GitHub Container Registry vs Quay.io
A detailed comparison to help you choose between GitHub Container Registry and Quay.io.
Quick Verdict
4.1/5
GitHub Container Registry
0 reviews
3.7/5
Quay.io
0 reviews
GitHub Container Registry is rated higher (4.1 vs 3.7). GitHub Container Registry (ghcr.io) stores Docker images alongside your GitHub repositories. Free for public images, included in GitHub plans for private. Integrates with GitHub Actions for CI/CD. 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.
GitHub Container Registry Container registry integrated with GitHub Actions | Quay.io Hosted container registry from Red Hat: free public repos, CVE scanning, per-private-repo pricing | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.1 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.7 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Best for | Open-source maintainers distributing public images and GitHub-centric teams that want container images, code, CI, and permissions under one account. | 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 | ||
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tierapi access | free tierteam featuresssoapi access |
| Visit GitHub Container Registry → | Visit Quay.io → | |
GitHub Container Registry
Pros
- + Free storage and bandwidth for public images with anonymous pulls — strongest OSS distribution offer
- + Images live with the code: one account, one permission model, GITHUB_TOKEN in Actions
- + OCI-compliant (Docker V2 manifests, foreign layers), internal visibility and fine-grained package permissions
- + Container image storage currently free even for private images, with a one-month notice policy before changes
- + Spending limits available to cap overage; metered billing beyond plan quotas
Cons
- - Private plan quotas are small (500 MB on Free) and shared with GitHub Actions artifacts
- - Free private container storage is a policy, not a contract — changeable with one month's notice
- - No published SLA or regional placement for ghcr.io
- - Retention and promotion tooling lag purpose-built registries like Harbor or Artifactory
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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