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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Container Registry
  4. Helm Charts
  5. Harbor vs Helm

Harbor vs Helm

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Helm
Helm
Stacks1.4K
Followers911
Votes18
Harbor
Harbor
Stacks183
Followers185
Votes11
GitHub Stars26.8K
Forks5.0K

Harbor vs Helm: What are the differences?

Harbor and Helm are two popular open-source solutions used in the world of containerization. Harbor is a container image registry while Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes.
  1. Integration with Container Registry: The key difference between Harbor and Helm lies in their primary function. Harbor acts as a container image registry, allowing users to store and manage their container images. On the other hand, Helm is a package manager that provides a way to define, install, and manage applications running on Kubernetes clusters.

  2. Dependency Management: Another significant difference is that Harbor does not have dependency management capabilities. It focuses solely on the storage and distribution of container images. In contrast, Helm excels in managing complex deployments, including handling dependencies between different Kubernetes resources, making it a powerful tool for application packaging and deployment.

  3. Image Scanning and Security: Harbor puts a strong emphasis on security by providing vulnerability scanning and image signing features. It allows users to scan images for vulnerabilities and enforce security policies, ensuring that only trusted and secure images are used in production environments. Helm, on the other hand, does not offer built-in image scanning capabilities but can leverage external tools or plugins to perform similar security checks.

  4. Version Control: Harbor has extensive version control capabilities, allowing users to manage different versions of container images and roll back to previous versions if needed. This is particularly useful when there is a need to track changes or revert to a known working state. In contrast, Helm primarily focuses on versioning and managing Kubernetes resources rather than container images.

  5. User Management and Access Control: Harbor provides robust user management and access control features, allowing organizations to define roles, permissions, and authentication methods. This ensures that only authorized users can access and modify container images. Helm, on the other hand, does not have built-in user management and relies on Kubernetes RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) for authentication and authorization.

  6. Community Support and Adoption: Both Harbor and Helm have a thriving community and are widely adopted in the container ecosystem. However, Helm has gained more popularity and has a larger user base due to its convenience in managing complex deployments and its extensive support for Kubernetes resources.

In Summary, Harbor is a container image registry that focuses on image storage, security, and version control, while Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes that excels in managing application deployments, including dependency handling and versioning.

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Detailed Comparison

Helm
Helm
Harbor
Harbor

Helm is the best way to find, share, and use software built for Kubernetes.

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
1.4K
Stacks
183
Followers
911
Followers
185
Votes
18
Votes
11
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 8
    Infrastructure as code
  • 6
    Open source
  • 2
    Easy setup
  • 1
    Testa­bil­i­ty and re­pro­ducibil­i­ty
  • 1
    Support
Pros
  • 4
    Good on-premises container registry
  • 1
    Vulnerability Scanner
  • 1
    Nice UI
  • 1
    Perfect for Teams and Organizations
  • 1
    Container Replication
Integrations
Docker
Docker
Kubernetes
Kubernetes
Docker
Docker
Kubernetes
Kubernetes

What are some alternatives to Helm, Harbor?

Kubernetes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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