Docker Toolbox

Discontinued Docker Toolbox was discontinued in May 2020. The alternatives below are active products you can switch to. All discontinued →

Alternatives to Docker Toolbox

Pre-Desktop Docker on Windows/Mac

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Pre-Desktop Docker on Windows/Mac. Docker Toolbox has been discontinued; the active alternatives listed here are maintained products you can switch to.

Most compared with Colima Docker Desktop k9s

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Who it's for

Developers on older Windows (pre-Windows 10 Pro/without Hyper-V support) or older Mac systems that lacked the hardware virtualization or OS support required to run Docker natively.

What you get

Docker Toolbox bundled Docker Engine, Docker Machine, Docker Compose, Kitematic (a GUI for managing containers), and Oracle VirtualBox into a single installer. It ran Docker inside a lightweight Linux VM managed by Docker Machine, since the host OS could not run the Docker daemon directly. It included a preconfigured Docker Quickstart Terminal to launch the VM and set up the shell environment automatically. It has since been deprecated in favor of Docker Desktop.

How it works

The installer created a VirtualBox VM running a minimal Linux distribution with the Docker daemon inside it; users ran Docker CLI commands from their host terminal (via the Docker Quickstart Terminal), which communicated with the daemon in the VM over a configured connection, or used Kitematic for a graphical interface.