Docker Hub vs Harbor

Overview

Docker Hub

Stacks224

Followers262

Votes7

Harbor

Stacks183

Followers185

Votes11

GitHub Stars26.8K

Forks5.0K

Docker Hub vs Harbor: What are the differences?

Introduction: Docker Hub and Harbor are both container registries that allow users to store, share, and distribute Docker images. However, there are several key differences between the two platforms that are worth noting.

Control and Security: One of the primary differences between Docker Hub and Harbor lies in the level of control and security they offer. Docker Hub is a public registry where anyone can upload and access images, while Harbor is a private registry that provides granular access control, allowing organizations to define user roles, permissions, and access policies.
Image Vulnerability Scanning: Another notable difference is the built-in image vulnerability scanning feature offered by Harbor. Harbor integrates with vulnerability scanning tools like Clair and enables users to automatically scan Docker images for security vulnerabilities. Docker Hub, on the other hand, does not provide this feature natively, although it can be integrated with external scanning tools.
Replication and Synchronization: Harbor supports image replication and synchronization across multiple instances, making it suitable for organizations that require distributed deployments. This ensures that images are available across different Harbor instances, even in different geographical locations. Docker Hub, however, does not have native support for image replication and synchronization.
Extensibility and Customization: Harbor offers greater extensibility and customization options compared to Docker Hub. With Harbor, users can customize the user interface, set up webhook notifications, and enforce image signature verification. Docker Hub, while providing certain customization options, has more limitations in terms of flexibility.
High Availability and Scalability: Harbor provides high availability and scalability options for enterprise deployments. It supports clustering and can be set up with multiple instances to ensure redundancy and availability. Docker Hub, on the other hand, does not offer built-in high availability features, which can be a limitation for organizations with high traffic and availability requirements.
Deployment Options: Docker Hub is a cloud-based service hosted by Docker, while Harbor can be deployed either on-premises or in the cloud. This gives organizations the flexibility to choose the deployment option that best suits their needs and compliance requirements.

In summary, the key differences between Docker Hub and Harbor include control and security, image vulnerability scanning, replication and synchronization capabilities, extensibility and customization options, high availability and scalability features, and deployment options.

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Detailed Comparison

Docker Hub	Harbor
It is the world's easiest way to create, manage, and deliver your teams' container applications. It is the perfect home for your teams' applications.	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
-	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 224	Stacks 183
Followers 262	Followers 185
Votes 7	Votes 11
Pros & Cons
Pros 2 Uses a very familiar collaboration model as GitHub, the 1 Quickly creates organizations, add users or create grou 1 Allows users to set permissions to restrict access or s 1 Fairly inexpensive with usage based pricing 1 Security scanning available Cons 1 Lacks fine grain access control 1 Lacks LDAP, SAML and OAuth support 1 Does not provide any insight into the registry usage	Pros 4 Good on-premises container registry 1 Supports OIDC 1 Perfect for Teams and Organizations 1 Supports LDAP/Active Directory 1 Vulnerability Scanner
Integrations
No integrations available	Docker Kubernetes Helm

What are some alternatives to Docker Hub, 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.

Related Comparisons

Docker Hub vs Harbor: What are the differences?

Control and Security: One of the primary differences between Docker Hub and Harbor lies in the level of control and security they offer. Docker Hub is a public registry where anyone can upload and access images, while Harbor is a private registry that provides granular access control, allowing organizations to define user roles, permissions, and access policies.
Image Vulnerability Scanning: Another notable difference is the built-in image vulnerability scanning feature offered by Harbor. Harbor integrates with vulnerability scanning tools like Clair and enables users to automatically scan Docker images for security vulnerabilities. Docker Hub, on the other hand, does not provide this feature natively, although it can be integrated with external scanning tools.
Replication and Synchronization: Harbor supports image replication and synchronization across multiple instances, making it suitable for organizations that require distributed deployments. This ensures that images are available across different Harbor instances, even in different geographical locations. Docker Hub, however, does not have native support for image replication and synchronization.
Extensibility and Customization: Harbor offers greater extensibility and customization options compared to Docker Hub. With Harbor, users can customize the user interface, set up webhook notifications, and enforce image signature verification. Docker Hub, while providing certain customization options, has more limitations in terms of flexibility.
High Availability and Scalability: Harbor provides high availability and scalability options for enterprise deployments. It supports clustering and can be set up with multiple instances to ensure redundancy and availability. Docker Hub, on the other hand, does not offer built-in high availability features, which can be a limitation for organizations with high traffic and availability requirements.
Deployment Options: Docker Hub is a cloud-based service hosted by Docker, while Harbor can be deployed either on-premises or in the cloud. This gives organizations the flexibility to choose the deployment option that best suits their needs and compliance requirements.

Docker Hub vs Harbor

Overview