Velo Workspaces
Disclosure: I built Velo Workspaces, so read this as you'd read any vendor's comparison. Every claim about Docker Desktop and OrbStack is sourced, and I say plainly where each is simply the better tool. Prices and features change; this reflects what was publicly documented in September 2026.
The short version
- Docker Desktop is the standard way to run containers on a Mac, with the biggest ecosystem and the setup most tutorials and CI configs assume.
- OrbStack does the same job, containers plus lightweight Linux machines, built for Apple silicon from scratch, with measured speed and battery advantages over Docker Desktop.
- Velo Workspaces isn't a faster or slower way to do that job. Each workspace is a fully separate VM with its own kernel, rather than everything running through one shared VM as in the other two.
If you build, run and ship containers, this won't talk you out of Docker Desktop or OrbStack; both are good at it. If your real question is how strong an isolation boundary you need, read on.
Pricing, September 2026
| Velo Workspaces | Docker Desktop | OrbStack | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, with unlimited workspaces, each its own VM and kernel, and cloud images for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and Rocky Linux. Pro (SSH terminal, AI Bridge, disposable workspaces, restore points and more): $3.99/month, $24.99/year, or $79.99 once. | Personal: free. Pro: $9–$11/month. Team: $15–$16/user/month. Business: $24/user/month. | Free for personal, non-commercial use. Pro (required for any work use): $8/user/month, billed annually. |
| Model | Free app with no limit by company size or revenue; Pro is optional and flat-rate, never metered | Free tier limited by company size and revenue; subscription for most commercial use | Free for personal use; subscription as soon as it's used for work |
Docker pricing from docker.com/pricing; organizations over 250 employees or $10M revenue need a paid plan even for Personal's features. OrbStack pricing and licensing from docs.orbstack.dev/licensing. Check current prices before deciding.
The real question: container or VM
These are different guarantees, not tiers of one. A container uses OS-level isolation, Linux namespaces and cgroups, while sharing the host's kernel with every other container. A VM is a separate system with its own kernel. A namespace boundary is enforced in software by that shared kernel; a hypervisor boundary is enforced by hardware, and hardening like seccomp and AppArmor doesn't fully close that gap. A kernel vulnerability can affect every container on that kernel at once; a problem inside one VM stays there. It's the distinction in the security deep dive, where containers and microVMs sit in different rows of the same table. VM vs. container vs. sandbox on macOS adds macOS's own App Sandbox to the picture.
Where Docker Desktop and OrbStack sit
Both run containers on top of a single Linux VM on the Mac, since macOS has no Linux kernel of its own for containers to share. Docker Desktop lets you choose the VM backend: Apple's Virtualization framework, QEMU (being phased out on Apple silicon), or Docker's own Docker VMM, in public beta as of mid-2026 and aimed at faster container start-up and file I/O. OrbStack built its own optimized VM layer from the ground up, which is part of why it benchmarks faster and lighter than Docker Desktop on the same Mac.
A detail if you've looked at OrbStack's Linux machines and assumed each is a separate VM: not quite. A machine feels like one, with its own filesystem and a real init system running normally, but every machine and container in OrbStack shares one kernel. OrbStack's documentation says so directly: machines "are not independent VMs", built to feel like one for most purposes. That's a useful feature, and it's still the container row of the isolation table.
Where Velo Workspaces sits
Every workspace runs on Apple's Virtualization framework with its own kernel, the same tier as Firecracker or Kata elsewhere (see the ARM virtualization deep dive). That's the whole difference: not "containers, but nicer", but a separate VM per workspace as the default unit, the boundary you want for code you don't fully trust yet, like an AI agent's output, or for a disposable QA or CI run that must start from a clean, unshared state. Since 1.2, getting a fresh one is quick: an official Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora or Rocky Linux cloud image, ready about a minute after it downloads.
Which to use
- Containers are your normal workflow: you build and ship images, deploy to Kubernetes, and follow tutorials and CI configs that assume Docker. Use Docker Desktop; nothing here competes with that ecosystem.
- Same workflow, faster and lighter, on Apple silicon. OrbStack is a well-built alternative doing the same job, a tooling choice rather than an isolation choice.
- A fast, VM-like environment for general Linux work, without a separate kernel per instance. OrbStack's machines fit well.
- You want to sandbox code you don't fully trust, or want disposable, base-image-cloned environments that share a kernel with nothing else on the Mac. That's what Velo Workspaces is built for. (You can still run Docker inside a workspace when you need both.)
Related reading: the security deep dive the isolation table comes from, how Velo Workspaces compares with Parallels and UTM as a VM app, cloud dev environments (GitHub Codespaces and Ona), one workspace per project, and Apple's own container tool against both. Or download Velo Workspaces and try it yourself.