Item: Podman.io
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As our primary servers are on CentOS and Fedora, a lot of our workload goes through podman which it comes with as default. We run all the containers in podman for not really the licensing reasons of docker, but more it being daemonless and not requiring root user.

Pros and Cons

It’s daemonless, so somewhat more secure.
It works exceptionally well and is compatible with Docker compose
Podman Desktop actually makes individual usage also pretty easy.
It can be used as Docker alternative with almost no additional steps

Podman desktop is getting more stable with each version, but does need more UX friendliness as well.
Official support for development tools and IDEs is missing for most tools
It works well with Kubernetes, but I wouldn’t mind additional improvements

Return on Investment

We definitely feel more secure.
We do not suffer from memory or cpu overuses as it uses fedora coreOS which is lightweight
We do not have to worry about license payments for our basic usages.
It’s open source so quick fixes imminent with maximum transparency.

Alternatives Considered

Docker, SUSE Rancher and K3s Lightweight Kubernetes

Podman is Daemonless, lightweight and doesn’t charge us for commercial usage, so it’s a relief for startups. Minikube and Rancher are a bit more complex for our use cases; so we keep things simple, fast and secure with Podman that can easily be managed with Podman Desktop and other works with our docker-compose based projects without issues.

Key Insights

Do you think Podman.io delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Podman.io's feature set?

Yes

Did Podman.io live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Podman.io go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Podman.io again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Kubernetes, GitLab, OpenJDK

Likelihood to Recommend

While it always depends on your use case, I believe security concerns of need for root user is a concern, so it is worth considering daemonless container service over Docker, which works just as good and has support for docker compose. Another good reason is the licensing for enterprise usage, which podman has no restrictions for. It’s also a great choice for OpenShift integration, which is seamless and works well with Rancher as well.

Docker alternative that is both secure and open source

Overall Satisfaction with Podman.io