balenaOS Alternatives (September 2025)

balenaOS: An OS optimized for running Docker containers on embedded devices, focusing on reliability and a productive developer workflow.

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1.
balena - The complete IoT fleet management platform
https://www.balen
.io/

Manage massive fleets of small IoT Linux devices with balena's IoT management cloud platform. Your first 10 devices are full-featured and always free. Develop, deploy, manage and scale your IoT fleet with balena.

2.
Ubuntu Core | Ubuntu
https://ubunt
.com/core/

Ubuntu Core is Ubuntu for IoT and embedded devices, optimised for security and reliable over-the-air (OTA) updates. Run your applications in a high-security, immutable and reliable embedded Linux OS.

3.
Canonical LXD
https://canonica
.com/lxd/

Low-touch virtual infrastructure with LXD at any scale. Built on top of Linux containers, LXD offers a unified user experience in managing system containers, virtual machines and clusters. Easily configurable, flexible and secure way to run your workloads.

5.
Kubernetes and Docker Container Management Software
https://www.portaine
.io/

Portainer is your container management software to deploy, troubleshoot, and secure applications across cloud, datacenter, and Industrial IoT use cases.

6.
Bosch IoT Suite - A toolbox in the cloud for IoT developers
https://bosch-iot-suit
.com/

Bosch IoT Suite is the Bosch Group’s core family of products and services enabling sophisticated AIoT solutions.

8.
Rancher Desktop by SUSE
https://rancherdeskto
.io/

Open source desktop application that provides Kubernetes, Container Management, bundled utilities on the desktop

9.
Armada: Solving Your Hardest Problems at the Edge
https://www.armad
.ai/

Armada’s platform combines connectivity, compute, and real-world AI to solve your toughest challenges right where your data is generated.

10.
IoT Network Solutions — Products & Services | Particle
https://www.particl
.io/iot-connectivity/

IoT network solutions that are optimized to easily connect your device to the Internet over Wi-Fi, cellular, NFC, or BLE.

11.
Red Hat OpenShift Kubernetes Engine
https://www.redha
.com/en/technologies/cloud-computing/openshift/kubernetes-engine/

An enterprise application platform powered by Kubernetes that provides the basic functionality of Red Hat OpenShift to run containers in hybrid cloud environments.

12.
VxWorks | Industry Leading RTOS for Embedded Systems
https://www.windrive
.com/products/vxworks/

VxWorks is a high-performance real-time operating system (RTOS) for the development of robust mission-critical embedded systems for the intelligent edge.

13.
MicroK8s - Zero-ops Kubernetes for developers, edge and IoT
https://microk8
.io/

MicroK8s is the simplest production-grade conformant K8s. Lightweight and focused. Single command install on Linux, Windows and macOS. Made for devOps, great for edge, appliances and IoT. Full high availability Kubernetes with autonomous clusters and distributed storage.

14.
Enterprise Open Source and Linux | Ubuntu
https://ubunt
.com/server/

Ubuntu is the modern, open source operating system on Linux for the enterprise server, desktop, cloud, and IoT.

15.
Enterprise Kubernetes Management Platform & Software | Rancher
https://ranche
.com/

Rancher, the open-source multi-cluster orchestration platform, lets operations teams deploy, manage and secure enterprise Kubernetes. Request a demo!

16.
Enterprise Open Source and Linux | Ubuntu
https://ubunt
.com/desktop/

Ubuntu is the modern, open source operating system on Linux for the enterprise server, desktop, cloud, and IoT.

17.
Enterprise Open Source and Linux | Ubuntu
https://ubunt
.com/openstack/

Ubuntu is the modern, open source operating system on Linux for the enterprise server, desktop, cloud, and IoT.

18.
Enterprise Container Management | Mirantis Kubernetes Engine
https://www.miranti
.com/software/mirantis-kubernetes-engine/

Managed Enterprise Container Management for Organizations. We have private and managed container orchestration for Kubernetes, Docker, and more!

