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RepoFlow Team · Oct 29, 2025
Benchmarking Apple Containers vs Docker Desktop
A practical performance comparison between Apple’s native container system and Docker Desktop on macOS.
On macOS Tahoe, Apple introduced Apple Container, a Swift based tool for creating and running Linux containers as lightweight virtual machines on Apple silicon.
We benchmarked it against Docker Desktop to compare performance across CPU, memory, disk, and startup speed.
We benchmarked it against Docker Desktop to compare performance across CPU, memory, disk, and startup speed.
Tests We Ran
Each test used the same Alpine 3.20 image and identical configurations, isolated from caches.
- CPU performance (1 thread and all threads) using Sysbench
- Memory throughput using Sysbench (1 MiB blocks, total 4 GiB transfer)
- Container startup time
- Sequential disk I/O using FIO (read and write)
CPU
Two views in one chart: single thread vs all threads. Values are sysbench events per second.
Memory throughput
Higher numbers are better. Values are MiB per second.
Startup time
Time to run a tiny container that exits. Lower is better.
Host Filesystem Read & Write Speeds
We grouped all reads and all writes into two charts.
Each bar in the charts corresponds to one benchmark configuration, defined by:
Each bar in the charts corresponds to one benchmark configuration, defined by:
- the file size used during the test (e.g., 128 MB, 1 GB, 4 GB)
- the block size for read or write operations (e.g., 4 KB, 64 KB, 1 MB)
How the Tests Were Performed
We measured each test 20 times and average the result. We let the Mac cool down for a full hour before running the benchmark again.
- CPU:
sysbench cpu --max-time=60with 1 thread, then with all available threads. - Memory:
sysbench memory --memory-block-size=1M --memory-total-size=4G --threads=<all> - Startup: run a minimal container and record wall time after images are present.
- Read & Write Speeds:
fiosequential read and write using a host bind mount. - Hardware: We used a brand new M4 Mac mini (clean macOS install, no background apps).
- Apple Container: We tested the latest version 0.6.0.
- Docker Desktop: We tested version 4.47.0.
Final Thoughts
It’s exciting to see Apple working on their own container implementation.
Although Apple Container didn’t win every benchmark, it performed impressively in CPU and memory throughput.
Given that it’s still at version 0.6.0, there’s clear potential, especially if deeper integration with Docker Desktop arrives in the future.
Let us know which benchmark you’d like to see next !
Although Apple Container didn’t win every benchmark, it performed impressively in CPU and memory throughput.
Given that it’s still at version 0.6.0, there’s clear potential, especially if deeper integration with Docker Desktop arrives in the future.
Let us know which benchmark you’d like to see next !
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