Docker Desktop Has a Paid Tier — Here's How WSL2 Can Replace It on Windows

Since 2021, Docker Desktop has required a paid subscription for use at companies above a certain size, prompting many developers to seek free alternatives. The core Docker engine, dockerd, is licensed under Apache 2.0 and runs freely inside WSL2 — it is only the Desktop GUI wrapper that carries the commercial restriction. A tool called Skrog aims to bridge the gap by exposing the engine's API over the named pipe that Windows Docker clients already expect, keeping Compose, Testcontainers, and Dev Containers fully functional. Skrog also addresses common WSL2 pain points such as the VM shutting down on sleep or idle, using a supervisor process that auto-restarts the engine at logon. Microsoft's own wslc runtime, shipping in WSL 2.9.3 and later, runs a genuine Moby engine but exposes no network endpoint, meaning Skrog can optionally serve as the missing API layer even for that runtime.