compare
Buildah vs nerdctl
The same facts for both, read from GitHub every night, and the relation a person reviewed.
| Fact | Buildah | nerdctl |
|---|---|---|
| Language | Go | Go |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Stars | 9.1k | 10k |
| Latest | v1.45.1 | v2.4.1 |
| Last push | 2026-10-06 | 2026-10-05 |
| Release cadence | about 5 days between releases | about 37 days between releases |
| Active contributors | 23 commit authors on the default branch in the last 90 days | 36 commit authors on the default branch in the last 90 days |
| Flags | none | none |
How they relate
Both replace Docker Engine (Moby). Alternatives to Docker Engine (Moby) →
PartialBuildahBuilds OCI images from Dockerfiles or shell scripts without a daemon; running them is left to Podman.
Full replacementnerdctlA Docker-compatible command line for containerd.
Buildah
- v1.43.42026-09-15[release-1.43] Bump Buildah to v1.43.3
- v1.45.12026-09-15[release-1.45] vendor: bump golang.org/x/crypto to v0.56.0 - CVE-2026-78662, CVE-2026-56855
- v1.43.32026-09-15[release-1.43] fix packit
- v1.45.02026-07-30Bump Buildah to v1.44.0, then to v1.45.0-dev
- v1.44.12026-07-21[release-1.44] Add new CI github actions CI to this branch
nerdctl
- v2.4.12026-10-02nerdctl cp:
- v2.4.02026-09-20This release improves compatibility with Docker v29.
- v2.4.0-rc.02026-09-18This release improves compatibility with Docker v29.pre-release
- v2.4.0-beta.02026-08-24This is the first beta release of nerdctl v2.4.0.pre-release
- v2.3.52026-07-20Cherry-picks from main to release/2.3
Buildah
✓ signed The latest release, v1.45.1, carries a signature GitHub verified.
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nerdctl
✓ signed The latest release, v2.4.1, carries a signature GitHub verified.
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