A matte rack appliance with orange VM status cells connected to a precise control-plane topology.

Virtainer Lite · available now

A VPS host that ships as an appliance.

One Fedora bootc image turns a bare server into a complete VPS host: a read-only OS, Cloud Hypervisor, a built-in WebUI, and Docker images running safely inside isolated VMs.

Get Lite early access See AppVM mode

OS foundation Fedora bootc

Host runtime Cloud Hypervisor

System image Read-only

Upgrade model bootc switch

Image source Registry

Virtainer Lite

The agent is the Lite product.

Virtainer Lite is not a thin node waiting for a future manager. It is the standalone single-host product: local admin, WebUI/API, setup, image cache, VM lifecycle, AppVM lifecycle, metrics, and host image updates all live on the machine.

The OS is delivered as a Fedora bootc image. The system image is read-only; /etc and /var hold configuration, SQLite state, image cache, VM disks, and setup choices across upgrades.

The Virtainer Lite WebUI dashboard showing nine running VMs, CPU, memory and disk gauges, monitoring charts, and system health checks. — Lite's local WebUI on a development host: nine VMs running, live metrics, system health.

Host foundation Fedora bootc appliance with Cloud Hypervisor, CLOUDHV.fd, qemu-storage-daemon, nftables, lvm2, and the virtainer agent baked in.

Simple upgrades Switch to a new host image with bootc, stage it first, then reboot when the operator is ready.

AppVM Import Docker/OCI images into templates, then run them safely inside isolated VMs.

Classic VM Boot Linux cloud images as regular VPS instances with disks, network, cloud-init, console, and lifecycle controls.

AppVM

Docker image in. VM isolation out.

AppVM solves a simple operator problem: run a Docker image safely inside its own VM. Virtainer imports a Docker/OCI image, flattens it into a qcow2 template, and boots a copy-on-write overlay as a Cloud Hypervisor VM.

source Docker/OCI image

template qcow2 rootfs

config vsock delivery

runtime Cloud Hypervisor

The AppVM templates page in the Lite WebUI listing OCI references like docker.io/library/nginx:alpine flattened into ready qcow2 templates. — Real OCI references (nginx:alpine, debian:trixie, archlinux:base) flattened into bootable templates.

Classic VM

For ordinary VPS hosting.

Use Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, or your own cloud image. Cloud-init handles guest initialization, and the instance behaves like a normal VPS.

Persistent system disk
Cloud-image boot flow
Cloud-init user data

AppVM

For Docker images that need VM isolation.

Start from a Docker/OCI image. Choose container mode for stateless workloads, or VM mode when the system disk should survive stop and boot cycles.

Docker/OCI image import
Stateless or persistent disk mode
Shell, logs, exit status, and network config via the host

$ curl https://registry.virtainer.io/api/images
{
  "images": [
    {
      "distro": "fedora",
      "version": "43",
      "arch": "x86_64",
      "filename": "Fedora-Cloud-Base-Generic-43-1.6.x86_64.qcow2",
      "checksum_algo": "sha256",
      "checksum": "846574c8a97cd2d8dc1f231062d73107cc85cbbbda56335e264a46e3a6c8ab2f",
      "is_latest": true
    }, … 9 more images
  ]
}

The image registry is part of the product.

Virtainer Registry is a public registry and REST API for refreshed x86_64 qcow2 Linux cloud images, with download URLs and checksums. Lite uses it as a clear image source instead of relying on hidden host defaults. The response on the left is live.

FedoraUbuntuDebianAlmaLinuxRocky Linux

Browse registry.virtainer.io

Lite runs locally. Basic adds the control plane.

The host runtime stays concrete: Cloud Hypervisor, qemu-storage-daemon, local SQLite state, bridges, VM disks, image cache, AppVM templates, and operation facts. Basic is the coming multi-host control-plane layer.

topology

Virtainer Registry qcow2 images, checksums, and REST API

Virtainer Lite host read-only bootc OS, agent WebUI/API, Cloud Hypervisor, qemu-storage-daemon, image cache

AppVM

control plane · coming soon Virtainer Basic adds a central manager that drives many Lite hosts.

billing · external WHMCS or your own customer panel owns billing; Virtainer stays the control plane.

Available now

Lite

Single-host Fedora bootc appliance for VPS and AppVM workloads. The right shape for early providers, lab hosts, and operators validating the host runtime before adding a central manager.

Coming soon

Basic

Multi-host control-plane edition for provider operations that need central inventory, tenants, plans, operations, audit, and manager driven host coordination.

Get Lite

Run Lite on a spare box.

Lite is in early access. Join the waitlist and we send the bootc host image reference and the install runbook when your slot opens. No billing software, no customer portal: one server in, a VPS host out.

requirements: an x86_64 server with hardware virtualization (VT-x / AMD-V) enabled. The appliance image brings everything else.

Join the Lite waitlist

One email when your slot opens. Nothing else.

contact@virtainer.io YouTube demos Notes on X