Both run Android apps on your own Linux kernel rather than in a virtual machine, on Android’s own runtime and framework. They are built for different jobs. redroid boots a complete Android system in a privileged Docker container, usually many of them on a server, and you see each one through scrcpy. Drion has no Android system underneath: each app runs as its own sandboxed Linux process, in its own window.
A complete Android system in a privileged container, viewed from outside.
No Android system underneath. Each app is its own sandboxed Linux process.
redroid builds Android from AOSP, with its own patches, and starts its init, system services and system apps in a container. Drion keeps the parts an app talks to, the runtime and Android’s framework, and replaces everything underneath with its own services.
redroid puts one container around each Android system, and runs it privileged. Android’s own sandbox separates apps inside it. Drion puts a kernel boundary around every app and keeps its own services outside all of them.
Apps are kept apart by Android’s own user IDs and permissions, inside the container. The container has its own network.
The Linux kernel walls off each app’s processes and private files from the host, other apps and Drion’s own services. The network is shared with the host.
eba9a489, in November 2026: redroid gives you whole Android devices to run on servers and reach over the network. Drion is for running apps as part of your Linux system.
Many instances on a host, on x86_64 or arm64 servers, Kubernetes included, with the Android version of your choice from 8.1 to 16. Open source under Apache-2.0.
Each app in its own window and kernel sandbox, on your host’s audio and network, with Google Play or other app stores and no privileged container.
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