Cloonix vs Containerlab

Cloonix is a free, AGPLv3 suite of C software components for creating virtual networks with KVM-based virtual machines and containers. It runs as a user-land application on a Linux distribution, with a web platform also listed. Users assemble machines, containers, and network items, connect them through Open vSwitch bridges, and view the topology on a graphical canvas. Virtual machines use QEMU-KVM; crun containers can use ZIP files or directories as root filesystems. Elements include NAT, host TAP and physical interfaces, links between Cloonix networks, and packet transit for dropping, shaping, or delaying traffic. The project names Open vSwitch, crun, QEMU-KVM, SPICE, and Wireshark as key components. A Wireshark spy can display or save captures on supported interfaces but is not the complete Wireshark application. Wi-Fi emulation uses vwifi and iw. Installation offers a privileged bundle or cloonix-toy without root requirements. The homepage lists version 53.01, dated November 4, 2025.

Containerlab is a command-line tool for orchestrating container-based networking labs. Users describe nodes, links and lab settings in topology files, then use lifecycle commands to deploy, destroy, save, inspect or graph a lab. Supported nodes include containerized and virtual-machine network operating systems from Nokia, Cisco, Juniper, Arista and other vendors and projects. The project lists platforms such as Nokia SR Linux and SR OS, Cisco XRd and Nexus 9000v, Juniper cRPD and vMX, Arista, SONiC, Cumulus VX, VyOS, FRR, VPP, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OpenWRT, Linux containers and generic VMs. It can launch VM routers through vrnetlab or boxen, and Clabernetes can run Containerlab-style topologies on Kubernetes. Optional interfaces include a VS Code extension, desktop app and web app; desktop and web connect to a reachable clab-api-server on a Linux host. Its single binary and topology definitions can start labs in CI systems such as GitLab CI and GitHub Actions. Containerlab is free and open source. Documented prerequisites include a Linux server or VM, Docker and sudo privileges for some operations.