Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Kata Containers VS rkt

Compare Kata Containers VS rkt and see what are their differences

Kata Containers logo Kata Containers

Lightweight virtual machines that seamlessly plug into the containers ecosystem.

rkt logo rkt

App Container runtime
  • Kata Containers Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-07-03
  • rkt Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-08

Kata Containers features and specs

  • Security
    Kata Containers offer enhanced security by providing hardware virtualization, which creates a secure boundary around each container. This isolation helps in protecting against attacks and vulnerabilities that might affect other containers.
  • Performance
    Kata Containers are designed to have low overhead compared to traditional virtual machines, allowing them to run with performance akin to native containers while still benefiting from hardware-based isolation.
  • Compatibility
    Kata Containers are compatible with the OCI container runtime specification, making it possible to integrate them with existing cloud-native tools and ecosystems like Kubernetes without significant changes.
  • Flexibility
    They offer a flexible choice for deploying containerized workloads that require the security of virtual machines, allowing organizations to meet both performance and security requirements effectively.

Possible disadvantages of Kata Containers

  • Complexity
    Implementing Kata Containers can introduce additional complexity compared to using regular containers, especially in managing the virtualization layer and ensuring smooth integration with existing container orchestration systems.
  • Resource Overhead
    Although they are lightweight compared to traditional VMs, Kata Containers still incur more overhead than standard containers, requiring more resources in terms of CPU and memory.
  • Maturity
    As a relatively newer technology, Kata Containers may not have the level of maturity and community support that more established container technologies enjoy, potentially leading to challenges in troubleshooting and support.
  • Infrastructure Requirements
    Running Kata Containers effectively may require specific hardware features like VT-x/AMD-V for hardware virtualization, which can limit deployment options on older or less capable hardware.

rkt features and specs

  • Compatibility
    rkt supports the App Container (appc) spec and can also run Docker container images, providing flexibility and compatibility with various container formats.
  • Security
    rkt is designed with security in mind, offering features like process isolation through Linux namespaces, user namespaces, and SELinux/AppArmor integration.
  • Isolation
    rkt runs applications in their own stage1 environments, ensuring strong isolation between containers and better resource management.
  • Modularity
    rkt is built with a modular architecture, allowing users to swap out the stage1 implementation to better fit their needs.
  • Lightweight
    rkt avoids running a central daemon, thus using fewer system resources and simplifying debugging and monitoring.

Possible disadvantages of rkt

  • Maturity
    rkt is not as mature as Docker, meaning it may lack some features and integrations that have been developed for Docker.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    rkt has a smaller community and ecosystem compared to Docker, which may limit the availability of third-party tools and support.
  • Adoption
    rkt has lower adoption rates, leading to fewer tutorials, guides, and community-driven content, which can make the learning curve steeper.
  • Development Activity
    rkt's development and maintenance activity is not as high as Docker's, which could impact long-term viability and feature development.
  • Enterprise Support
    Enterprise-grade support and services for rkt may not be as widely available or comprehensive as those for Docker.

Kata Containers videos

Kata Containers and gVisor a Quantitative Comparison

More videos:

  • Review - Open Source Contribution - Kata Containers Unit Testing
  • Demo - Kata Containers Demo: A Container Experience with VM Security

rkt videos

RKT IPO Review | Is Rocket a Buy for 2020? | Matt Mulvihill

More videos:

  • Review - 2018 Niner RKT 9 RDO - First Look and Build Kit Overview
  • Review - Best Stock Picks Today | RKT Stock 9-2-20

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Kata Containers and rkt)
Developer Tools
26 26%
74% 74
Cloud Computing
12 12%
88% 88
Containers As A Service
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud Storage
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Kata Containers and rkt

Kata Containers Reviews

We have no reviews of Kata Containers yet.
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rkt Reviews

5 Container Alternatives to Docker
In 2018, 12 percent of production containers were rkt (pronounced “Rocket”). Rkt supports two types of images: Docker and appc. A selling point of rkt is its pod-based process that works out of the box with Kubernetes (also referred to as “rktnetes”). In Kubernetes, an rkt container runtime can easily be specified:

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Kata Containers seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 4 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.

Kata Containers mentions (4)

  • Kubernetes Without Docker: Why Container Runtimes Are Changing the Game in 2025
    Kata Containers Containers in VMs, because sometimes isolation means business. - Source: dev.to / 25 days ago
  • WASM Will Replace Containers
    See https://katacontainers.io Turns out only containers is not secure enough. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Comparing 3 Docker container runtimes - Runc, gVisor and Kata Containers
    Although the documentation also mentions "youki", that is mentioned as a "drop-in replacement" of the default runtime basically doing the same, so let's stick with runc. The second runtime will be Kata runtime from Kata containers, since it runs small virtual machines which is good for showing how differently it uses the CPU and memory. This also adds a higher level of isolation with some downsides as well. And... - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Hacking Alibaba Cloud's Kubernetes Cluster
    Ronen: Our case study with Alibaba revealed they were using shared Linux namespaces between containers, such as their management container and our container. Sharing Linux namespaces can be dangerous. When designing a system that shares namespaces or resources between management and regular user containers, constantly carefully assess and be aware of the risks involved. Container technologies like GVisor and Kata... - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago

rkt mentions (0)

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

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Kata Containers and rkt, you can also consider the following products

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

Apache Karaf - Apache Karaf is a lightweight, modern and polymorphic container powered by OSGi.

OrbStack - Fast, light, simple Docker & Linux on macOS

GlusterFS - GlusterFS is a scale-out network-attached storage file system.

FreeBSD Jails - Jails on the other hand permit software packages to view the system egoistically, as if each package had the machine to itself.

Apache ServiceMix - Apache ServiceMix is an open source ESB that combines the functionality of a Service Oriented Architecture and the modularity.