---
layout: vagrant-cloud
page_title: Discovering Vagrant Boxes
---

# Discovering Vagrant Boxes

Vagrant Cloud serves a public, searchable index of Vagrant boxes. It's easy to find
boxes you can use with Vagrant that contain the technologies you need
for a Vagrant environment.

You don't need a Vagrant Cloud account to use public boxes.

1. Go to the [Box search page](https://vagrantcloud.com/boxes/search).

1. Once you find a box, click its name to learn more about it.

1. When you're ready to use it, copy the name, such as "hashicorp/bionic64"
   and initialize your Vagrant project with `vagrant init hashicorp/bionic64`.
   Or, if you already have a Vagrant project created, modify the Vagrantfile
   to use the box: `config.vm.box = "hashicorp/bionic64"`.

## Provider Support

Not all boxes are available for all providers. You may need
to sort by a provider that you have on your local system
to narrow down your search.

## Choosing the Right Box

As with all software and configuration used from a public source,
it's important to keep in mind whose box you're using. Here
are some things to note when you're choosing a box:

- **The username of the user**. If it's `bento` or `ubuntu`, you can likely
  trust the box more than an anonymous user.
- **The number of downloads of the box**. Heavily downloaded boxes
  are likely vetted more often by other members of the community. HashiCorp
  responds to reports of malicious software distributed via Vagrant Cloud
  by disabling and/or removing boxes. If you find a box which includes
  malicious software, please report it to: [support+vagrantcloud@hashicorp.com](mailto:support+vagrantcloud@hashicorp.com).
- **The latest release date**. Boxes which are updated periodically or which
  have recent release dates will generally contain more up-to-date software.
- **Availability of the box download**. Vagrant Cloud periodically checks if a box
  which is externally hosted (hosted by the box author, not Vagrant Cloud) is publicly
  accessible. You can see this information on the box page next to the provider.
