containerd vs systemd-nspawn
containerd
containerd.iosystemd-nspawn
freedesktop.orgSide by side
| Figure | containerd | systemd-nspawn |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Container Engines | 8.0 (#9) | 7.5 (#18) |
| Purpose | containerd is an industry-standard container runtime for managing a host’s container lifecycle, including image transfer and storage, execution, and supervision. | systemd-nspawn runs a command or a full Linux-based operating system in a lightweight namespace container. |
| Support | Nightly builds are available for Linux and Windows, but may contain critical bugs, are not recommended for production, and receive no support. | The systemd project lists its mailing list, IRC channel, and Matrix channel as support options. |
Plans
In their own words
containerd
containerd is a free container runtime for managing a host’s container lifecycle. It handles image transfer and storage, execution, and supervision, and is designed to be embedded in a larger system rather than used directly by developers or end users. It supports OCI images and image push and pull operations, and uses runc by default while allowing other OCI-compliant runtimes. Its built-in CRI plugin can make it the container runtime for a Kubernetes cluster, and it supports registries compliant with the OCI Distribution Specification. The daemon is available for Linux and Windows. Network-interface management and image building are outside containerd’s first-class scope, so higher-level systems or tools handle those jobs. Its ctr command-line tool is intended for development and debugging, without a guarantee of a stable interface or a human-friendly experience. Users typically also need runc and CNI plugins. The plan is free; free plan available, with no free trial.
systemd-nspawn
systemd-nspawn has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.