Dev tools · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Clone, a small Rust VMM, forks VMs in under 20ms via CoW
We needed a secure, multi-tenant way to offer shell accounts to users, but most VMMs were using too much memory and containers are unsafe. With clone, VMs are now more memory efficient than containers in most cases. Since many other projects on HN looked like they were doing this too, open sourcing this was the right thing to do. Feel free to use in whole or in part as you see fit!
Clone is a lightweight virtual machine monitor written in Rust that creates new VMs in under 20 milliseconds using copy-on-write technology. It addresses the need for secure, multi-tenant shell account hosting by… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.
- 1
I wanted to see how fast an isolated code sandbox could start if I never had to boot a fresh VM. So instead of launching a new microVM per execution, I boot Firecracker once with Python and numpy already loaded, then snapshot the full VM state. Every execution after that creates a new KVM VM backed by a `MAP_PRIVATE` mapping of the snapshot memory, so Linux gives me copy-on-write pages automatically. That means each sandbox starts from an already-running Python process inside a real VM, runs the code, and exits. These are real KVM VMs, not containers: separate guest kernel, separate guest…
Mar 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 2AC
I think that asdf (https://asdf-vm.com) was a great idea for a project. It helps consolidate installing and running different programming languages into a similar UX. It also is built with a plugin interface that makes it easy to build support for new languages. However it is so slow. I was just testing `node -v` and it was taking ~900ms. That kind of overhead is completely unusable. My shell prompt uses runtimes inside of it for various things so this effectively makes every command take multiple seconds to complete. So I rebuilt it in Rust but using the same plugin ecosystem so…
2023 · its alternatives →
- 3
Minimalist, dependency-free virtual machine sandbox for microcontrollers and other resource-constrained devices. Single C file, no dynamic memory allocations, asynchronous design, pure C99 - ringtailsoftware/uvm32
Dec 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 4
"interesting" VM in C. Let's see how this goes. Contribute to tekknolagi/carp development by creating an account on GitHub.
2014 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 5
HVM1 (2022): a massively parallel, optimal functional runtime in Rust - HigherOrderCO/HVM1
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 6
Build and run tiny vms from Dockerfiles. Small and sleek. - ottomatica/slim
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 7
High performance secure & portable Rust functions in Node.js
2020 · secondstate.io · its alternatives →
- 8
hey guys. the other day i was migrating hosting providers and i just needed something not too heavy and convenient to spin up my backups for awhile and realised there is almost nothing out there. kimchi hasn't been updated for years and cockpit is heavy. so here's something i came up with in a couple hours because of a sudden urge, nothing fancy just basic creation with cloud init, lifecycle management and image/storage, but it's modern-ish and it compiles to a 8.4mb binary inclusive of the embedded web UI, CLI and API, and only dep is libvirt.
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 9
Hi HN! Excited to launch machine0, a CLI that makes it easy to create, provision and snapshot persistent NixOS (& Ubuntu) VMs. You can think of machine0 as a modern VPS provider. VMs stay on unless switched-off (with 99.99% uptime), they have static IPs and HTTPS endpoints, 1-60 vCPU, up to 240GB RAM and optionally GPUs. The CLI provides commands to manage lifecycle, snapshots and also provision the VMs using Nix flakes or Ansible playbooks. VMs are priced by the minute of usage. What makes machine0 unique is that it has first class support for NixOS! In a nutshell, NixOS lets you define…
Jun 2026 · machine0.io · its alternatives →
- 10
Build and run tiny vms from Dockerfiles. Small and sleek. - GitHub - ottomatica/slim at 2.x
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 11
Contribute to libriscv/drogon-sandbox development by creating an account on GitHub.
