What is Firecracker used for?

Firecracker is an open-source virtual machine monitor that runs workloads in lightweight microVMs for secure, multi-tenant serverless infrastructure. It is a good fit for sandboxing untrusted code or functions, building a serverless platform on your own hardware and multi-tenant container hosting with strong isolation.

Is Firecracker open source?

Yes. Firecracker is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at firecracker-microvm/firecracker and is written mainly in Rust.

Yes. Firecracker is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Firecracker?

Yes. Firecracker can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is Firecracker an alternative to?

Firecracker is an open-source alternative to Google Compute Engine. Other open-source alternatives to Google Compute Engine include QEMU, Incus and LXD.

Is Firecracker actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Firecracker was on 15 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.17.0, published on 10 September 2026. The project has 37k stars on GitHub.

Firecracker: open-source infrastructure & containers

About Firecracker

Firecracker is virtualization technology for running secure, multi-tenant container and function-based services. It runs each workload in a lightweight virtual machine, called a microVM, which pairs the isolation of hardware virtualization with the startup speed and flexibility usually associated with containers. It was developed at Amazon Web Services and is released under the Apache-2.0 license.

The core component is a virtual machine monitor, written in Rust, that relies on KVM, the Linux kernel's virtualization layer, to launch and run microVMs. Its minimalist design leaves out unneeded devices and guest-facing functionality, which reduces memory footprint and attack surface and shortens boot time. Firecracker has been used inside container runtimes such as Kata Containers and Flintlock, and it can be built from source in a Docker-based development container or installed from release binaries.

Key features

Lightweight microVMs built on Linux KVM
Minimal device model to cut attack surface
Fast startup for serverless workloads
Hardware-level isolation for multi-tenant use
Integrates with Kata Containers and Flintlock
Written in Rust with release binaries

Good fit for

Sandboxing untrusted code or functions
Building a serverless platform on your own hardware
Multi-tenant container hosting with strong isolation

Built with: Rust tools
Tags: microvm; virtualization; serverless; kvm; sandbox; rust; containers; aws

Firecracker: questions and answers

What is Firecracker used for?: Firecracker is an open-source virtual machine monitor that runs workloads in lightweight microVMs for secure, multi-tenant serverless infrastructure. It is a good fit for sandboxing untrusted code or functions, building a serverless platform on your own hardware and multi-tenant container hosting with strong isolation.
Is Firecracker open source?: Yes. Firecracker is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at firecracker-microvm/firecracker and is written mainly in Rust.
Is Firecracker free?: Yes. Firecracker is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Firecracker?: Yes. Firecracker can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Firecracker an alternative to?: Firecracker is an open-source alternative to Google Compute Engine. Other open-source alternatives to Google Compute Engine include QEMU, Incus and LXD.
Is Firecracker actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Firecracker was on 15 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.17.0, published on 10 September 2026. The project has 37k stars on GitHub.