Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

ZeroVM VS runc

Compare ZeroVM VS runc and see what are their differences

ZeroVM logo ZeroVM

ZeroVM is an open source virtualization technology that is based on the Chromium Native Client project.

runc logo runc

CLI tool for spawning and running containers according to the OCI specification - opencontainers/runc
  • ZeroVM Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-05-04
  • runc Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-21

ZeroVM features and specs

  • Lightweight
    ZeroVM is designed to be extremely lightweight, allowing for quick startup times and efficient use of resources. This makes it suitable for deploying applications in environments where resources are constrained.
  • Security
    The platform offers a secure sandboxing environment, minimizing the risk of malicious code execution and enhancing overall application security.
  • Scalability
    ZeroVM is designed to easily scale across distributed systems, making it suitable for cloud-based applications requiring dynamic scaling capabilities.
  • Open-source
    Being an open-source project, ZeroVM allows developers to contribute to its development, adapt it to their needs, and benefit from community-driven innovation.
  • Deployment Flexibility
    ZeroVM can be executed on various platforms, providing flexibility in deployment and compatibility with diverse environments.

Possible disadvantages of ZeroVM

  • Limited Adoption
    As a specialized VM, ZeroVM may have less adoption compared to more established technologies, which could limit community support and available resources.
  • Development Status
    If the project is inactive or receives less frequent updates, this could lead to challenges in maintenance and the incorporation of new features.
  • Compatibility Constraints
    ZeroVM might face compatibility issues with certain applications, as it requires those applications to be designed or adjusted specifically for its environment.
  • Resource Management
    While lightweight, ZeroVM may not handle resource-intensive applications efficiently, which could restrict its use for large-scale computing tasks.
  • Ecosystem
    It may lack the robust ecosystem of libraries, tools, and third-party services that are available for more mainstream virtualization solutions.

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.

ZeroVM videos

Programmable Object Store with OpenStack Swift and ZeroVM

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 ZeroVM 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

Share your experience with using ZeroVM and runc. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, runc seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 11 times since March 2021. 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.

ZeroVM mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of ZeroVM yet. Tracking of ZeroVM recommendations started around Mar 2021.

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 / 3 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
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What are some alternatives?

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

BuildKit - BuildKit is an open-source toolkit manager application that allows you to build the artifacts in a minimum time frame and helps you to gather the garbage automatically.

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

LXD - Daemon based on liblxc offering a REST API to manage containers

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.

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