--- title: I Tested Apple's Container 1.1.0 Against Docker Desktop... description: A hands-on benchmark comparing Apple's Container CLI 1.1.0 (with Mocker for Docker Compose compatibility) against Docker Desktop on Apple Silicon. Testing a... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-apple-s-container-1-1-0-against-docker-desktop-here-s-what-i-measured-v6ogrbuf4 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I Tested Apple's Container 1.1.0 Against Docker Desktop — Here's What I Measured | daily.dev og:description: A hands-on benchmark comparing Apple's Container CLI 1.1.0 (with Mocker for Docker Compose compatibility) against Docker Desktop on Apple Silicon. Testing a... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-apple-s-container-1-1-0-against-docker-desktop-here-s-what-i-measured-v6ogrbuf4 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/V6oGrBuF4.png og:image:alt: I Tested Apple's Container 1.1.0 Against Docker Desktop — Here's What I Measured og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I Tested Apple's Container 1.1.0 Against Docker Desktop — Here's What I Measured **[Chewbacca](https://daily.dev/sources/9gnwvwtuwwgw0htla8lsl)** · [@hemna](https://daily.dev/hemna) · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A hands-on benchmark comparing Apple's Container CLI 1.1.0 (with Mocker for Docker Compose compatibility) against Docker Desktop on Apple Silicon. Testing a 3-container stack (PostgreSQL, Spring Boot, Python), the author found Apple Container's host process overhead is significantly lower (171.6 MB vs 752.4 MB), but each container runs in its own micro-VM adding 392–583 MB per container on the host. A critical blocker was discovered: inter-container DNS resolution does not work in Mocker 0.7.2, preventing multi-service stacks from communicating by hostname. amd64 images via Rosetta, OCI pulls, single-container execution, and port forwarding all worked correctly. ## Content # I Tested Apple's Container 1.1.0 Against Docker Desktop — Here's What I Measured Apple's container tool hit 1.1.0 on July 6, 2026. According to Apple's README, each container runs in its own lightweight micro-VM via the macOS Virtualization framework. I took my running Docker Compose stack and moved it to Apple's toolchain to measure the difference. ## The Setup A 3-container stack on my Mac (Apple silicon, macOS 26.5.1): - **postgres:17-alpine** — database - **tmseidel/ai-git-bot:latest** — Spring Boot app (amd64-only image) - **python:3.12-slim** — lightweight webhook proxy This is a Gitea code review bot running in Docker Desktop. ## Installing Apple Container + Mocker Apple's `container` CLI installs via a signed .pkg from their GitHub releases. `container system start` pulls a Kata Containers kernel. For Docker Compose compatibility, I used [Mocker](https://github.com/us/mocker) (`brew tap us/tap && brew install mocker`) — wraps Apple's container CLI with Docker-compatible commands. ## The Memory Numbers ### Docker Desktop (all 3 containers running) Measured via `docker stats --no-stream` and `ps -eo rss,comm`: | Component | Memory | |-----------|--------| | Host processes (all Docker Desktop processes) | 752.4 MB RSS | | gitea-code-review-app-1 (Spring Boot) | 715.5 MiB | | gitea-code-review-db-1 (Postgres) | 66.6 MiB | | gitea-code-review-proxy-1 (Python) | 28.5 MiB | | VM configured allocation | 16,384 MiB / 12 CPUs | ### Apple Container / Mocker (2 of 3 containers — app failed, explained below) Measured via `mocker stats --no-stream` and `ps -eo rss,comm`: | Component | Memory | |-----------|--------| | System services (apiserver + plugins) | 171.6 MB RSS | | gitea-db VM process (`com.apple.Virtualization.VirtualMachine`) | 583.3 MB RSS | | gitea-proxy VM process (`com.apple.Virtualization.VirtualMachine`) | 392.9 MB RSS | | **Total measured** | **1,187.1 MB** | ### Side-by-Side: Same Container, Different Runtime | Container | Docker `stats` reported | Apple Container host VM process RSS | |-----------|------------------------|--------------------------------------| | postgres:17-alpine | 66.6 MiB | 583.3 MB | | python:3.12-slim proxy | 28.5 MiB | 392.9 MB | Note: these numbers aren't directly comparable — Docker reports memory usage *inside* the shared VM, while Apple Container's numbers are the full VM process RSS on the host. I did not measure what portion of each VM process is kernel/init overhead vs application memory. ### Host Overhead Comparison | | Docker Desktop | Apple Container | |---|---|---| | Host process RSS (no containers counted) | 752.4 MB | 171.6 MB | ## What Broke: DNS Between Containers The Spring Boot app failed to start with: ``` java.net.UnknownHostException: gitea-db ``` I created a shared network (`mocker network create gitea-net`), attached all containers to it, and