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 12B2
This is a long-running project that started as the proverbial need to scratch my own itch and then somehow evolved into a full-time job of the past 6 years. Link: https://bvckup2.com I thought I'd do a Show HN for two reasons. 1. I obviously want to show my baby to those who haven't seen it. Its primary purpose is to do very fast file replication. If you are familiar with "robocopy /mir" - same idea, but on steroids. Lots of them. It can be used for both mirroring and archiving backups, among other things. It is light, very small and it is really quite fast. Half of the…
2019 · bvckup2.com · its alternatives →
- 13
To try it out, simply build the project yourself from source, or use attached bootable ISO image of the system (in Releases on Github) and run it in QEMU. https://blog.vxn.dev/rou2exos-rusted-edition
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 14LV
Hello HN! We've been working on a new hypervisor https://kwarantine.xyz that can run strongly isolated containers. This is still a WIP, but we wanted to give the community an idea about our approach, its benefits, and various use cases it unlocks. Today, VMs are used to host containers, and make up for the lack of strong security as well as kernel isolation in containers. This work adds this missing security piece in containers. We plan on launching a free private beta soon. Meanwhile, we'd deeply appreciate any feedback, and happy to answer any questions here or on our slack…
2021 · its alternatives →
- 15
Shuru is a lightweight sandbox that spins up Linux VMs on macOS using Apple's Virtualization.framework. Boots in about a second on Apple Silicon, and everything is ephemeral by default. There's a checkpoint system for when you do want to persist state, and sandboxes run without network access unless you explicitly allow it. Single Rust binary, no dependencies. Built it for sandboxing AI agent code execution, but it works well for anything where you need a disposable Linux environment.
Feb 2026 · shuru.run · its alternatives →
- 16
I've built this to make it easy to host your own infra for lightweight VMs at large scale. Intended for exec of AI-generated code, for CICD runners, or for off-chain AI DApps. Mainly to avoid Docker-in-Docker dangers and mess. Super easy to use with CLI / Python SDK, friendly to AI engs who usually don't like to mess with VM orchestration and networking too much. Defense-in-depth philosophy. Would love to get feedback (and contributors: clear & exciting roadmap!), thx
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 17
Create microVMs from OCI images. Contribute to slp/krunvm development by creating an account on GitHub.
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 18AH
I've been trying to write my "go on rails" framework for years. I never quite got it like I wanted. There is gin and echo and all sorts of other frameworks and patterns but I finally found something I really like: /foo/ /foo/bar/ /foo/bar/more/ That's it. Just three levels and all my controllers get passed in what's between the / with var names first, second, third. In order to really make sure this framework could build something real I made a Hacker News clone. RemoteRenters.com is a HN just for articles about the remote work revolution…
2023 · remoterenters.com · its alternatives →
- 19
Over the past few months, as we scaled our internal AI Agents, we hit a dead end: Running LLM-generated arbitrary code in Docker is basically running naked on security due to container escape risks. But using full traditional VMs takes minutes to boot and eats too much memory to support high-density concurrency. We loved the developer experience of SaaS sandboxes on the market, but they are closed-source, expensive, and have too high a barrier to entry for self-hosting. So, our team decided to build our own. After months of grinding, using RustVMM and KVM, we built a blazing-fast,…
Apr 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 20
VirtualProg▲74A faster, simpler alternative to bulky VM managers.
Apr 2026 · makeprog.com · its alternatives →
- 21
VM with JIT-compiler for ATMega32 written in Rust. Contribute to MackieLoeffel/avr-vm development by creating an account on GitHub.
2017 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 22
HN+▲92Launch your very own HackerNews clone & grow your community
2023 · hn.plus · its alternatives →
- 23
A fast, resilient, isomorphic hacker news clone in ~1k lines of rust. - ivanceras/hackernews-sauron
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 24
Hi HN! I've been building a project that handles high-value credentials in-process, and I wanted something more robust than just zeroing memory on drop. A comment on a recent Show HN[0] made me realize that awareness of lower-level memory protection techniques might not be as widespread as I thought. The idea here is to pull out all the tools in one crate, with a relatively simple API. * mlock/VirtualLock to prevent sensitive memory from being swapped (eg the KeePass dump) * Core dump exclusion using MADV_DONTDUMP on Linux & Android * mprotect to minimize exposure over time * Guard…
Mar 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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- Sub-millisecond VM sandboxes using CoW memory forking alternatives
- Asdf Clone Written in Rust alternatives
- Tiny VM sandbox in C with apps in Rust, C and Zig alternatives
- A small virtual machine written in C alternatives
- High-order Virtual Machine (HVM) – A Parallel Functional Runtime alternatives
- Slim – Build and run tiny VMs from Dockerfiles alternatives
Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →