Container Internals Lab vs StackRox: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
Container Internals Lab is a free container security tool. StackRox is a commercial container security tool by StackRox. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best container security fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, company size fit, deployment model, here is our conclusion:
Security engineers who need to understand how containers actually work before deploying detection tools should start with Container Internals Lab. The structured labs walk you through Linux namespaces, cgroups, and syscall behavior hands-on, which directly translates to writing better runtime policies and knowing what your scanner should catch. Skip this if your team has no appetite for learning; it's educational material, not a scanning or enforcement product, and the 62 GitHub stars signal a niche audience that values depth over market adoption.
Mid-market and enterprise teams managing Kubernetes at scale should pick StackRox for its runtime enforcement capabilities, which actually stop attacks in progress rather than just flagging them. The platform covers critical NIST Detect and Respond functions (DE.CM, DE.AE, RS.AN) through continuous monitoring and incident analysis, and its hybrid deployment model means you can run it on-premises or in the cloud without rearchitecting. Skip this if you need a lightweight, agentless CNAPP or if your infrastructure is primarily serverless; StackRox demands Kubernetes maturity to justify its overhead.