19.
SmartOS | Triton DataCenter
https://www.tritondatacente
.com/smartos/

SmartOS is a purpose-built, container-native hypervisor and lightweight container host OS for secure, performant, and convenient container hosting in public and private clouds

20.
21.
Docker: Accelerated Container Application Development
https://www.docke
.com/

Docker is a platform designed to help developers build, share, and run container applications. We handle the tedious setup, so you can focus on the code.

22.
Alpaquita Linux | BellSoft Java
https://bell-s
.com/alpaquita-linux/

Alpaquita Linux is the Alpine-based build fine-tuned for Java with glibc and musl support. Ideal for cloud deployment, containers, and native images.

23.
Open Source Enterprise Kubernetes Platform | KubeSphere
https://kubespher
.io/

An open source Kubernetes Platform to manage enterprise-grade Kubernetes across hybrid cloud, multi-cloud and edge. Get started for free!

25.
Over-the-air software updates for IoT devices | Mender
https://mende
.io/

Secure, reliable, and scalable over-the-air software updates for IoT devices. Seamlessly manage device software remotely, ensuring end-to-end security and compliance.

27.
Enterprise Kubernetes for multi-cloud operations | Ubuntu
https://ubunt
.com/kubernetes/

Canonical Kubernetes enterprise solutions build up from Ubuntu OS to hybrid multi-cloud container orchestration clouds, edge and IoT, managed Kubernetes and enterprise support packages.

28.
Gravio - The IoT & Edge Integration Platform
https://www.gravi
.com/

Gravio is a platform that connects IoT devices. It is built for companies who like to start small and quickly, and yet have the possibility to scale up robustly and fast. Other than most IoT platforms, Gravio leverages the power of Edge Computing and Artificial Intelligence.

29.
ThingsBoard — Open-source IoT (Internet of Things) Platform
http://thingsboar
.io/

ThingsBoard is an open-source IoT ❰Internet of Things❱ platform for device management ᐉ data collection ᐉ processing and visualization for your IoT projects

31.
Golioth IoT Infrastructure as Code
https://goliot
.io/

The Golioth IoT platform helps developers to build, secure, manage, and connect custom hardware, then capture, transform, and route device data to the cloud.

32.
ZEDEDA Home
https://zeded
.com/

ZEDEDA delivers an open, distributed, cloud-native edge management and orchestration solution.

33.
Nomad by HashiCorp
https://www.nomadprojec
.io/

Nomad is a highly available, distributed, data-center aware cluster and application scheduler designed to support the modern datacenter with support for long-running services, batch jobs, and much more.

35.
Master embedded and IoT battery life
https://www.qoitec
.com/

Ultimate tools for prolonging embedded and IoT battery life. Cutting-edge power analysis, battery profiling and simulation for electronics.

36.
Introducing Red Hat OpenShift Streams for Apache Kafka
https://www.redha
.com/en/blog/introducing-red-hat-openshift-streams-apache-kafka/

Red Hat OpenShift Streams for Apache Kafka makes it easier to create, discover and connect to real-time data streams regardless of where they exist.

37.
Container Registry | IBM
https://www.ib
.com/products/container-registry/

IBM Container Registry enables you to store and distribute Docker images in a managed, private registry.

38.
Kublr - Fast Kubernetes Orchestration for Enterprise-Grade Deployments
https://kubl
.com/

Simplify your Kubernetes deployment with Kublr. Our platform offers fast and efficient setup and orchestration for small and large scale enterprises.

39.
Multi Cloud Kubernetes Management Platform | Kubermatic
https://www.kubermati
.com/

Easily manage multiple Kubernetes clusters with the automation power of the Kubermatic platform. Scale your business with reliability.

41.
Pterodactyl
https://pterodacty
.io/

Pterodactyl is an open-source game server management panel built with PHP, React, and Go. Designed with security in mind, Pterodactyl runs all game servers in isolated Docker containers while exposing a beautiful and intuitive UI to end users.

42.
EMQX: The World's #1 Open Source Distributed MQTT Broker
https://www.emq
.io/

EMQX: The most scalable MQTT Broker for IoT. Connect 100M+ IoT devices in 1 cluster at 1ms latency. Move and process millions of MQTT messages per second.

