Painless Docker - 2nd Edition

Types of Registries

Docker registries can be broadly categorized into two types:

• Public Registries: These are open to everyone and host a wide variety of images. The most well-known public registry is Docker Hub, which provides a vast collection of official and community-contributed images. There are also other public registries maintained by different organizations, such as Quay.io.

• Private Registries: These are restricted to specific users or organizations. They allow for greater control over who can access the images. They're suitable for proprietary or sensitive applications. Examples include self-hosted solutions like Harbor, JFrog Artifactory, and cloud-based services like Amazon ECR, Google Container Registry, and Azure Container Registry.

This classification is based on access control and intended use cases. However, we can also categorize registries based on their hosting model:

• Self-Hosted Registries: These are set up and managed by the organization itself. They provide full control over the registry environment, security policies, and data management. Examples typically include open-source solutions like Harbor and Docker Registry (also known as Docker Distribution or Distribution). They require more effort to set up and maintain, but offer greater customization and control.