Apptainer vs Moby
Apptainer
apptainer.orgMoby
mobyproject.orgSide by side
| Figure | Apptainer | Moby |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Container Engines | 8.9 (#1) | 7.3 (#22) |
| Purpose | Apptainer creates and runs containers that package software for portability and reproducibility. | Moby is an open framework created by Docker for assembling specialized container systems from standard components. |
| Security reporting | The Technical Steering Committee manages project security, and the policy directs vulnerability reports through private contact with the project. | Security vulnerabilities should be reported privately to [email protected], and reporters can expect an acknowledgement within 72 hours. |
| Support | Free support resources include Slack, a mailing list, and GitHub, while commercial support and services are offered through CIQ. | Releases receive best-effort support from maintainers, the community, and users; Moby is not intended to provide commercial support. |
| Target users | The project was created for complex applications on HPC clusters and is used across academia and industry. | Moby is intended for engineers, integrators and enthusiasts who want to modify, experiment with and build container-based systems. |
Plans
In their own words
Apptainer
Apptainer is a free container platform for creating and running portable, reproducible workloads, with a focus on shared systems and high-performance computing. It packages containers as immutable, single-file Singularity Image Format (SIF) images designed for transport and sharing. By default, users retain the same privileges inside and outside containers. Images can be signed and verified with PGP keys, PEM keys or X.509 certificates, and encrypted containers can run without writing decrypted contents to disk. Apptainer imports containers from OCI registries and aims to support most Docker Hub containers without changes. It can expose host resources such as GPUs, high-speed networks and parallel filesystems, and supports NVIDIA CUDA, AMD ROCm, Intel Gaudi and OCI Container Device Interface accelerators. Running Apptainer requires Linux; Windows and macOS need a Linux virtual machine, with Windows also listed via WSL2. Root access is unnecessary when user namespaces are available. Full functionality requires kernel support for FUSE and unprivileged user namespaces. Community support includes Slack, Google Groups and GitHub, with commercial services through CIQ.