---
title: "Replace Docker Desktop with Multipass"
description: "How to prevent Docker Desktop from taking a lot of resources on my Mac."
canonical_url: "https://hannoeru.me/posts/replace-docker-desktop-with-multipass"
---

> Index of every page on this site: [llms.txt](https://hannoeru.me/llms.txt)

## Why

Because Docker Desktop is taking a lot of resource from my Mac.

> **Update (2026):** Docker Desktop is now free for personal use and small businesses (fewer than 250 employees and less than $10M revenue). If you still want a lighter alternative, [OrbStack](https://orbstack.dev/) and [Colima](https://github.com/abiosoft/colima) are the common choices today. The Multipass approach below still works.

## Getting Started

The following steps have been tested on my Intel Macbook w/ 16gb ram.

You need to remove Docker Desktop before starting this tutorial.

## Install Multipass & Docker

Multipass is a CLI tool that lets you create and run an Ubuntu VM in a minute.

> Require [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/) installed

```bash
brew install multipass docker
```

Test install

```bash
multipass version

multipass  1.7.0+mac
multipassd 1.7.0+mac
```

(Current Multipass is 1.14+. The output above is from 2021.)

## Create Multipass VM

First, create a VM config file `docker.yaml`

```yaml [docker.yaml]
users:
  - name: ubuntu
    sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
    ssh_authorized_keys:
      - your-ssh-public-key # replace with the content of ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
package_update: true
packages:
  - avahi-daemon
  - ca-certificates
  - curl
  - gnupg
  - lsb-release
runcmd:
  - curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo bash
  - sudo systemctl enable docker
  - sudo systemctl restart ssh
  - sudo groupadd docker
  - sudo usermod -aG docker ubuntu
```

Then run this command to create a Ubuntu VM

```bash
multipass launch -c 2 -m 1G -d 5G -n docker lts --cloud-init docker.yaml
```

> `lts` gives you the current Ubuntu LTS. (The original post used `20.10`, which reached end of life in July 2021.)

This will take a few mins to build and start. Once it's done you can see what is running with

```bash
multipass list
```

### Connect to VM

SSH into docker VM

```bash
ssh ubuntu@docker.local
```

Make sure you accepted the VM host key and saved your SSH key — this is required for Docker to auto connect to the remote Docker engine.

Also check that docker is installed on the VM by running

```bash
docker info
```

### Setup docker host

Add this to your `~/.zprofile` to always use this `DOCKER_HOST`

```bash
export DOCKER_HOST="ssh://ubuntu@docker.local"
```

Apply changes

```bash
source ~/.zprofile
```

Check docker info

```bash
docker info
```

### Reference

- [How to Replace Docker Desktop with Ubuntu Multipass](https://www.jimhribar.com/replace-docker-desktop-with-ubuntu-multipass/)
- [Docker Engine with multipass on macOS](https://medium.com/@gourneau/docker-engine-with-multipass-on-macos-9d22b8ade35c)
- [Using SSH Connections in Docker Contexts](https://blog.mikesir87.io/2019/08/using-ssh-connections-in-docker-contexts/)

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