Podman

Windows · Mac · Linux · Self-hosted · API

Freedom report

Three barsScore 6.5

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely3 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Podman is ranked #7 of 31 in container engines on Freedom251. It runs on API, Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Windows. There is a free plan.

Podman plans and pricing

All plans

Free and open source Free Container, pod, and image management · Podman Desktop podman.io · 30 Sept 2026

Compared on container engines

Free plan: Yes
Rootless mode: Yes
Image building: Yes
Windows containers: No
Image format: both
Runtime interface: other
Supported host OS: Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD

Best Podman alternatives

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Two bars Apptainer Free tier No. 1Free6.6 Two bars BuildKit Free tier No. 2Free6.6 Two bars Docker Desktop Free tier No. 3$9/mo6.6 Two bars Incus Free tier No. 4Free6.6 One bar containerd Free tier No. 5Free6.5 One bar LXD Free tier No. 6$2.08/mo6.5

The record

Purpose: Podman manages containers, pods, and images and supports finding, running, building, and sharing containers.
Daemonless: Podman is a daemonless container engine with a command line comparable to Docker’s CLI.
Rootless use: Most Podman commands can run as a regular user without additional privileges.
Container security: Podman Desktop describes Podman’s security foundations as including daemonless and rootless containers, SELinux support, network policy enforcement, and immutable containers.
Desktop app: Podman Desktop is a graphical application for installing and working with Podman and other container engines on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Engine integrations: Podman Desktop lists Podman, Docker, Lima, kind, Red Hat OpenShift, and Red Hat OpenShift Developer Sandbox as supported engines and orchestrators.
Image workflows: Podman Desktop can build images from Dockerfiles or Containerfiles, pull images from remote repositories, and manage accounts for pushing images to registries.
Kubernetes: Podman can play Kubernetes YAML locally, generate Kubernetes YAML from pods, and deploy to existing Kubernetes environments.
Integrations: The Podman site lists support in Visual Studio Code, Cirrus CLI, GitHub Actions, and kind.
Registry compatibility: Podman can find and pull containers from Docker Hub, Quay.io, internal registries, or directly from vendors.
Platforms: Podman runs on macOS and Windows using a guest Linux system managed as a Podman machine, and the installation page lists Linux distributions including Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, and CentOS Stream.
API: Podman on macOS and Windows listens for Docker API clients, and its installation page describes programmatic access from a language of the user’s choice.
Support: The project points users to its troubleshooting guide, documentation, issue tracker, Matrix, Discord, IRC, mailing list, and community meetings.
License: The Podman homepage identifies the project as Apache License 2.0.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Container Engines in 2026#7 of 31
Best Container Runtime Software in 2026#7 of 27
Best Container Management Software in 2026#9 of 24

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Sources

podman.io/features· checked 30 Sept 2026
docs.podman.io/en/latest/markdown/podman.1.html· checked 30 Sept 2026
podman-desktop.io· checked 30 Sept 2026
podman.io· checked 30 Sept 2026
podman.io/docs/installation· checked 30 Sept 2026
podman.io/community· checked 30 Sept 2026