44.
Timesys - We build, secure maintain embedded Linux, Android, open source OS software platforms
https://www.timesy
.com/

Timesys offers Linux, Android, and open source operating systems software security, engineering services, and development tools, for embedded software market

45.
Devtron | A Software Platform for Kubernetes Application Management
https://devtro
.ai/

Devtron enables swift app containerization, seamless Kubernetes deployment, and peak performance optimization – simplify your app management today!

46.
Blynk: a low-code IoT software platform for businesses and developers
https://blyn
.io/

Build custom mobile apps and web dashboards with our drag-and-drop app builder. Get a complete, hardware agnostic IoT solution with an integrated back-end infrastructure, private cloud, device management and user management tools. Publish your own app in AppStore and Google Play with our white-label option.

47.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system
https://www.redha
.com/en/technologies/linux-platforms/enterprise-linux/

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a stable, proven foundation that’s versatile enough for rolling out new applications, virtualizing environments, and creating a more secure hybrid cloud.

48.
Kontena | Powering Your High Density Data Centers
https://konten
.eu/

Discover the expertise that Kontena brings to the table in HPC, Mining and Data Centers. From strategy to implementation, we’re with you.

49.
Real-Time Operating System - FreeRTOS - AWS
https://aws.amazo
.com/freertos/

FreeRTOS is an open source, real-time operating system for microcontrollers and microprocessors that makes small, low-power devices easier to program, deploy, and secure.

51.
D2iQ | Enterprise Kubernetes Platform
https://d2i
.com/

D2iQ makes it easier to build and run Kubernetes at scale, reducing time to market from months to days.

54.
Juju | The simplest way to deploy and maintain applications in the cloud
https://juj
.is/

Software operations are easier with Juju - the open source orchestration engine for software operators. Deploy, integrate, scale and manage your applications' lifecycle at any scale, on any infrastructure with Juju and charms.

55.
Container Registry - Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR) - AWS
https://aws.amazo
.com/ecr/

Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR) is a fully managed Docker container registry that makes it easy to store, share, and deploy container images.

56.
IoT Device Management - IoT Management Software | Datablaze
https://datablaz
.com/voyager/

IoT management software by Datablaze gives you full real-time visibility of your IoT devices. Take control of your billing, data usage and reporting.

57.
What is .NET? An open-source developer platform.
https://dotnet.microsof
.com/en-us/learn/dotnet/what-is-dotnet/

.NET is a free, cross-platform, open-source developer platform. .NET has languages, editors, and libraries to build for web, mobile, desktop, games, and IoT.

58.
emnify | IoT Solution Provider
https://www.emnif
.com/

Build and scale your IoT solution anywhere with emnify - the world’s first cloud-native connectivity platform and our global IoT SIMs.

59.
Container Registry: Containerized Image Lifecycle Management - Alibaba Cloud
https://www.alibabaclou
.com/en/product/container-registry/

Alibaba Cloud Container Registry allows you to manage images throughout the image lifecycle. It provides secure image management, stable image build creation across global regions.

60.
Mist is an open source multicloud management platform
https://mis
.io/

A secure cloud management platform for automation, orchestration, cost and usage monitoring of public and private clouds, hypervisors and container hosts. Provides multi-cloud RBAC. Enables self service provisioning. Cost analytics and cloud spending optimization

61.
Thingsup - IoT Monitoring Platform | Internet of Things
https://thingsu
.io/

Thingsup is a highly scalable & secure cloud-based IoT Monitoring Platform development company to connect your internet of things devices.

62.
Ubidots — Powerful but simple Industrial IoT
https://ubidot
.com/

Industrial companies use Ubidots to launch and scale applications for condition monitoring, smart manufacturing, cloud SCADAs, vibration analysis, and more.

63.
Private Container Registry | Mirantis Secure Registry
https://www.miranti
.com/software/mirantis-secure-registry/

Enjoy a secure and trusted private container registry. Easily integrate enterprise grade container registry with supply chain security.

