What are the Docker Hub Alternatives ?

Docker Hub, the most widely used Docker container registry, allows you to link with code repositories and build your images. It also stores manually pushed images and links to Docker Cloud so that you can upload images to your hosts. In addition, it allows you to manage and deliver container applications for your teams The main features of Container Hub’s paid version are:

• Highly available, fully managed hosting: ACR hosts your repo and manages it for you.
• Private and Public repos: With the paid plan, you can have both public and private repos.
• Parallel Buildings: Multiple teams can simultaneously build projects.
• Security features:The Docker Hub provides essential security features like vulnerability scanning, encryption, and TLS.

Alternatives to Docker Hub include Source Code Hosting Services, but they may also include Version Control Systems and Project Management Tools if you are looking for a specific functionality or a smaller list of alternatives, filter by these.

Top 6 Alternatives & Competitors to Docker Hub:

1.  Amazon Elastic Container Registry

Amazon elastic container registry (ECR), a fully managed container registry for docker containers, makes it easy to store and share container images. Amazon elastic container registry – fully managed container registry – amazon web services. Currently, the main features offered by Amazon ECR are:

• Highly available, fully managed hosting: ECR hosts your repo and manages it for you.
• AWS MarketplaceECR can store containers as well as those purchased from AWS Marketplace
• CI/CD Integrations: So you can fully automate all your pipelines
• Automatic features:ECR offers automated builds and triggers, as well as automatic deployments.
• ECS Integration: Integration with the Amazon ECS so that you can run your containers directly in production
• Security features:ECR provides important security features like vulnerability scanning, encryption, and TLS.
• OCI Compatible: Compatible with Docker and OCI compatible images

ECR’s integration with Amazon Elastic Container Services (ECS) is one of its most striking features. It allows you to run your containers directly in production, thereby simplifying and speeding up your workflow.

2. Artifactory Docker Registry

Artifactory Docker Registry provides secure access to Docker images and remote Docker container registry with integration to create ecosystems. You can create unlimited Docker registries using remote, local, and virtual Docker repositories. It works transparently with the Docker client and manages Docker images that have been created internally or downloaded remotely from Docker resources like Docker Hub.

Local repositories allow you to host and deploy internal Docker images that can be shared between organizations. Remote repositories serve as a caching proxy, and a registry managed at a remote URL, such as https://registry-1.docker.io (which is the Docker Hub), where Docker images are cached on demand. Virtual repositories that are artifactory-defined aggregate images from remote and local repositories. This allows access to remote images as well as images hosted on local Docker repositories. Remote images are proxied from one URL by a remote Docker repository.

Artifactory supports the promotion of Docker images from one Artifactory Docker repository to another. Artifactory supports all relevant calls to the Docker Registry API, so it can transparently access the Docker client to view images through Artifactory.

3. Azure Container Registry

Azure Container Registry (ACR), another fully-managed Docker container registry, allows you to create, store, secure, scan, replicate and manage container images. ACR is recommended for Azure service users. The main features of Azure ACR currently include:

• ACR hosts your repo and manages it for you.
• Geo-replication is a way to efficiently manage multiple registry locations from one location.
• Automated Features: ACR provides automated builds, patches, task scheduling, build triggers, and automatic deployments.
• Multi-format: Supports Helm charts and Singularity support.
• Integrated security: integration with Azure Active Directory (AzureAD) authentication, role-based control, Docker Content Trust, and virtual network integration
• Multi-environments: ACR can connect across multiple environments, including Azure Kubernetes Service or Azure Red Hat OpenShift
• Integrations CI/CD: So you can automate all your pipelines
• OCI-Compatible: Compatibility with Docker and OCI compatible images

Geo-replication is one of ACR’s main features. It allows you to create a registry that can serve users, and hosts, sync artifacts, and receive notifications via webhooks.

4. GitHub Container Registry

The GitHub Container Registry remains in beta as of today. It seems to be a great choice for organizations that use GitHub to collaborate on code sources. Both public and private repositories are supported by the GitHub Container Registry. Anyone with access to GitHub can easily access the GitHub Container Registry. All you have to do is create a personal token. This is all you need in order to authenticate for the container registry. A seamless experience for developers.

The GitHub Container Registry is compatible with GitHub Actions. Accessing the container registry via GitHub Actions is free of data transfer fees. GitHub Container Registry also provides public repositories. Anyone who wishes to download your container images must authenticate with a GitHub account. Docker Hub also allows for unauthenticated access.

To distribute container images within a group of software developers or in an organization, we recommend the GitHub Container Registry. Integration with GitHub Container Registry may also be a benefit if you use GitHub Actions to CI/CD.

5. Google Container Registry

Google Container Registry (GCR) offers a fully managed image registry that allows you to push/pull images. GCR currently has the following features:

• Highly available, fully managed hosting: GCR hosts your repo and manages it for you.
• Automated Features: GRC provides automated builds, triggers, and deployments.
• You can automate all your pipelines with extensive CI/CD integrations
• Google Cloud Integration: GCR provides integrated integration with the Google Cloud
• Google Kubernetes Engine integration: GRC offers Google Kubernetes Engine integration. To push and pull images, it uses the service account that is configured on cluster nodes’ VM instances.
• Security features The GCR provides important security features like vulnerability scanning, encryption, and TLS.
• OCI Compatible: Compatible with Docker and OCI compatible images

GCR is an excellent integration for Google Cloud users, including integrations to Google Kubernetes Engine or Compute Engine.

6. Quay

Red Hat offers Quay, which allows you to store containers in both private and public repos. Quay will enable you to automate container builds and integrates with GitHub, among others. In addition, Quay provides automated scanners for vulnerabilities and other tools.

Quay currently has the following main features:

• Private and Public repos: with Quay, you can have private repos and public repos so that you can share your images with the rest of the world.
• High availability, geo-replication, and redundancy: Quay offers geographical replication to allow multiple Red Hat Quay instances across different regions and to synchronize between data centers.
• Robot accounts – Create credentials for automatically deploying software.
• Security features such as authentication, SSL, and others.
• Auditing and logging: Auditing is crucial for every step of your CI pipeline. All actions via API or UI can be tracked.
• CI/CD Integrations: so you can fully automate all your pipelines.
• Granular Management: Full control over who has access to your containers, tracks changes, and scans for vulnerabilities.
• Private and public clouds: Quay can be accessed on either its cloud or on-premises version (see below).
• Security features Quay provides essential security features like vulnerability scanning, encryption, and TLS.
• Automatic features ECR offers automated builds and triggers and automatic deployments.

Final Thoughts

When searching for a container registry, the most important requirements are: fully managed, private repositories, and CI/CD integrations. This will allow you to automate your workflow.

In this post, we have reviewed six alternatives for Docker Hub. The features of all the options are almost identical, so it is a good rule to choose the one that’s most convenient for you and your team. There is no single solution. You can choose the container registry that best suits your specific needs. It’s not difficult to use multiple container registries. Amazon ECR is a great choice for container-based workloads that run on AWS. Docker Hub remains the best option for publicly distributing software. The GitHub Container Registry allows you to store your source code in a container registry. This will allow you to store your build artifacts. Quay is a good option if you are on a private cloud