Docker Hub vs Quay.io
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Docker Hub and Quay.io.
Quick Verdict
3.7/5
Docker Hub
0 reviews
3.7/5
Quay.io
0 reviews
Both Docker Hub and Quay.io are equally rated at 3.7/5. Docker Hub is the world's largest container image registry with 15M+ images. Free tier for public images, automated builds, and webhooks. Official images for nginx, postgres, redis, node, python, and more. Red Hat's hosted container image registry: unlimited free public repos, per-private-repository pricing from $15/month, automatic Clair v4 CVE scanning, robot accounts, teams, and exportable audit logs.
Docker Hub The world's largest container image registry | Quay.io Hosted container registry from Red Hat: free public repos, CVE scanning, per-private-repo pricing | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.7 (0 reviews) | 3.7 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Best for | Every team building containers as the source of base images and verified publisher content — with Pro seats for individual developers and CI mirrors for anything that automates at scale. | Open-source projects needing free public image hosting, and Red Hat-centric enterprises wanting managed registries with SSO, robot accounts and audit logging |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | null (CDN-fronted global distribution; facility list not published) | — |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tierapi access | free tierteam featuresssoapi access |
| Visit Docker Hub → | Visit Quay.io → | |
Docker Hub
Pros
- + The ecosystem default since 2013: 15M+ images, 16B+ monthly pulls, and 181 curated Docker Official Images
- + Real free tier (Docker Personal): unlimited public repos, 1 private repo, 200 pulls/6h authenticated
- + Pro at $9/month annual (unlimited pulls, unlimited private repos) is good value for individual developers
- + Published, specific usage limits and fair-use policy in official docs; SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 on paid tiers
- + Integrated tooling: Scout vulnerability analysis, Notary signing, Hardened Images with SBOMs and SLSA provenance
- + Team tier adds Hub RBAC, audit logs, and scoped org tokens for real collaboration
Cons
- - Pull rate limits on free tiers break CI on shared runner IPs; the fix is per-seat pricing that scales with headcount
- - 2026 price increases (Pro +80%, Team +67% over prior rates) landed on existing customers at renewal
- - No uptime SLA for Hub itself — only support response times (5/2/1 business days by tier)
- - Per-seat Team/Business pricing is expensive versus GHCR, ECR, or self-hosted Harbor at department scale
- - Free private repo capped at 1 (2 GB); autobuilds and serious security tooling are paid features
- - Real incident history: 2019 Hub database breach (~190k accounts) — supply-chain concentration risk is inherent
Quay.io
Pros
- + Unlimited free public repositories with automatic CVE scanning on every push
- + Public, predictable per-repository pricing from $15/month for 5 private repos
- + Robot accounts, team permissions, SSO and exportable audit logs aimed at compliance teams
- + Decade-plus production track record (launched 2013) with a supported upgrade path to self-managed Red Hat Quay
- + Full API, image rollback, zero-downtime garbage collection and Git build triggers
Cons
- - Per-repository billing punishes micro-repo layouts; large tiers get expensive fast
- - No published uptime SLA for the hosted service
- - Clair does not cover every language ecosystem, and remediation is entirely on the customer
- - Free tier fair-use caps (100 GB storage, 1 TB egress) are enforceable quotas
- - Overlapping product lineup (Quay.io vs Red Hat Quay vs OpenShift Platform Plus) complicates buying
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