The DevEx Lab

Every tool as an element, scaled to fill your screen. Hover a tile for its formula; pick a family to zoom in.

How to read a tile

The grid resizes to fill your window, so on a small window each tile shows less. Top left is the element number, top right the license (OS open source, Fr free, Fm free tier, Pd paid). The big letters are the symbol, the bar at the bottom is the ring. The formula in each tooltip is its two Compass scores: Dx ergonomics and Pa parity, in tens.

The same tools as a table
ToolFamilyCategoryRingLicenseErgonomicsParity
Docker Engine The open-source Docker daemon and CLI for Linux Containers & clusters Container runtimes Adopt Open source 50 40
Docker Desktop Docker Engine, Compose and Kubernetes in a desktop app Containers & clusters Container runtimes Adopt Free tier, paid plans 70 60
Podman Daemonless, rootless container engine Containers & clusters Container runtimes Adopt Open source 50 50
Podman Desktop Desktop app for Podman, Kubernetes and other engines Containers & clusters Container runtimes Adopt Open source 60 60
Rancher Desktop Desktop containers and k3s Kubernetes, free and open Containers & clusters Container runtimes Adopt Open source 60 60
OrbStack Fast, light Docker and Linux VMs for macOS Containers & clusters Container runtimes Adopt Free tier, paid plans 70 60
Colima Minimal container runtimes on macOS and Linux via Lima Containers & clusters Container runtimes Trial Open source 50 50
Lima Linux VMs with containerd for macOS and Linux Containers & clusters Container runtimes Adopt Open source 30 40
containerd Industry-standard container runtime daemon Containers & clusters Container runtimes Adopt Open source 30 30
nerdctl Docker-compatible CLI for containerd Containers & clusters Container runtimes Adopt Open source 30 50
Finch AWS's open-source client for container development Containers & clusters Container runtimes Adopt Open source 50 50
Apple container Run Linux containers as light VMs on Apple silicon Containers & clusters Container runtimes Trial Open source 20 20
Docker Compose Define and run multi-container apps from YAML Containers & clusters Compose Adopt Open source 60 60
Compose Watch File sync and rebuild-on-change for Docker Compose Containers & clusters Compose Adopt Open source 50 50
Podman Compose Run Compose files with Podman Containers & clusters Compose Trial Open source 30 50
Kompose Convert Compose files to Kubernetes manifests Containers & clusters Compose Adopt Open source 50 30
kind Kubernetes clusters in Docker containers Containers & clusters Local Kubernetes Trial Open source 50 50
k3d Run k3s clusters in Docker Containers & clusters Local Kubernetes Adopt Open source 60 50
k3s Lightweight certified Kubernetes distribution Containers & clusters Local Kubernetes Adopt Open source 50 60
minikube Local Kubernetes for learning and development Containers & clusters Local Kubernetes Adopt Open source 70 50
MicroK8s Canonical's low-ops Kubernetes with add-ons Containers & clusters Local Kubernetes Adopt Open source 40 70
k0s Single-binary, zero-dependency Kubernetes Containers & clusters Local Kubernetes Adopt Open source 50 60
vcluster Virtual Kubernetes clusters inside a host cluster Containers & clusters Local Kubernetes Trial Open source 30 70
Kubernetes Upstream container orchestration, as a reference point Containers & clusters Local Kubernetes Adopt Open source 30 90
BuildKit / buildx Docker's concurrent, cache-efficient image builder Containers & clusters Image builders Adopt Open source 40 30
Cloud Native Buildpacks Build OCI images from source without a Dockerfile Containers & clusters Image builders Trial Open source 40 30
ko Build Go container images without Docker Containers & clusters Image builders Trial Open source 60 30
Jib Daemonless container images for Java via Maven or Gradle Containers & clusters Image builders Adopt Open source 40 20
Kaniko Build images from a Dockerfile inside Kubernetes Containers & clusters Image builders Hold Open source 10 30
Buildah Build OCI images without a daemon Containers & clusters Image builders Adopt Open source 30 30
Nixpacks Build images from source using Nix packages Containers & clusters Image builders Hold Open source 30 20
Railpack Zero-config image builder on BuildKit, from Railway Containers & clusters Image builders Trial Open source 30 20
Depot Hosted remote BuildKit builders with shared cache Containers & clusters Image builders Adopt Paid 40 30
Portainer Web UI for Docker, Podman and Kubernetes Containers & clusters Container UIs Adopt Free tier, paid plans 60 30
Lazydocker Terminal UI for Docker and Compose Containers & clusters Container UIs Trial Open source 60 20
Dive Explore image layers and find wasted space Containers & clusters Container UIs Trial Open source 60 20