retried. Same failure. I verified from inside the proxy container: ```python >>> socket.getaddrinfo('gitea-db', 5432) socket.gaierror: [Errno -3] Temporary failure in name resolution ``` Containers on the same mocker network cannot resolve each other by hostname. ## What Worked - **amd64 image ran via Rosetta** — I ran `container run --platform linux/amd64 alpine echo "test"` and got output. The Spring Boot amd64 image started and executed (it failed on DB connectivity, not execution). - **OCI image pull** — pulled postgres:17-alpine, python:3.12-slim, tmseidel/ai-git-bot:latest from Docker Hub without modification. - **Single container execution** — `mocker run -d --name gitea-db postgres:17-alpine` started, and `mocker exec gitea-db pg_isready` returned "accepting connections". - **Port forwarding** — `mocker run -d -p 8080:8080` allocated the port (visible in `mocker ps` output). ## What I Did NOT Test - Security/isolation claims (hypervisor boundary vs namespace) - I/O performance - Network throughput between containers (DNS didn't work, so I couldn't) - Container startup time benchmarks - The Spring Boot app fully running under mocker (blocked by DNS failure) ## Summary Table | | Docker Desktop | Apple Container + Mocker | |---|---|---| | Multi-service compose (services talk by name) | Worked | Failed — DNS resolution broken | | Host process memory | 752.4 MB measured | 171.6 MB measured | | Per-container memory overhead | (shared VM, not directly measurable per-container on host) | 392–583 MB per VM process on host | | amd64 on ARM | Worked | Worked (Rosetta) | | Version tested | 29.6.1 | CLI 1.1.0, Mocker 0.7.2 | ## Bottom Line With 2 of 3 containers running, Apple Container consumed 1,187 MB on the host. Docker Desktop consumed 752 MB in host processes plus container memory inside its shared VM. I was unable to run the full 3-container stack under mocker because inter-container DNS resolution does not work in mocker 0.7.2 with `mocker network create`. Compose support is the most active thread in Apple's GitHub Discussions (#194, 150+ replies, no timeline from Apple). --- *Measured on: MacBook Pro (Apple silicon), macOS 26.5.1, Apple Container CLI 1.1.0, Mocker 0.7.2, Docker Desktop 29.6.1. July 9, 2026.* ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Apple Ships Stable 1.0 of its Native Container Tool for macOS](https://daily.dev/posts/apple-ships-stable-1-0-of-its-native-container-tool-for-macos-d37rsabnf) · Cloud Native Now · 9 upvotes · 0 comments - [\+ Docker Compose Support\! Said my Apple Container Desktop\!](https://daily.dev/posts/docker-compose-support-said-my-apple-container-desktop--cdosfwefe) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#infrastructure](https://daily.dev/tags/infrastructure), [#docker](https://daily.dev/tags/docker), [#containers](https://daily.dev/tags/containers), [#mac](https://daily.dev/tags/mac) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-apple-s-container-1-1-0-against-docker-desktop-here-s-what-i-measured-v6ogrbuf4) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-apple-s-container-1-1-0-against-docker-desktop-here-s-what-i-measured-v6ogrbuf4","headline":"I Tested Apple's Container 1.1.0 Against Docker Desktop — Here's What I Measured","text":"A hands-on benchmark comparing Apple's Container CLI 1.1.0 (with Mocker for Docker Compose compatibility) against Docker Desktop on Apple Silicon. Testing a 3-container stack (PostgreSQL, Spring Boot, Python), the author found Apple Container's host process overhead is significantly lower (171.6 MB vs 752.4 MB), but each container runs in its own micro-VM adding 392–583 MB per container on the host. A critical blocker was discovered: inter-container DNS resolution does not work in Mocker 0.7.2, preventing multi-service stacks from communicating by hostname. amd64 images via Rosetta, OCI pulls, single-container execution, and port forwarding all worked correctly.","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-apple-s-container-1-1-0-against-docker-desktop-here-s-what-i-measured-v6ogrbuf4","datePublished":"2026-07-09T15:21:23.363Z","dateModified":"2026-07-09T15:21:45.380Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Chewbacca","url":"https://daily.dev/hemna","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/672207?v=4","description":"Block storage service owner for SAP's cloud.","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":3000}},"interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/9gnwvwtuwwgw0htla8lsl","name":"Chewbacca"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Chewbacca","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/9gnwvwtuwwgw0htla8lsl"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"I Tested Apple's Container 1.1.0 Against Docker Desktop — Here's What I Measured"}]} ```