Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Buildah VS runc

Compare Buildah VS runc and see what are their differences

Buildah logo Buildah

Buildah is a web-based OCI container tool that allows you to manage the wide range of images in your OCI container and helps you to build the image container from the scratch.

runc logo runc

CLI tool for spawning and running containers according to the OCI specification - opencontainers/runc
  • Buildah Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-05-27
  • runc Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-21

Buildah features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Buildah is a tool focused solely on building OCI and Docker-compatible containers, which makes it less resource-intensive compared to other container building solutions that include additional components like container runtimes.
  • Daemon-less
    Unlike Docker, Buildah does not require a running daemon, meaning it can be used in environments where a daemon is not desired or feasible, enhancing security and reducing footprint.
  • Flexibility
    Buildah provides flexibility by allowing precise control over container image creation, enabling advanced scenarios like building images from scratch, adding content at various stages, and using alternative base images.
  • Security
    Running without a daemon improves security by minimizing attack surfaces and permissions needed for building images, allowing for container creation and management by unprivileged users.
  • Integration with Podman
    Buildah integrates well with Podman, allowing users to manage containers and images without requiring additional integrations, as both are part of the same toolset for comprehensive container management.

Possible disadvantages of Buildah

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Users already familiar with Docker might find Buildah’s command-line interface and functionality to be different, necessitating a learning curve to effectively utilize its capabilities.
  • Less Mature Ecosystem
    Compared to Docker, Buildah has a smaller community and fewer integrations with third-party tools or cloud platforms, potentially limiting its use in complex or niche scenarios.
  • Lack of Windows Support
    As of now, Buildah primarily supports Linux platforms, which can be a limitation for developers using or targeting Windows environments.
  • Limited GUI Tools
    Buildah primarily operates through a command-line interface, with fewer graphical user interface options available, which might not appeal to users who prefer visual management tools.
  • Documentation Gaps
    Although improving, Buildah’s documentation can be less comprehensive and more challenging to navigate than Docker's, potentially making troubleshooting or advanced usage more difficult.

runc features and specs

  • Standardization
    runc is part of the Open Containers Initiative (OCI), promoting standardization across container runtimes. This ensures interoperability and broad community support.
  • Lightweight
    As a lightweight and fast CLI tool, runc provides a minimal runtime for environments where resource efficiency is critical.
  • Security
    runc adheres to principles of secure software development and incorporates Linux kernel features like namespaces and cgroups to enhance security.
  • Broad Adoption
    As the reference implementation for OCI, runc is widely adopted and tested in production environments, ensuring reliability.
  • Flexibility
    runc offers the flexibility to handle low-level container configurations, making it suitable for advanced users needing granular control.

Possible disadvantages of runc

  • Complexity for Beginners
    The low-level nature of runc can be daunting for beginners who might prefer higher-level tools like Docker that abstract away complexities.
  • Minimalist Design
    While its simplicity is an advantage, runc lacks some of the advanced features and orchestration capabilities found in other container platforms.
  • Manual Configurations
    Users need to manually handle configurations, which can be error-prone and time-consuming compared to automated solutions.
  • Ecosystem Integration
    runc does not provide direct integration with tools and platforms by default, requiring additional setup for comprehensive ecosystem support.
  • Limited Features
    Compared to complete container platforms, runc offers fewer built-in features, requiring supplementary tools to achieve similar functionalities.

