FAQ

How is Berthly different from Docker Desktop or OrbStack?

Docker Desktop and OrbStack ship their own container runtime. Berthly doesn’t — it’s a native GUI for Apple’s container, the runtime Apple builds and signs, which runs each Linux container in its own lightweight VM on Apple Silicon. If you want Apple’s tooling but miss the Docker Desktop experience, that’s exactly the gap Berthly fills. It’s also free and open source (Apache-2.0) — no subscription, no license terms to check.

Does it run my existing Docker images?

Yes — Apple’s container works with standard OCI images. Pull from Docker Hub, GHCR, or any registry, and build from ordinary Dockerfiles. Your images don’t know the difference.

Can I keep using the CLI alongside Berthly?

Yes, fully. Berthly talks to the same local daemon over XPC that the container CLI does — same images, same containers, same networks, same Keychain credentials. Anything you create in one shows up in the other. For the exact command-by-command mapping, see PARITY.md.

Does it work on Intel Macs?

No. Apple’s container requires Apple Silicon, so Berthly does too.

Does Berthly phone home?

No telemetry, no analytics, no crash reporting. Network traffic is limited to what you can see: your own image pulls and pushes, the Sparkle update check against GitHub Releases (which you can disable in Settings), and — only when you use the guided install — downloading Apple’s signed container installer.

Why isn’t the app sandboxed?

Berthly manages the container daemon (XPC, launchctl) and works with your local files for builds and volume mounts — capabilities the App Sandbox doesn’t allow. The code is open; audit exactly what it does.

What does Berthly cost?

Nothing. It’s open source under Apache-2.0.