Side by side
Apptainer vs Charliecloud
Both stand on container engines. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.
Free plan APILinuxMac+2
Apptainer is oriented toward portable container workloads on Linux, particularly in HPC settings. Check host kernel requirements and the Linux environment needed on Windows or macOS before adopting it.
Visit Apptainer
Free plan LinuxSelf-hosted
Charliecloud provides a Linux container workflow tailored to high-performance computing, with image-building, registry, and accelerator support. Users should account for its Linux user-namespace requirement and reliance on kernel and userland security enforcement.
Visit CharliecloudThe facts
| Apptainer | Charliecloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Not published |
| Runs on | API, Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Windows | Linux, Self-hosted |
| Lowest paid plan | Free or on request | Free or on request |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Maker | Not published | Not published |
| Website | apptainer.org | charliecloud.io |
| On container engines | #1 of 31 | #7 of 31 |
Apptainer: what it does well
- Creates portable, immutable single-file SIF images.
- Supports encrypted containers and cryptographic signing.
- Can access GPUs and other host resources.
- Root access is unnecessary with user namespaces.
What to know first
- Requires Linux to run.
- Windows and macOS need a Linux environment.
- Full functionality requires FUSE and unprivileged user namespaces.
Charliecloud: what it does well
- Runs containers without privileged operations or daemons
- Builds and transfers images to registries
- Git-based build cache without layers
- Can inject GPUs and Cray networking
- Free and Apache License 2.0
What to know first
- Requires Linux user namespaces for unprivileged use
- Supports only the current release
- Does not provide its own security boundary
Alternatives to Apptainer Alternatives to Charliecloud The whole list