What Kontena is
Kontena is a desktop app for managing containers — on Linux, macOS and Windows — through one UI, whichever runtime engine is underneath it.
Docker and Podman are both supported today, as equals rather than one being the "real" one and the other a fallback. You can switch between them without switching apps, and Kubernetes contexts appear in the same switcher as the engines.
The backend is an implementation detail, not a lifestyle choice.
Where to start#
Install KontenaGet it running, on any of the three platforms. Your first containerFrom an empty list to something running. Engines and clustersWhat the switcher is actually switching, and why some things are greyed out on one backend and not the other.What this is not#
These docs describe the app. They are not a Docker or Kubernetes tutorial: where Kontena exposes a concept that belongs to the engine — a bind mount, a namespace, a restart policy — we say what Kontena does with it and link to the upstream documentation rather than re-explaining it badly.