# Colima

39 Hacker News commenters recommended Colima and 8 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free, open source Docker Desktop alternative for macOS that is easy to set up and reliable. Critics say it is slow.

## Why people recommend it

- Good Docker Desktop alternative (8 comments): "Colima is a good alternative to Docker Desktop if you're looking" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47315652)) "I ended up just going with buildx and Colima on macOS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766439)) "I switched to Colima instead and couldn't be happier." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47154151))
- Easy to install and use (7 comments): "pretty dang easy to run a Linux container on MacOS using Colima" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48055566)) "colima makes it pretty easy, on macOS and linux at any rate." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48917651)) "This is a super easy way to run linux VMs on Apple Silicon." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47371590))
- Reliable with few issues (5 comments): "Been using Colima to run mixed architecture container stacks in docker compose on my M3 Mac and the machine barely blinks." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47232234)) "been running on colima for years now and haven't had a single issue with it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47155432)) "i have had zero issues with colima" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47153362))
- Free and open source (2 comments): "I would go with the Colima project as a open source solution for containers on mac." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47292224)) "With colima, it's all open source and easy to install/upgrade via homebrew." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48029199))

## What people warn about

- Performance is slow (2 comments): "Colima I appreciate for its full headless nature but it's severely behind in performance, sadly." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47588224)) "vscode extensions using ripgrep in parallel in the background (there are many!) are killing the vm." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50032028))
- Painful and inefficient to use (2 comments): "relatively painful and inefficient (but usable)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985504)) "my experience using Colima at work was like pulling my own teeth out" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48056626))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Podman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/podman.md): 276 recommend
- [OrbStack](https://hackerapproved.com/p/orbstack.md): 97 recommend
- [Apple container](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-container.md): 56 recommend
- [gVisor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gvisor.md): 45 recommend
- [LXC](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lxc.md): 34 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Colima", https://hackerapproved.com/p/colima/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).