apko vs BuildKit
apko
apko.devBuildKit
github.comSide by side
| Figure | apko | BuildKit |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Container Build Tools | 7.8 (#14) | 8.9 (#4) |
| Integrations | The project documents use with Docker and provides an apko build action for GitHub Actions CI/CD pipelines. | BuildKit documentation lists integrations or usage with Podman, nerdctl, Kubernetes, Docker buildx, GitHub Actions cache, S3 cache, Azure Blob Storage cache, and OpenTelemetry. |
| Purpose | apko builds and publishes OCI container images from apk packages. | BuildKit is a toolkit for converting source code to build artifacts in an efficient, expressive and repeatable manner. |
| Security reporting | The security policy asks users to report vulnerabilities by email and says reporters can expect acknowledgment within 72 hours. | Security issues should be reported privately to [email protected], and the project currently does not offer a paid security bounty program. |
| Support | The project README directs users with questions to the #apko channel on Kubernetes Slack. | The project directs users to the #buildkit channel on Docker Community Slack and to GitHub issues for reporting problems with release binaries. |
Plans
In their own words
BuildKit
BuildKit is a free toolkit for turning source code into build artifacts. It consists of the buildkitd daemon and buildctl client, and uses LLB, a binary format for describing process dependency graphs. Builds can use Dockerfiles or other LLB-compatible frontends, resolve dependencies concurrently, cache instructions, import and export caches, run nested jobs, and collect unused data automatically. BuildKit supports execution without root privileges and OCI (runc) or containerd workers. Results can be exported as images, local directories, tarballs, Docker tarballs, or OCI tarballs. Cache options include inline, registry, local-directory, and GitHub Actions backends; the README marks GitHub Actions, S3, and Azure Blob options experimental. The daemon provides a gRPC API over a Unix socket by default, with TCP sockets also supported. Binaries are available for Linux, macOS, and Windows. The unofficial Homebrew formula for macOS omits buildkitd; the project gives Lima in a Linux virtual machine as one way to run it. BuildKit is licensed under Apache-2.0.