No. 11 of 27 ·Container Runtime Software

firecracker-containerd

Linux · Self-hosted

Freedom report

Two barsScore 6.4

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely1 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

firecracker-containerd is ranked #11 of 27 in container runtime software on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, Self-hosted. There is a free plan.

firecracker-containerd plans and pricing

All plans

firecracker-containerd Free Apache-2.0 licensed; requires Linux 4.14+, Intel x86_64, and KVM; project describes itself as in a very early state github.com · 4 Oct 2026

Compared on container runtime software

Free plan: Yes
OCI support: Yes
Windows containers: No
Runtime mode: virtualized
Host platforms: linux

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The record

Purpose: firecracker-containerd enables containerd to manage containers as Firecracker microVMs.
Isolation: Firecracker microVMs can provide an additional layer of isolation through the KVM hypervisor.
Use cases: The project describes sandboxing untrusted third-party containers and bin-packing disparate workloads on multi-tenant hosts as potential use cases.
Container compatibility: The project uses container standards such as the OCI image format where possible.
Components: The repository includes a control plugin and API, an out-of-process shim runtime, an agent that runs inside the microVM, and a root filesystem image builder.
Container runtime: The in-VM agent invokes runC through containerd's containerd-shim-runc-v1 to create Linux containers inside the microVM.
Networking: Networking supports pre-created tap devices and tap devices created automatically by CNI plugins.
Integrations: The getting-started guide describes CNI plugins including bridge, ptp, host-local, firewall, and tc-redirect-tap.
Host requirements: The getting-started guide requires Linux 4.14 or later, an Intel x86_64 processor, and KVM; it says AMD and Arm are not yet supported by this project.
Build prerequisites: The guide lists git, gcc, Docker CE, and Go 1.23 or later as prerequisites.
Security caveat: The repository states that multi-tenant use cases are at the user's own risk.
Production networking: The guide says production deployments should choose network configuration suited to their environment and workloads, with attention to network isolation between tasks.
Project maturity: The getting-started guide describes the project as being in a very early state and says it is not yet as plug-and-play as desired.
Support: The README directs bug reports, roadmap discussion, and feature requests to GitHub Issues, and general discussion to the Firecracker Slack #containerd channel.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Container Runtime Software in 2026#11 of 27

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Sources

github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker-contain· checked 4 Oct 2026
github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker-contain· checked 4 Oct 2026