gVisor vs Shifter
gVisor
gvisor.devShifter
github.comSide by side
| Figure | gVisor | Shifter |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Container Engines | 8.3 (#6) | 7.0 (#27) |
| Architecture | A sandbox includes a Sentry application kernel that handles system calls and a Gofer process that mediates filesystem access. | The project includes a compute-node utility, an image gateway that pulls and repacks registry images, and example scripts or plugins for batch scheduler integration. |
| Purpose | gVisor is an open-source Linux-compatible sandbox and application kernel that isolates containers from the host operating system. | Shifter enables HPC systems to run end-user container images, including Docker images. |
| Support | The project directs users to GitHub issues, documentation, and mailing lists for support and community discussion. | The project README directs users to its Google Groups email list for updates and community support. |
Plans
In their own words
gVisor
gVisor is a free, open-source Linux-compatible sandbox and application kernel for running containers while isolating the host from untrusted code. It is intended for workloads such as user-uploaded, LLM-generated, and third-party code. Instead of passing sandboxed applications’ system calls directly to the host, its Sentry handles them; a Gofer process mediates filesystem access. The project describes a least-privilege design with a restrictive system call filter. It documents use with Docker, Kubernetes, containerd, and OCI runtimes, including Kubernetes configurations using GKE Sandbox, Minikube, or containerd with the gVisor shim. gVisor can stream application trace points to an external threat detection engine such as Falco, and can checkpoint and restore containers. Most CUDA applications can run unmodified in the sandbox with selected NVIDIA driver versions, but GPU support is restricted to certain models, drivers, capabilities, device files, ioctl calls, and platforms. Installation requires Linux 5.6 or later on x86_64 or ARM64. Compatibility is best-effort, and some applications may not work because not every system call, /proc file, or /sys file is implemented. Hardware side-channel protection is generally not provided.