Overview

Quay.io

Stacks64

Followers86

Votes7

Harbor

Stacks175

Followers185

Votes11

GitHub Stars26.8K

Forks5.0K

Harbor vs Quay.io: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Here is a comparison between Harbor and Quay.io, two popular container image registries used in the field of software development.

Integration of Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) Projects: Harbor provides native integration and support for CNCF projects, including Kubernetes, Prometheus, and Notary, making it easy to use these technologies in combination with Harbor. On the other hand, Quay.io doesn't have this native integration and relies on third-party tools or custom configurations to achieve similar functionality.
Enterprise-Grade Features: Harbor offers enterprise-grade features like fine-grained access controls, vulnerability scanning, image replication, and automated image signing and notary support. These features are designed to meet the needs of large organizations and ensure the security and reliability of container images. Quay.io, while being a reliable registry, may lack some of these enterprise-grade features out-of-the-box.
Support for Multiple Cloud and Container Platforms: Harbor supports multiple popular cloud and container platforms, including Kubernetes, Docker, OpenShift, and more. It provides a consistent experience across different platforms and can be easily integrated into existing infrastructure. Quay.io, on the other hand, primarily focuses on container platforms and may not have the same level of flexibility and compatibility with different cloud platforms.
Self-Hosted or Managed Service Options: Harbor provides both self-hosted and managed service options, allowing organizations to choose the deployment model that best suits their needs. It can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud, or as a hybrid solution. Quay.io, on the other hand, is primarily a managed service offered by Red Hat, and organizations may have limited control over the deployment and customization of the registry.
Scalability and High Availability: Harbor is designed to be highly scalable and can handle large-scale deployments with high availability requirements. It supports multi-master and multi-replica setups, allowing organizations to distribute the load and ensure uninterrupted access to container images. Quay.io, while being scalable, may have limitations in terms of scalability and high availability compared to Harbor.
Open Source vs. Proprietary: Harbor is an open-source project, which means it can be freely used, modified, and distributed by the community. This gives organizations the flexibility to customize and extend the functionality of the registry as per their requirements. Quay.io, being a managed service, is a proprietary solution offered by Red Hat, and may have limitations in terms of customization and extensibility.

In summary, Harbor offers native integration with CNCF projects, enterprise-grade features, support for multiple cloud and container platforms, self-hosted or managed service options, scalability, and high availability. On the other hand, Quay.io may lack some of these features out-of-the-box and is a proprietary solution.

Advice on Quay.io, Harbor

Vadim

Nov 3, 2020

Review

Hello Container people, If you are thinking about self-hosting a container registry. Harbor has some outstanding options that sets it apart from all the other registries specially for teams! I created a post to highlight two ways on how to overcome the Docker Hub pull rate limit and improve security and governance.

9.79k views9.79k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Quay.io	Harbor
Simply upload your Dockerfile (and any additional files it needs) and we'll build your Dockerfile into an image and push it to your repository.	Harbor is an open source cloud native registry that stores, signs, and scans container images for vulnerabilities. Harbor solves common challenges by delivering trust, compliance, performance, and interoperability. It fills a gap for organ
Secure - Your data is transferred using SSL at all times and encrypted when at rest. More information available in our security guide;Shareable - Have to share a repository? No problem! Share with anyone you choose;Cloud Hosted - Accessible from anywhere, anytime	Multi-tenant content signing and validation;Image replication between instances;Extensible API and graphical UI;Security and vulnerability analysis;Identity integration and role-based access control;Internationalization
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 26.8K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 5.0K
Stacks 64	Stacks 175
Followers 86	Followers 185
Votes 7	Votes 11
Pros & Cons
Pros 6 Great UI 1 API 0 Docker cloud repositories are public by default. Bad	Pros 4 Good on-premises container registry 1 Supports OIDC 1 Perfect for Teams and Organizations 1 Vulnerability Scanner 1 Nice UI
Integrations
Docker	Docker Kubernetes Helm

What are some alternatives to Quay.io, Harbor?

Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.

Rancher

Rancher is an open source container management platform that includes full distributions of Kubernetes, Apache Mesos and Docker Swarm, and makes it simple to operate container clusters on any cloud or infrastructure platform.

Docker Compose

With Compose, you define a multi-container application in a single file, then spin your application up in a single command which does everything that needs to be done to get it running.

Docker Swarm

Swarm serves the standard Docker API, so any tool which already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to transparently scale to multiple hosts: Dokku, Compose, Krane, Deis, DockerUI, Shipyard, Drone, Jenkins... and, of course, the Docker client itself.

Tutum

Tutum lets developers easily manage and run lightweight, portable, self-sufficient containers from any application. AWS-like control, Heroku-like ease. The same container that a developer builds and tests on a laptop can run at scale in Tutum.

Portainer

It is a universal container management tool. It works with Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Swarm and Azure ACI. It allows you to manage containers without needing to know platform-specific code.

Codefresh

Automate and parallelize testing. Codefresh allows teams to spin up on-demand compositions to run unit and integration tests as part of the continuous integration process. Jenkins integration allows more complex pipelines.

CAST.AI

It is an AI-driven cloud optimization platform for Kubernetes. Instantly cut your cloud bill, prevent downtime, and 10X the power of DevOps.

k3s

Certified Kubernetes distribution designed for production workloads in unattended, resource-constrained, remote locations or inside IoT appliances. Supports something as small as a Raspberry Pi or as large as an AWS a1.4xlarge 32GiB server.

Flocker

Flocker is a data volume manager and multi-host Docker cluster management tool. With it you can control your data using the same tools you use for your stateless applications. This means that you can run your databases, queues and key-value stores in Docker and move them around as easily as the rest of your app.