Buildah videos

How to Build a Container Image Using Buildah

runc videos

2/21/19 RunC Vulnerability Gives Root Access on Container Systems| AT&T ThreatTraq

More videos:

  • Review - Demo MONEY,TIME - RunC

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Buildah and runc)
Cloud Computing
100 100%
0% 0
Web Servers
0 0%
100% 100
OS & Utilities
100 100%
0% 0
Web And Application Servers

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Buildah might be a bit more popular than runc. We know about 13 links to it since March 2021 and only 11 links to runc. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Buildah mentions (13)

  • Dockerfmt: A Dockerfile Formatter
    I suspect that the GP was really asking "why not use a different tool", like buildah , buildpacks , nix ,. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • Top 8 Docker Alternatives to Consider in 2025
    Buildah specializes in building OCI-compliant container images, offering a more granular and secure approach to image creation compared to traditional Dockerfile builds. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • How to Create a CI/CD Pipeline with Docker
    Lockdown your Dockerized build environments --- Because privileged mode is insecure, you should restrict your CI/CD environments to known users and projects. If this isn't feasible, then instead of using Docker, you could try using a standalone image builder like Buildah to eliminate the risk. Alternatively, configuring rootless Docker-in-Docker can mitigate some --- but not all --- of the security concerns... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Ko: Easy Go Containers
    In my experience, not using docker to build docker images is a good idea. E.g. buildah[0] with chroot isolation can build images in a GitLab pipeline, where docker would fail. It can still use the same Dockerfile though. If you want to get rid of your Dockerfiles anyway, nix can also build docker images[1] with all the added benefits of nix (reproducibility, efficient building and caching, automatic layering,... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Understanding Docker Architecture: A Beginner's Guide to How Docker Works
    Buildah: This lightweight, open-source command-line tool for building and managing container images. It is an efficient alternative to Docker. With Buildah, you can build images in various ways, including using a Dockerfile, a podmanfile or by running commands in a container. Buildah is a flexible, secure and powerful tool for building container images. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
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runc mentions (11)

  • Setup multi node kubernetes cluster using kubeadm
    For kubeadm , kubetlet , kubectl should same version package in this lab I used v1.31 to have 1.31.7 References: Https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/networking/ports-and-protocols/ Https://kubernetes.io/docs/setup/production-environment/tools/kubeadm/install-kubeadm/ Https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/releases/... - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Comparing 3 Docker container runtimes - Runc, gVisor and Kata Containers
    Previously I wrote about the multiple variants of Docker and also the dependencies behind the Docker daemon. One of the dependencies was the container runtime called runc. That is what creates the usual containers we are all familiar with. When you use Docker, this is the default runtime, which is understandable since it was started by Docker, Inc. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • You run containers, not dockers - Discussing Docker variants, components and versioning
    Now we have dockerd which uses containerd, but containerd will not create containers directly. It needs a runtime and the default runtime is runc, but that can be changed. Containerd actually doesn't have to know the parameters of the runtime. There is a shim process between containerd and runc, so containerd knows the parameters of the shim, and the shim knows the parameters of runc or other runtimes. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • US Cybersecurity: The Urgent Need for Memory Safety in Software Products
    It's interesting that, in light of things like this, you still see large software companies adding support for new components written in non-memory safe languages (e.g. C) As an example Red Hat OpenShift added support for crun(https://github.com/containers/crun), which is written in C as an alternative to runc, which is written in Go( - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Why did the Krustlet project die?
    Yeah, runtimeClass lets you specify which CRI plugin you want based on what you have available. Here's an example from the containerd documentation - you could have one node that can run containers under standard runc, gvisor, kata containers, or WASM. Without runtimeClass, you'd need either some form of custom solution or four differently configured nodes to run those different runtimes. That's how krustlet did... Source: over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Buildah and runc, you can also consider the following products

Podman - Simple debugging tool for pods and images

Docker Hub - Docker Hub is a cloud-based registry service

containerd - An industry-standard container runtime with an emphasis on simplicity, robustness and portability

Apache Thrift - An interface definition language and communication protocol for creating cross-language services.

Crane - Crane is a docker image builder to approach light-weight ML users who want to expand a container image with custom apt/conda/pip packages without writing any Dockerfile.

Eureka - Eureka is a contact center and enterprise performance through speech analytics that immediately reveals insights from automated analysis of communications including calls, chat, email, texts, social media, surveys and more.