Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Slim – Build and run tiny VMs from Dockerfiles

Build and run tiny vms from Dockerfiles. Small and sleek. - ottomatica/slim

Slim is a tool that creates minimal virtual machines directly from Dockerfiles. It lets developers build and run lightweight VMs without the overhead of traditional containerization approaches. The tool is designed for… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Slim – Build and run tiny VMs from Dockerfiles launched in 2019; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1
slim - Build micro-vms from Dockerfiles▲14
Build and run tiny vms from Dockerfiles. Small and sleek. - ottomatica/slim
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
2
Slim 2: Create VM from Dockerfile, boots in seconds (+macOS M1/Hyper-V)▲59
Build and run tiny vms from Dockerfiles. Small and sleek. - GitHub - ottomatica/slim at 2.x
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
3
I've built a nice home server OS▲194
ohai! I've released Lightwhale 3, which is possibly the easiest way to self-host Docker containers. It's a free, immutable Linux system purpose-built to live-boot straight into a working Docker Engine, thereby shortcutting the need for installation, configuration, and maintenance. Its simple design makes it easy to learn, and its low memory footprint should make it especially attractive during these times of RAMageddon. If this has piqued your interest, do check it out, along with its easy-to-follow Getting Started guide. In any event, have a nice day! =)
Apr 2026 · lightwhale.asklandd.dk · its alternatives →
4
Smol machines – subsecond coldstart, portable virtual machines▲499
Branchable computing by using a portable, lightweight, self-contained virtual machine - smol-machines/smolvm
Apr 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
5
Ollama – Run LLMs on your Mac▲284
Hi HN A few folks and I have been working on this project for a couple weeks now. After previously working on the Docker project for a number of years (both on the container runtime and image registry side), the recent rise in open source language models made us think something similar needed to exist for large language models too. While not exactly the same as running linux containers, running LLMs shares quite a few of the same challenges. There are "base layers" (e.g. models like Llama 2), specific configuration to run correctly (parameters, temperature, context window sizes etc). There's…
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
6
krunvm – Create and run lightweight VMs from OCI images▲82
Create microVMs from OCI images. Contribute to slp/krunvm development by creating an account on GitHub.
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
7
Katakate – Dozens of VMs per node for safe code exec▲124
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 →
8
Lumier – Run macOS VMs in a Docker▲159
Hey HN, we're excited to share Lumier (https://github.com/trycua/cua/tree/main/libs/lumier), an open-source tool for running macOS and Linux virtual machines in Docker containers on Apple Silicon Macs. When building virtualized environments for AI agents, we needed a reproducible way to package and distribute macOS VMs. Inspired by projects like dockur/windows (https://github.com/dockur/windows) that pioneered running Windows in Docker, we wanted to create something similar but optimized for Apple Silicon. The existing…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
9LD
Layerfiles, Dockerfiles that build VMs▲10
Hey HN, I’m excited to show you Layerfiles, an OSS project which gives you a single binary to build microvms using a syntax that looks like a Dockerfile. The project is currently in alpha, but it’s already able to build a VM on Linux hosts. MicroVMs are like containers, but have several upsides: - They can run on any OS, so you don’t need to run a wrapper VM like Docker Desktop does. - They also let you keep processes running during a build (RUN BACKGROUND), so you can run a webserver or build server in the background. - You can generally run them rootless without any extra configuration.…
2022 · its alternatives →
10
Sub-millisecond VM sandboxes using CoW memory forking▲311
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 →
11
Kitematic▲137
The easiest way to start using Docker on your desktop.
2014 · kitematic.com · its alternatives →
12
Building better base images▲38
This project addresses the inefficiencies of traditional Dockerfile-based container builds where each customization layer creates storage bloat through duplicate dependencies from repeated apt-get install commands, network inefficiency from redundant package downloads across different images, and slow iteration cycles requiring full rebuilds of all previous steps. Our solution enables building minimal base images from scratch using debootstrap that precisely include only required components in the initial build, while allowing creation of specialized variants (Java, Kafka, etc.) from these…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
13
Lightweight tool for managing Linux virtual machines▲144
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 →
14
Container Diet▲105
Slim down your Docker images with AI-powered sass. 🐳💅
Nov 2025 · k1lgor.github.io · its alternatives →
15
Amla Sandbox – WASM bash shell sandbox for AI agents▲146
WASM sandbox for running LLM-generated code safely. Agents get a bash-like shell and can only call tools you provide, with constraints you define. No Docker, no subprocess, no SaaS — just pip install amla-sandbox
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
16
Minimal – Open-Source Community driven Hardened Container Images▲120
I would like to share Minimal - Its a open source collection of hardened container images build using Apko, Melange and Wolfi packages. The images are build daily, checked for updates and resolved as soon as fix is available in upstream source and Wolfi package. It utilizes the power of available open source solutions and contains commercially available images for free. Minimal demonstrates that it is possible to build and maintain hardened container images by ourselves. Minimal will add more images support, and goal is to be community driven to add images as required and fully customizable.
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
17
Kedge – Full-stack cloud with forkable VM snapshots and global SQLite▲141
I'm building Kedge, a globally distributed platform for stateful serverless apps. Here's how you make a simple static site: `echo '# Hello world!' | ssh kedge.dev` I helped build Fly.io for 4 years and shared enthusiasm for the founders' vision of a 'global Heroku'. While there, I wrote "The Serverless Server" (https://fly.io/blog/the-serverless-server/) as a study of Lambda and a sketch of a modern serverless product built around lightweight VMs. That essay was the initial inspiration for Kedge. Kedge has a fast VM orchestrator that can create code sandboxes or…
Jul 2026 · kedge.dev · its alternatives →
18
Ephemeral VMs in 1 Microsecond▲84
Contribute to libriscv/drogon-sandbox development by creating an account on GitHub.
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
19
Smallest Node.js Docker images▲120
Distroless Node.js Docker Images. Contribute to astefanutti/scratch-node development by creating an account on GitHub.
2018 · github.com · its alternatives →
20
Hosting by webapp.io ▲105
Global CDN, zero config TLS, free custom domains
2023 · webapp.io · its alternatives →
21
Vas-quod – A minimal Linux container runtime written in Rust▲110
:aerial_tramway: Minimal linux container runtime. Contribute to flouthoc/vas-quod development by creating an account on GitHub.
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
22
Micronaut Framework▲88
Build modular easily testable microservice & serverless apps
2019 · micronaut.io · its alternatives →
23
Dokku▲90
Docker powered mini-Heroku in around 100 lines of Bash
2015 · github.com · its alternatives →
24
A minimal stack based VM in C▲60
A minimal stack-based VM. Contribute to codr7/liblg development by creating an account on GitHub.
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

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