Podman

Used to Docker but tired of its always-running daemon that also wants root? Podman takes a different tack—no daemon needed; commands launch containers directly, and regular users can run them rootless for better security. The commands line up almost one-to-one with Docker, so old habits carry straight over. It also natively groups containers into a Pod, closer to Kubernetes. Open source and free.

Features

Daemonless: commands manage containers with no background daemon.

Rootless: regular users run containers without constant sudo.

Docker-compatible: commands nearly identical to Docker, easy to migrate.

Pod orchestration: natively groups containers into Pods, K8s-like.