A Managed Bottle is a bottle that is available for use by all users on a system. These bottles are stored in the /Library/Application Support/CrossOver/ folder and can be copied or deleted but not modified. A Private Bottle, by contrast, is a bottle which is stored in a single user's home and can be accessed only by that user.

The process of copying a private bottle to a managed bottle is called "publishing".

Any user may run the applications in a Managed bottle. All files that are created or changed during use are stored in that user's home folder and do not affect other users on the system.

For example, if a user wants to install Internet Explorer and then provide it for use by other family members, he or she would install Internet Explorer into a private bottle, and then publish that bottle. Subsequently, other users can run CrossOver and launch Internet Explorer without engaging the bottle manager or installing anything.