Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Podman VS Singularity Container

Compare Podman VS Singularity Container and see what are their differences

Podman logo Podman

Simple debugging tool for pods and images

Singularity Container logo Singularity Container

Singularity is a container solution with a focus on building reproducible software stacks and...
  • Podman Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-30
  • Singularity Container Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-18

Podman features and specs

  • Daemonless Architecture
    Podman does not require a daemon to run containers, which simplifies its architecture and minimizes the potential attack surface.
  • Rootless Containers
    Podman allows running containers as a non-root user, enhancing security by reducing the risk associated with running processes as the root user.
  • Kubernetes Support
    Podman has built-in support for Kubernetes, enabling easier transition and orchestration of containers at scale.
  • Compatibility with Docker CLI
    Podman provides a Docker-compatible command line interface, making it easy for users to migrate from Docker with minimal changes to their workflows.
  • Enhanced Security
    With features like user namespaces and no central daemon, Podman offers improved security compared to traditional container runtimes.
  • Open Source
    Podman is an open-source project, which provides transparency and community-driven development.

Possible disadvantages of Podman

  • Limited Ecosystem
    The ecosystem around Podman is not as extensive as that of Docker, potentially limiting the availability of third-party tools and integrations.
  • Learning Curve
    Users familiar with Docker may face a learning curve when adapting to some of Podmanโ€™s unique features and CLI differences.
  • Performance Overhead
    Running rootless containers can introduce some performance overhead due to the additional layers of user namespace translation.
  • Less Mature
    Podman is relatively newer compared to Docker, which means it might not be as battle-tested in enterprise environments.
  • Inconsistent Behavior
    Certain Podman features may behave differently than Docker, which might lead to unexpected issues during container management and automation.

Singularity Container features and specs

  • Security
    Singularity is designed with a focus on security, making it ideal for use in multi-user environments like high-performance computing (HPC) clusters. It runs containers without requiring root privileges, which helps minimize security risks.
  • Compatibility
    Singularity supports running containers as if they are native applications, providing a seamless way to integrate container workflows into existing systems. It is especially compatible with HPC environments and can run most containerized applications built for Docker.
  • Performance
    Singularity offers near-native performance, as it manages to run containers without introducing significant overhead. This is crucial for scientific and computational workloads where performance is a critical factor.
  • Ease of Use
    Singularity features a user-friendly model that allows users to easily build, manage, and run containers. Its simple command-line interface is designed to be intuitive, which facilitates smoother adoption.

Possible disadvantages of Singularity Container

  • Limited Ecosystem
    Compared to Docker, Singularity has a more limited ecosystem and community support. This can affect the availability of pre-built images and third-party tools.
  • Less Commercial Support
    Singularity has less commercial support and fewer enterprise-level solutions compared to other containerization platforms like Docker or Kubernetes, potentially leading to challenges in professional environments.
  • Lack of Advanced Features
    Singularity may not offer the same level of advanced features (such as orchestration and service discovery) found in platforms like Docker and Kubernetes, which can limit its use cases.
  • Storage and File System Management
    Singularityโ€™s approach to storage and file system management can sometimes be less flexible compared to other container technologies, which might complicate specific deployment scenarios.

Analysis of Podman

Overall verdict

  • Podman is a solid option for users seeking a secure, flexible, and rootless alternative to Docker. It performs efficiently and provides strong compatibility with existing container management workflows.

Why this product is good

  • Podman is considered a good tool due to its daemonless architecture, which enhances security and provides more flexibility in container management. Unlike Docker, Podman can run containers under rootless mode, allowing non-root users to manage containers and reducing the attack surface. Podman's compatibility with Docker command-line interface (CLI) and its ability to run in a Kubernetes-like environment using pods make it versatile for diverse container management tasks.

Recommended for

  • Developers and system administrators who require a rootless container management solution.
  • Teams focused on security and minimal permissions for container management.
  • Organizations looking to integrate container management closely with Kubernetes without relying on Docker.
  • Users who are comfortable with command-line interface tools and container technologies.

Podman videos

PODMAN vs DOCKER - should you switch now?

More videos:

  • Review - Actually, podman Might Be Better Than docker
  • Review - Container (Podman) Review - Kominfo PROA Training Lab 2

Singularity Container videos

No Singularity Container videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Podman and Singularity Container)
Developer Tools
96 96%
4% 4
Security & Privacy
0 0%
100% 100
Cloud Computing
100 100%
0% 0
Productivity
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Podman and Singularity Container. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Podman and Singularity Container

Podman Reviews

Podman vs Docker: Comparing the Two Containerization Tools
Rootless processes. Because of its daemonless architecture, Podman can perform truly rootless operations. Users do not have to be granted root privileges to run Podman commands, and Podman does not have to rely on a root-privileged process.
Source: www.linode.com

Singularity Container Reviews

We have no reviews of Singularity Container yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Podman seems to be a lot more popular than Singularity Container. While we know about 125 links to Podman, we've tracked only 4 mentions of Singularity Container. 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.

Podman mentions (125)

View more

Singularity Container mentions (4)

  • Is there any Ubuntu adopters in HPC?
    I highly recommend checking out Singularity for your computational software. Running your software within containers allows you a lot of freedom, although it does create some complexity in regards to MPI based parallelization. Source: about 3 years ago
  • How do you deploy Python applications?
    Use a singularity image to contain what you want to deploy and give access on the jump host to the image. Permissions flow from existing OS permissions. https://sylabs.io/singularity/. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Brand New HPC Sysadmin at a Major University, Where to Start?
    Singularity This is a HPC focused container system that has large industry support. You can use this to package finicky software that only runs on specific linux distributions or only allows for RPM/Deb installations. It is also another mechanism for users to bring their own software and it integrates fairly well with both Slurm and HTCondor. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Microsoft's Experimental OS โ€“ Singularity
    > and it was then when they came up with a pretty cool name for their new OS โ€” Singularity. Or, it was then when they (intentionally?) ripped off the name of an existing, open source, OS-related project. https://sylabs.io/singularity/. - Source: Hacker News / almost 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Podman and Singularity Container, you can also consider the following products

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

DockerSlim - DockerSlim (docker-slim): Don't change anything in your Docker container image and minify it by up to 30x (and for compiled languages even more) making it secure too! (free and open source) - d...

Docker - Docker is an open platform that enables developers and system administrators to create distributed applications.

FingerprintJS - Fraud detection and prevention using browser fingerprinting with 99.5% accuracy. Stops account sharing, payment processing fraud and gaming.

Flox - Manage and share development environments with all the frameworks and libraries you need, then publish artifacts anywhere. Harness the power of Nix.

Nanobox - The ideal platform for developers. Focus on code, not config.