Everything you like about Colima, with a window.

Colima showed that Docker on a Mac doesn't need Docker Desktop: free, open source, one VM. Kiri keeps all of that and adds a native app, Kiri Share, Linux machines and Windows, and on the same Mac it starts a container in 22 ms where Colima takes 152 ms.

Download Kiri See the numbers

Colima reads bind mounts faster than Kiri today. The table says so.

Measured

Kiri and Colima on one Mac.

Four engines on one Apple silicon Mac, each limited to the same 2 CPUs and 8 GB, driven by the same docker CLI with the same warm images. Medians, lower is better for times.

Measurement	Kiri	Docker Desktop	OrbStack	Colima
`docker run --rm alpine true`	22 ms	178 ms	279 ms	152 ms
`docker exec … true`	15.7 ms	47.7 ms	32.5 ms	36.8 ms
Container lifecycle through the Docker API	3.1 ms	163 ms	238 ms	88 ms
Containers started in parallel	88.9 /s	11.4 /s	8.2 /s	12.9 /s
200 MB out of a container	223 MB/s	45 MB/s	87 MB/s	63 MB/s
Bind mount read, 1 GB	1724 MB/s	1354 MB/s	3240 MB/s	5235 MB/s

2 November 2026, Kiri 0.1.13, Docker Desktop 4.90.0, OrbStack 2.2.4, Colima 0.10.3. Where another engine wins, the table says so: Colima reads bind mounts faster. On Windows Kiri starts a container in 78 ms against Docker Desktop's 491 ms. Method, every row and the caveats: benchmarks.

Side by side

Kiri, Colima and the rest.

Feature	Kiri	Docker Desktop	OrbStack	Colima
Mac	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows	Yes	Yes	No	No
Linux	Yes, no VM	In a VM	No	Yes
Free at work	Yes	Paid over 250 staff	Paid	Yes
Open source	Apache 2.0	No	No	MIT
Desktop app	Native	Electron	Native	CLI only
`docker`, Compose, buildx	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Kubernetes	Yes	Yes	Yes	k3s
Public link to a container	Kiri Share	No	No	No
`docker run` on a Mac	22 ms	178 ms	279 ms	152 ms

Docker Desktop needs a paid subscription in companies with more than 250 employees or more than $10 million a year in revenue. OrbStack is free for personal use and paid for work. Checked November 2026; each project's own pages have the current terms.

Coming from Colima

Same freedom, more on top.

Still free, still open

Apache 2.0, free at any company. No account, no sign-in.

A native app

Containers, images, volumes, networks, Compose projects and builds, with logs and a terminal, and a menu bar item.

One command for Kubernetes

kiri k8s start gives you a single-node cluster in about 20 s.

Linux machines

kiri machine create dev gives you an Ubuntu shell with your user and /Users at the same path.

Light when idle

The VM sleeps after a minute idle and hands unused memory back. Waking takes 0.15 s.

Your team on Windows

The same engine and the same kiri commands run on Windows inside WSL2.

Switching

Keep your commands. Change the engine.

Install Kiri
On a Mac, the app. On Windows, a per-user installer for WSL2. On Linux, a .deb or .rpm: curl -fsSL https://runkiri.com/install.sh | bash.
Bring your things over
Kiri moves images, volumes and containers over from Docker Desktop or OrbStack, so nothing is rebuilt. Keep the old one installed while you try it.
Run what you always run
```
$ docker compose up
```
Kiri adds a kiri docker context, so the docker CLI, Compose, buildx and your IDE talk to Kiri.

Questions

Asked often.

What is a good Colima alternative?

Kiri is free and open source like Colima, adds a native desktop app, runs on Windows as well as Mac and Linux, and started containers about seven times faster than Colima on the same Mac.

Is there a GUI for Colima?

Colima itself is command-line only. Kiri is a Docker engine with a native Mac and Windows app built in.

Where is Colima faster than Kiri?

Reading a 1 GB file from a bind mount: 5235 MB/s on Colima against 1724 MB/s on Kiri in our 2 November run. Kiri led every other row we measured.

Can I run Colima and Kiri side by side?

Yes. Each uses its own socket and docker context.