8gears Container Registry

8gears Container Registry is an enterprise distribution of Harbor for storing and managing container images and OCI artifacts. It supports project organization, replication, proxying, quotas, and retention policies. Identity options include OIDC, LDAP, SAML 2.0, group synchronization, fine-grained RBAC, and workload identity federation. Security features listed include Trivy vulnerability scanning, content trust and signing, SSL/TLS encryption, and encrypted storage at rest. Teams can use organization-wide vulnerability overviews, SBOM, audit trails, and image policies for supply-chain visibility. Terraform, Pulumi, the REST API, and Kubernetes CRDs can automate registry operations. Deployment options include hosted SaaS, managed service on a customer's cloud, and Kubernetes self-hosting, including on-premise or air-gapped environments. Managed customer-cloud options list AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, Exoscale, and StackIT. The free Individuals plan is free and includes 1 GB storage with unlimited private repositories. Dedicated is billed monthly, with price not displayed, and includes 1000 GB storage and a 14-day free trial; Enterprise pricing is custom.

8gears offers registry management with multiple identity, automation, and deployment options. The free plan has limited storage, while paid-plan prices are custom or undisplayed.

It may suit enterprises, cloud providers, software vendors, and teams managing multi-cloud, hybrid, IoT, or edge environments. The range of deployment choices also serves organizations needing self-hosted or air-gapped Kubernetes installations.

8gears Container Registry is a production-oriented Harbor distribution for storing and governing container images and OCI artifacts. It is aimed at enterprises, platform teams, cloud providers, and software vendors that need identity controls, supply-chain oversight, and flexible deployment. It is a strong fit when registry governance matters as much as image storage, but the small free allowance and custom-priced paid options require careful planning.

Overview

8gears packages Harbor as a hardened enterprise service, maintained by Harbor project contributors. Organizations can run it as hosted SaaS, on their own cloud, or on Kubernetes in on-premise and air-gapped environments. Managed deployments can include automated backups, upgrades, patching, and 24/7 monitoring, with a stated 99.99% availability track record. Level 3 engineering support is offered Monday through Friday, 9–17 CET, by email, chat, and video conferencing.

The deployment range is a practical advantage for hybrid and multi-cloud estates. Customer-cloud options include AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, Exoscale, and StackIT, while self-hosting preserves control for regulated or disconnected environments. Teams that only need a small, inexpensive image repository may find this operational breadth unnecessary.

Key features

Project organization, proxying, quotas, retention policies, and replication cover the routine work of controlling artifact flow and storage growth. Multi-region replication is useful for distributed operations, while OCI artifact support extends the registry beyond container images. Immutable tags help prevent published versions from being silently replaced.

Access management is unusually comprehensive: OIDC, LDAP, SAML 2.0, group synchronization, fine-grained role-based access control, and workload identity federation can align registry permissions with enterprise directories and workloads. Trivy vulnerability scanning, content trust and signing, SSL/TLS encryption, and encrypted storage at rest address both image risk and registry protection.

Security teams get organization-wide vulnerability views, software bills of materials, image policies, and audit trails that can be sent to enterprise systems. Platform teams can automate through Terraform, Pulumi, the REST API, and Kubernetes CRDs. Enterprise audit-log shipping and message-queue integrations extend exports to Kafka, SQS, SNS, Pub/Sub, and webhooks, although those capabilities belong to the paid Enterprise tier.

Pricing

The Individuals plan costs free, is billed free forever, and includes 1 GB of storage, unlimited private repositories, and community support. That combination suits a personal project or an evaluation with modest artifacts. The 1 GB ceiling is the key constraint: additional storage is billed per GB per month, so active teams can outgrow the free allowance quickly.

Enterprise uses custom pricing and an individual agreement. It adds dedicated infrastructure, multi-regional high availability, advanced authentication, a custom SLA, professional services, and white-label options. This is the tier for organizations that need contractual service levels, tailored deployment, or enterprise integration rather than a published, self-serve price.

Dedicated is billed monthly at custom pricing and includes a dedicated Harbor instance, unlimited users and teams, 1,000 GB of storage, a custom domain, and no egress fees. A 14-day free trial makes it the more concrete way to evaluate a substantial deployment. Its included capacity and unlimited user model fit a growing organization, while the undisclosed monthly price means budgeting still requires a sales discussion.

Platforms

8gears supports API, Linux, self-hosted, and web access. Deployment can be hosted by 8gears, managed in a customer's selected cloud, or licensed for Kubernetes self-hosting, including on-premise and air-gapped installations. That flexibility is valuable when infrastructure or data-residency requirements differ between teams.

Who it's for

Choose it for enterprises, cloud providers, multi-cloud or hybrid platform teams, IoT and edge businesses, and independent software vendors that need centralized policy, identity, replication, and audit visibility. It is less compelling for a small team seeking only basic image pushes with predictable public pricing.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Hosted, customer-cloud, Kubernetes, on-premise, and air-gapped deployment choices accommodate very different compliance and infrastructure needs.
• Pro: Enterprise identity, workload federation, scanning, signing, SBOMs, policies, and audit exports support a governed software supply chain.
• Pro: Multi-region replication, immutable tags, retention controls, and automation APIs address day-to-day platform operations.
• Con: The free plan provides only 1 GB of storage, limiting it for shared or high-volume use.
• Con: Enterprise and Dedicated prices are custom, so total cost cannot be compared from the published plans alone.
• Con: The strongest audit integrations and contractual controls require paid tiers rather than the free offering.

Alternatives

For a registry tied to a broader usage-metered cloud service, consider Samsung Cloud Platform Container Registry, whose billing is based on stored data, usage hours, and image scans.

Volcengine Container Registry is a better comparison for teams wanting a free shared instance, though its Trial Edition is quota-limited and does not support quota expansion.

PolyglotPiranha is a free, self-hosted-oriented alternative.

Chainguard Registry offers a freemium model with a Free Images plan capped at five images per organization.

Django-OCI is free open-source software with no hosted plan or usage limits stated.

Docker Desktop suits teams that also want a desktop workflow, with a free Personal plan and a $9-per-month Pro plan.

Inedo ProGet provides a free edition for private package and Docker feeds, with limited security and compliance features.

JFrog Container Registry is a free self-managed option covering Docker, OCI, Helm, Helm OCI, and Generic artifacts, without Xray.

Compare more container registries if these deployment and pricing models do not match your requirements.

Verdict

8gears Container Registry is a strong choice for organizations that need Harbor compatibility plus enterprise identity, supply-chain controls, automation, and deployment freedom. Pick it when multi-cloud, regulated, or air-gapped operations justify those controls; look elsewhere if you need generous free storage or transparent, self-serve paid pricing.