Devbox vs Devilbox

Devbox is an open-source command-line tool for creating isolated development shells from declared package lists. A project’s devbox.json can define packages, scripts, services, and environment configuration, drawing on a searchable Nix-powered catalog with over 400,000 versions of 80,000 packages. One definition can produce a local shell, a VS Code devcontainer, a Dockerfile, or a remote cloud development environment. Devbox can orchestrate project services with process-compose without Docker; Docker is needed only for container creation. The GitHub Action installs Devbox and can cache the Nix store in workflows, and documented integrations include direnv and a Visual Studio Code extension. Installation guidance lists Linux, macOS, and Windows through WSL2, and Devbox requires the Nix Package Manager. Jetify offers cloud and secrets services alongside the tool.

Devilbox is a Dockerized LAMP and MEAN stack for local development on Linux, macOS, and Windows hosts. It supports an unlimited number of projects: adding a project directory creates a virtual host without restarting services. New projects get SSL certificates signed by Devilbox's certificate authority, and its built-in wildcard DNS makes project addresses available to the host system.

The stack supports Apache or Nginx with PHP, plus services such as MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Redis, Memcached, and MongoDB. Configuration can be set globally, by service version, or for a specific project. Its intranet includes phpMyAdmin, phpPgAdmin, phpRedMin, Adminer, OpcacheGui, and a GUI for viewing sent emails. Outgoing project email is intercepted and stored locally for review. After the required Docker images are first downloaded, Devilbox can run offline. Its documentation says official Docker images are built nightly and published with available security patches. The free plan is listed at free, with no price or usage limits stated on the opened pages.