Side by side
Buildah vs crun
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 APILinuxSelf-hosted
Buildah offers several image-building routes and container-management commands in a free Linux command-line tool. Check kernel support and registry naming guidance before using it; the project warns that unqualified image names can be spoofed.
Visit Buildah Free plan LinuxSelf-hosted
crun provides a free, Linux-focused OCI runtime with command-line container operations and rootless support. Note the cgroup v1 deprecation and limited guarantees for fixes to older versions.
Visit crunThe facts
| Buildah | crun | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Not published |
| Runs on | API, Linux, Self-hosted | Linux, Self-hosted |
| Lowest paid plan | Free or on request | Free or on request |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Maker | Not published | Not published |
| Website | buildah.io | github.com |
| On container engines | #4 of 31 | #8 of 31 |
Buildah: what it does well
- Builds OCI and traditional upstream Docker images.
- Supports rootless builds.
- Can build with or without Dockerfiles.
- Commands manage containers and images.
- Free plan; no paid tiers stated.
What to know first
- Linux is the supported host OS.
- Requires OverlayFS or fuse-overlayfs support.
- RHEL or CentOS requires version 7.4 or higher.
- Uses runc for buildah run and RUN instructions.
crun: what it does well
- Conforms to OCI Container Runtime specifications.
- Offers rootless use with automatic user namespaces.
- Release binaries listed for amd64 and arm64.
- Documents Podman integration and a Lua binding.
What to know first
- Linux only; Windows containers are not supported.
- cgroup v1 support is deprecated.
- Prior-version fixes are best effort, not guaranteed.