64.
Qubitro IoT Device & Data Platform | IoT Cloud Provider
https://qubitr
.com/

Qubitro is an IoT device and data platform that provides a secure, scalable, and reliable IoT cloud service for your IoT projects.

65.
IoT Edge | Cloud Intelligence | Microsoft Azure
https://azure.microsof
.com/en-us/products/iot-edge/

Connect cloud intelligence to your edge devices with Azure IoT Edge, a comprehensive service that deploys artificial intelligence and custom logic to IoT devices.

66.
Traefik Mesh, the Simplest Service Mesh | Traefik Labs
https://traefi
.io/traefik-mesh/

Traefik Mesh is an open source service mesh, easy to configure that allows visibility and management of the traffic flows inside any Kubernetes cluster.

67.
Platform9: Unified Infrastructure Management
https://platform
.com/

Manage virtual machines and Kubernetes – on-premises, at the edge, or air-gapped – with our flexible platform that reduces ops cost and accelerates delivery of revenue-generating apps.

68.
Azure Container Registry | Microsoft Azure
https://azure.microsof
.com/en-us/products/container-registry/

Store images for all types of container deployments and OCI artifacts, using Azure Container Registry.

69.
Container Registry | Oracle
https://www.oracl
.com/cloud/cloud-native/container-registry/

Oracle Container Registry is a highly available container registry service for storing and sharing container images and artifacts across multiple deployments.

70.
Openshift Dev Spaces Overview | Red Hat Developer
https://codenv
.com/

A collaborative Kubernetes-native development solution that delivers OpenShift workspaces and in-browser IDE for rapid cloud application development.

71.
Deep Learning Containers  |  Google Cloud
https://cloud.googl
.com/deep-learning-containers/

Prepackaged and optimized deep learning containers for developing, testing, and deploying AI applications on TensorFlow, PyTorch, and scikit learn.

72.
IoT Edge, Open Source Edge - AWS IoT Greengrass - AWS
https://aws.amazo
.com/greengrass/

AWS IoT Greengrass is an open-source edge runtime and cloud service that helps you build, deploy, and manage intelligent device software.

73.
HiveMQ – The Most Trusted MQTT platform to Transform Your Business
https://www.hivem
.com/

HiveMQ is the proven enterprise MQTT platform designed to connect, communicate, and control IoT data under real-world stress. Learn more.

74.
Docker Images for Machine Learning - AWS Deep Learning Containers - AWS
https://aws.amazo
.com/machine-learning/containers/

AWS Deep Learning Containers are Docker images preinstalled with deep learning frameworks that make it easy to deploy custom machine learning environments.

75.
Introducing Red Hat Smart Management for Red Hat Enterprise Linux
https://www.redha
.com/en/blog/introducing-red-hat-smart-management-red-hat-enterprise-linux/

How do you want to manage your systems? That probably depends a lot on the type of environment you have—whether your systems are primarily on-prem, or if they reside in the cloud. Or a mixture of both. Either way, Red Hat is looking to meet you where you're at and provide management tools to suit your needs with Red Hat Smart Management.

76.
App Service - Web App for Containers | Microsoft Azure
https://azure.microsof
.com/en-us/products/app-service/containers/

Bring your own containers and deploy to App Service as a web app running on Linux in seconds using Web App for Containers feature of Azure App Service.

77.
Esper | Next-Gen MDM for Android & iOS | Kiosk Mode | Android MDM | iOS MDM
https://espe
.io/

Next-gen device management for company-owned and managed Android & iOS tablets, kiosks, smartphones, IoT edge devices, and more.

78.
1oT
https://1o
.com/

1oT is a carrier independent connectivity provider for IoT. We remove the complexities of IoT connectivity and help companies scale globally.

79.
Linux | Oracle
https://www.oracl
.com/linux/

Learn how to optimize and secure your infrastructure with virtualization, management, cloud native computing tools, all included with Oracle Linux operating environment.

80.
Mobile Device Management (MDM) Software - ManageEngine Mobile Device Manager Plus
https://www.manageengin
.com/mobile-device-management/

Mobile Device Manager Plus is an enterprise Mobile Device Management (MDM) software lets you manage and secure Apple, Android, Windows & Chrome OS devices. Try Now!

