Side by side
Enroot vs Incus
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 LinuxSelf-hosted
Pick Enroot for Linux container workflows where rootless operation, portability, and reproducibility matter more than strong isolation. Look elsewhere if your use case requires substantial isolation; Enroot is explicitly described as providing little to none.
Visit Enroot Free plan APILinuxMac+2
Incus combines container and virtual-machine management with storage, networking, migration, and resource controls. Plan for a Linux daemon and trusted-only socket access, and choose an installation route through a distribution, third-party repository, or source.
Visit IncusThe facts
| Enroot | Incus | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Not published |
| Runs on | Linux, Self-hosted | API, Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Windows |
| Lowest paid plan | Free or on request | Free or on request |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Maker | Not published | Not published |
| Website | github.com | linuxcontainers.org |
| On container engines | #10 of 31 | #6 of 31 |
Enroot: what it does well
- Free utility released under Apache License 2.0.
- Runs without a daemon or setuid binary.
- Supports unprivileged multi-user use.
- Imports Docker images and other known image formats.
- Includes GPU support and hooks for NVIDIA and Mellanox capabilities.
What to know first
- Provides little to no isolation.
- Requires Linux kernel 3.10 or later and specified kernel features.
- GPU support has additional driver and tool requirements.
- The hardened package flavor has greater overhead.
Incus: what it does well
- Manages containers and virtual machines with shared storage and networking.
- Supports snapshots, backups, recovery, and migration.
- Offers REST API and command-line management.
- Free software under the Apache 2 license.
What to know first
- The daemon runs on Linux only.
- Upstream does not directly provide packages.
- Unix socket access grants full control.