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Flatpak vs Snap

A side-by-side feature comparison.

Summary

Flatpak and Snap are the two cross-distribution Linux app formats. Flatpak is a community standard centered on Flathub; Snap is Canonical-driven and tightly integrated with Ubuntu. Both wrap apps in sandboxed runtimes for safer installation across distributions.

Bottom line: Flatpak for desktop apps and broad community support. Snap for server CLIs and Ubuntu-first deployments.

Feature comparison

Feature Flatpak bundle Snap (Ubuntu package)
Sponsor Community / Red Hat / GNOME Canonical
Backend OSTree SquashFS images
Sandbox Bubblewrap + portals AppArmor + cgroups
App store Flathub Snap Store
Auto-update Optional Forced
Best for GUI apps CLIs, daemons, IoT images

About Flatpak bundle

Flatpak is a Linux app distribution system based on OSTree, a Git-like content-addressed object store. .flatpak bundles are single-file exports of an OSTree commit and are typically distributed via Flathub and installed into per-user sandboxes with portal-mediated access to host resources.

Read the full Flatpak bundle guide →

About Snap (Ubuntu package)

A .snap file is a SquashFS image containing an entire confined application bundle plus its dependencies and a meta/snap.yaml manifest. Snaps are mounted read-only at install time and run inside an AppArmor confinement. They are slow to start compared to native packages but make distribution-independent deployment possible.

Read the full Snap (Ubuntu package) guide →

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