongside your containers, not inside them. The UI shows stack status, lets you pull updates, and handles basic container lifecycle. Solo developers and homelab users: this is the sweet spot. Managing 5-20 compose stacks through Dockge is pleasant. Small teams: works great for shared dev or staging environments. Medium to large: you probably need Portainer, Rancher, or Kubernetes at that scale. The catch: Dockge is compose-only. No Docker Swarm, no Kubernetes, no standalone container management. It doesn't do networking configuration, registry management, or advanced orchestration. It's a compose stack manager and nothing more, which is exactly why it's good at what it does.

containerd20.7k★

It's the container runtime that actually pulls images, manages container lifecycle, handles storage, and runs your containers. Docker, Kubernetes, and most cloud providers use containerd underneath. You just don't interact with it directly most of the time. Everything is free under Apache 2.0. CNCF graduated project. No paid tier, no commercial entity selling premium features. Core infrastructure maintained by contributors from Docker, Google, Microsoft, AWS, and others. You typically don't install containerd directly unless you're building a container platform or running Kubernetes without Docker. Kubernetes dropped Docker as a runtime in v1.24 and switched to containerd directly, which actually simplified things. If you're on any managed Kubernetes service, containerd is already running. Solo developers: you'll never interact with this directly. Docker Desktop or Podman wraps it for you. Platform engineers building Kubernetes clusters: you need to understand containerd, its configuration, and its relationship to the CRI (Container Runtime Interface). The catch: containerd is deliberately low-level. It doesn't have a CLI for humans (well, `ctr` exists but it's not user-friendly). It's meant to be used by other software, not by people. If you're looking for a Docker alternative to run containers, look at Podman instead.

Nomad16.5k★

Nomad runs containers, VMs, and standalone executables across a cluster of servers without the complexity of Kubernetes. It's a workload orchestrator: you tell it 'run 3 copies of this service' and it handles placement, restarts, rolling updates, and health checks. What's free: The Nomad binary is free to download and use. Source-available under BSL 1.1 (same license change as Terraform). All core scheduling, service mesh (Consul integration), and multi-region features work without paying. Nomad's pitch is simplicity. A single binary, no etcd, no API server fleet. Just nomad agent on your nodes. You can go from zero to a running cluster in 30 minutes. It handles Docker containers, Java JARs, raw executables, even Windows services. That flexibility is rare. The catch: the BSL 1.1 license means it's not truly open source anymore. You can use it freely but competitors can't build products on it. The ecosystem is a fraction of Kubernetes' size. Fewer tutorials, fewer integrations, fewer people who know it. And while it's simpler than K8s, 'simpler' still means distributed systems complexity. You'll want Consul for service discovery and Vault for secrets, pulling you deeper into the HashiCorp ecosystem.

caddy-docker-proxy4.5k★

Caddy-docker-proxy reads your Docker labels and configures Caddy automatically. Add a label to your container saying "this is app.example.com" and caddy-docker-proxy handles the routing, SSL certificate, and renewal. Zero config files. Fully free under MIT. It's a Caddy plugin that watches the Docker socket for container events and generates Caddy configuration on the fly. Works with Docker Compose and Docker Swarm. Every container gets HTTPS automatically via Let's Encrypt. The catch: it's Docker-only. If you're on Kubernetes, use Traefik or an ingress controller. The Docker labels syntax has a learning curve. Complex routing rules (path-based routing, headers, redirects) get verbose as labels. And because it watches the Docker socket, it needs elevated permissions, which is a security consideration. For simple setups with 5-15 containers, it's magic. For complex routing, you might want a proper Caddyfile instead.

deno_docker1.0k★

These are the official Docker images. Alpine, Debian, Ubuntu variants. You pull the image, write your Dockerfile, and your Deno app runs in a container. This isn't a tool you evaluate. It's infrastructure. If you use Deno, you use these images (or build your own, which is more work for no benefit). The images are maintained by the Deno team and track Deno releases. Everything is free. Official Docker images, MIT licensed. The catch: this is a Docker image repository, not a standalone tool. If you're not already using Deno, this isn't relevant. If you are using Deno, you probably already found these on Docker Hub. The Alpine variant is ~40MB, which is great for image size. The main thing to watch: Deno updates frequently, and pinning to a specific version in your Dockerfile (which you should do) means manually bumping versions.