Harbor vs Quay
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted developer tools & git options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Harbor
Cloud-native container registry with security
VS
Quay
Enterprise-grade container image registry
| Feature | Harbor | Quay |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 98 · Excellent | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | Developer Tools & Git | Developer Tools & Git |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | docker, kubernetes |
| GitHub stars | ★ 29,444 | ★ 2,824 |
| First released | 2016 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Docker Hub, Artifactory | Docker Hub, Harbor |
What are Harbor and Quay?
Harbor
Harbor is an open-source container registry that secures artifacts with policies, role-based access control, vulnerability scanning, and image signing. It is a CNCF graduated project.
- Private container registry
- Vulnerability scanning
- Image replication
- Role-based access control
Quay
Project Quay is an open-source container image registry that stores, scans, and serves container images and artifacts. It includes vulnerability scanning, geo-replication, and fine-grained access control.
- Container image hosting
- Built-in vulnerability scanning
- Geo-replication
- Robot accounts and ACLs
Harbor vs Quay: key differences
Harbor is written in Go, while Quay is built with Python. Harbor is the more established project (first released 2016), while Quay arrived in 2019. Harbor has the considerably larger community, at 29,444 GitHub stars versus 2,824.
Why pick each one
Choose Harbor if…
- Built-in vulnerability scanning
- Fine-grained RBAC
- CNCF graduated project
Watch out for
- Many moving components
- Notable resource usage
Choose Quay if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Active community (2.8k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is Harbor or Quay better?
Harbor is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Quay if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Harbor and Quay free and open-source?
Yes. Harbor is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Quay under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Harbor and Quay with Docker?
Harbor: yes. Quay: yes.