Best alternatives to Bor in 2026

Managing settings across a fleet of company Linux laptops — which browser extensions are allowed, what the default search engine is, which security settings are locked down — is normally either done by hand on every machine or requires expensive enterprise device-management software built mainly for Windows and Mac. Bor is built specifically for Linux fleets: IT teams define a policy once on a central server, and it gets pushed out and enforced in real time on every enrolled machine, similar in spirit to what Group Policy does for Windows or Jamf does for Mac, but for Linux desktops. Technically, Bor runs as a single server binary backed by PostgreSQL, with lightweight agents on each managed machine communicating over gRPC with delta sync, so only changed policy data gets transmitted rather than the full configuration every time. Communication is secured with mutual TLS and an auto-generated certificate authority. It supports policy types for Firefox, Chrome, KDE/KConfig, dconf, and polkit, integrates with LDAP/Active Directory using Kerberos and WebAuthn for authentication, offers zero-touch enrollment for domain-joined machines, and keeps tamper-evident audit logs for compliance tracking. It's open source and self-hosted, with no managed cloud option or published pricing — you run and maintain it yourself.