diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/heat_launcher_podman-80870701fe4d99a5.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/heat_launcher_podman-80870701fe4d99a5.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..131ffe08d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/heat_launcher_podman-80870701fe4d99a5.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+features:
+  - |
+    Switch the Heat Launcher to use Podman instead of Docker when
+    heat_native is disabled.
diff --git a/tripleoclient/heat_launcher.py b/tripleoclient/heat_launcher.py
index a16f37412..97c2203e0 100644
--- a/tripleoclient/heat_launcher.py
+++ b/tripleoclient/heat_launcher.py
@@ -230,15 +230,15 @@ limit_iterators=9000
             temp_file.write(ks_token)
 
 
-class HeatDockerLauncher(HeatBaseLauncher):
+class HeatContainerLauncher(HeatBaseLauncher):
 
     def __init__(self, api_port, container_image, user='heat'):
-        super(HeatDockerLauncher, self).__init__(api_port, container_image,
-                                                 user)
+        super(HeatContainerLauncher, self).__init__(api_port, container_image,
+                                                    user)
 
     def launch_heat(self):
         cmd = [
-            'docker', 'run',
+            'podman', 'run',
             '--name', 'heat_all',
             '--user', self.user,
             '--net', 'host',
@@ -263,7 +263,7 @@ class HeatDockerLauncher(HeatBaseLauncher):
     def heat_db_sync(self):
 
         cmd = [
-            'docker', 'run', '--rm',
+            'podman', 'run', '--rm',
             '--user', self.user,
             '--volume', '%(conf)s:/etc/heat/heat.conf:Z' % {'conf':
                                                             self.config_file},
@@ -276,7 +276,7 @@ class HeatDockerLauncher(HeatBaseLauncher):
 
     def get_heat_uid(self):
         cmd = [
-            'docker', 'run', '--rm',
+            'podman', 'run', '--rm',
             self.container_image,
             'getent', 'passwd', self.user
         ]
@@ -290,7 +290,7 @@ class HeatDockerLauncher(HeatBaseLauncher):
 
     def get_heat_gid(self):
         cmd = [
-            'docker', 'run', '--rm',
+            'podman', 'run', '--rm',
             self.container_image,
             'getent', 'group', self.user
         ]
@@ -303,7 +303,7 @@ class HeatDockerLauncher(HeatBaseLauncher):
         raise Exception('Could not find heat gid')
 
     def kill_heat(self, pid):
-        cmd = ['docker', 'rm', '-f', 'heat_all']
+        cmd = ['podman', 'rm', '-f', 'heat_all']
         log.debug(' '.join(cmd))
         # We don't want to hear from this command..
         subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
diff --git a/tripleoclient/v1/tripleo_deploy.py b/tripleoclient/v1/tripleo_deploy.py
index 22afe7f79..af1957d95 100644
--- a/tripleoclient/v1/tripleo_deploy.py
+++ b/tripleoclient/v1/tripleo_deploy.py
@@ -470,7 +470,7 @@ class Deploy(command.Command):
         # we do this as root to chown config files properly for docker, etc.
         if parsed_args.heat_native is not None and \
                 parsed_args.heat_native.lower() == "false":
-            self.heat_launch = heat_launcher.HeatDockerLauncher(
+            self.heat_launch = heat_launcher.HeatContainerLauncher(
                 parsed_args.heat_api_port,
                 parsed_args.heat_container_image,
                 parsed_args.heat_user)