Docker Registries You Can Use For Your Private Projects With An Always Free Plan
GitLab: Fully automated build pipeline with unlimited private git repositories
If you are looking for a fully integrated Docker container registry with automated build from source code and a complete CI/CD pipeline, GitLab is the answer.
Free Plan Limits
You don't have to host you source code in GitLab to benefit from the docker container registry, but it does offer unlimited private git repository hosting and 2,000 CI pipeline minutes per group per month for free. Each project is tied to a single container repository.
Getting started
After signing up on GitLab.com, you need to create a project, then make sure that Container Registry is enabled for the project's settings (by expanding Visibility, project features, permissions in the General settings page).
You can get the docker repository url and follow docker command instructions from the Container Registry page (Packages sidebar group).
References
TreeScale: a free private Docker registry without a repository number limitation
TreeScale is a free private Docker registry service that focuses on performance, image layer resilience and comes with scalable tooling and web hooks support.
Free Plan Limits
- 1 GB Storage
Getting started
Register a new account from this page.
A new registry can be created by specifying it's name and description.
You can now use the registry url repo.treescale.com/[username]/[registry name]:[tag name] in your docker CLI commands.
You can visualize the network traffic and the pull/push count from the Registry Usage Statistics page:
References
Canister: Docker container registry for individuals and teams
Canister.io is a Docker Container Registry provider that comes with dedicated solutions for individuals and teams, an API used to manage images and teams, and an extended CLI.
Free Plan Limits
- 20 Private Docker Container repositories
- 1 Parallel Build (Public Queue)
Getting started
Sign up to the basic individual plan by visiting this page.
You can then create a new repository clicking on the Create Repo + button or any of the empty placeholders at the bottom of the page.
After submitting, you will be presented to the Repository Overview page. You will find you docker registry url inside the Docker CLI panel as an argument of the docker pull command.
You can then login from the command line using the command docker login cloud.canister.io:5000, then using your canisterID as the username with your Canister password.
References
Alternatives
Unlimited public repositories
- Docker Hub: The largest library for public container images. You are limited to a 1 free private repository.
- Red Hat Quay.io: Offers 30-day free trial for private repositories, with always free unlimited public repositories.
Fully integrated cloud solutions
- Google Container Registry: A Google Cloud integrated container registry with fine-grained access control, CI/CD integrations and vulnerability scanning. Container Registry only charges for the cloud storage and network egress, which are part of the Free tier that offer up to 5 GB-months storage and 1 GB network egress from North America per month.
- IBM Cloud Container Registry: Fully managed private registry with automated vulnerabilities detection for images. You are limited to 0.5 GB free storage and 5 GB free pull traffic per month.
- Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR): An AWS integrated Docker container registry. Includes a Free Tier of 500MB-month of storage.
- Azure Container Registry: Microsoft Azure integrated Docker private registry. Offers a 12 month free trial.
- Alibaba Container Registry: A secure image hosting platform providing containerized image lifecycle management. Can be tried for free.
Dedicated services
- Container Registry: Offers unlimited private repositories for individuals with up to 1GB of storage after deduplication and compression.
