Firecracker vs GNOME Boxes
Firecracker
firecracker-microvm.github.io
GNOME Boxes
apps.gnome.orgSide by side
| Figure | Firecracker | GNOME Boxes |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Hypervisor Software | 8.4 (#8) | 8.2 (#9) |
| Spec score · Virtual machine software | 7.8 (#15) | 7.8 (#14) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| GPU acceleration | No | Yes |
| Host platforms | Linux | Linux |
| Purpose | Firecracker is open source virtualization technology for running secure, multi-tenant container and function workloads in lightweight microVMs. | Boxes lets users create and manage local virtual machines and install an operating system in one. |
| Resource controls | Built-in rate limiters control network and storage resource use, including bandwidth and operations. | Users can limit virtual machines’ memory and storage use. |
| VM snapshots | Yes | Yes |
Plans
In their own words
Firecracker
Firecracker is open-source virtualization software for running container and function workloads in lightweight microVMs. It uses Linux KVM hardware virtualization to isolate each workload and exposes only five emulated devices, a design intended to reduce attack surface. MicroVMs start in under 125 ms, add under 5 MiB of memory overhead each, and a host can create up to 150 per second while packing thousands onto one server. A RESTful API configures and starts the VMs, while rate limiters govern network and storage bandwidth and operations. The companion jailer adds Linux user-space security barriers. Firecracker supports Linux hosts and guests with kernel versions 4.14 and above, plus OSv guests, on production 64-bit Intel, AMD, and Arm CPUs with hardware virtualization. VM snapshots are supported, but GPU acceleration is not. It is free under Apache 2.0, with integrations including containerd, Kata Containers, and Fly.io.
GNOME Boxes
GNOME Boxes is a free Linux desktop app for creating and managing local virtual machines, then installing an operating system in them. Its automatic installation list includes CentOS Stream, Debian, Fedora, Microsoft Windows, OpenSUSE, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Ubuntu. Users can set memory and storage limits, save a VM state as a snapshot, and restore it later. Host integration includes shared clipboard, file drop, and shared folders; USB redirection makes devices plugged into the computer available inside a VM. Guest tools can improve input performance, screen resizing, clipboard sharing, and file transfer. Windows guests use spice-guest-tools, while Linux guests commonly use spice-vdagent. Boxes uses qemu-kvm, libvirt-glib, and spice-gtk to manage virtual machines. Three-dimensional acceleration is available for some supported systems. GNOME recommends processor virtualization extensions, at least 8 GB RAM, and 20 GB free disk space for efficient use. Boxes is for local VMs; GNOME points to Connections for remote machines and displays. The app is free and desktop-only.