The article explores various alternatives to Docker for containerization and image building, highlighting tools such as Podman, LXD/LXC, Containerd, Buildah, BuildKit, Kaniko, RunC, and OpenVZ, each offering distinct features and use cases. It emphasizes the dominance of Docker in the market but acknowledges its limitations, such as security issues and costs, prompting the need for alternatives. The article provides a comprehensive comparison of these tools based on factors like scalability, documentation quality, and platform compatibility and suggests that understanding these alternatives can help teams find the best fit for their specific needs. Additionally, it mentions virtualization options like VMware and VirtualBox, which, while differing from containerization, can still serve similar purposes and complement container-based solutions. The conclusion encourages users to consider their project requirements when selecting a tool and introduces Earthly as an option for simplifying the build process with repeatable, cached builds.