81.
Mesh Networking for IoT - Particle | Mouser
https://www.mouse
.com/new/particle/particle-mesh-networking-iot/

Particle Mesh Networking for IoT creates local networks that collect data, share messages, and connect to the internet with Particle Mesh.

82.
Fully Managed Container Solution – Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) - Amazon Web Services
https://aws.amazo
.com/ecs/

Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) provides a fully managed container service solution that’s easy to use, scalable, secure, and reliable.

83.
GridDB: Open Source Time Series Database for IoT
https://gridd
.net/

Toshiba GridDBâ„¢ is a highly scalable, in-memory NoSQL time series database optimized for IoT and Big Data.

84.
J2 Innovations - Homepage
https://www.j2in
.com/

We are J2 Innovations! The creators of FIN Framework (FIN), an open software platform for smart buildings, smart equipment & IoT

85.
86.
Apache Mesos
https://mesos.apach
.org/

Apache Mesos abstracts resources away from machines, enabling fault-tolerant and elastic distributed systems to easily be built and run effectively.

87.
IronMQ - Serverless Message Queue
https://www.iro
.io/mq/

DevOps serverless application tools to run background tasks with Docker containers and manage messaging queues with cloud elasticity and no vendor lock-in

88.
FastComet - Managed Cloud Hosting with 24/7 Support
https://www.fastcome
.com/

FastCloud® - Advanced cloud hosting platform with 24/7 Expert Support & 11 Datacenter Locations. We will handle caching, transfers, security, updates.

90.
API Management - API Authentication & API Management Tools - Nevatech, Inc
https://nevatec
.com/

Nevatech Sentinet offers a flexible, lightweight and scalable API Management platform to help businesses maximize the value of their data. Try Nevatech Now!

91.
OpenLDAP Cloud Hosting, OpenLDAP Installer, Docker Container and VM
https://bitnam
.com/stack/openldap/

OpenLDAP is the open-source solution for LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). It is a protocol used to store and retrieve data from a hierarchical directory structure such as in databases.

92.
Open Source, Fully Supported OpenJDK | Azul Platform Core
https://www.azu
.com/products/core/

Get the world's best supported build of OpenJDK with Azul. See how Azul Platform Core can help you deliver secure & stable Java with 90% lower licensing costs.

93.
RunCloud - PHP Cloud Server Management Panel
https://runclou
.io/

PHP cloud server control panel that support Digital Ocean, Linode, AWS, Vultr, Azure and other custom VPS. Git deployment webhook and easiest control panel to manage Laravel, Cake, Symphony or WordPress.

94.
Kasm Workspaces | The Container Streaming Platform
https://kasmwe
.com/

Kasm Workspaces delivers zero-trust remote browser isolation (RBI), desktop as a service (DaaS) and open-source intelligence (OSINT) workloads to the web browser.

95.
Posit | The Open-Source Data Science Company
https://posi
.co/

The best data science is open source. Posit is committed to creating incredible open-source tools for individuals, teams, and enterprises.

96.
GitHub - newrelic/centurion: A mass deployment tool for Docker fleets
https://githu
.com/newrelic/centurion/

A mass deployment tool for Docker fleets. Contribute to newrelic/centurion development by creating an account on GitHub.

97.
Cisco ACI - Application Centric Infrastructure - Cisco
https://www.cisc
.com/site/us/en/products/networking/cloud-networking/application-centric-infrastructure/index.html/

Easily optimize your multicloud network with Cisco ACI. Use a secure, automated software defined network (SDN) solution to accelerate your network deployments.

98.
Garden - The DevOps automation tool for K8s
https://garde
.io/

Accelerate the DevOps workflow. Build, deploy, and test in production-like environments with one platform.

99.
Fogbeam Labs | Makers of easy to use, community-driven, open-source software for businesses.
https://fogbea
.com/

Fogbeam Labs is the maker of Fogcutter Suite. Easy to use, community driven, open-source Enterprise software for businesses.