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Amazon ECR vs Harbor comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 21, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon ECR
Ranking in Container Registry
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Harbor
Ranking in Container Registry
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Container Registry category, the mindshare of Amazon ECR is 18.3%, up from 16.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Harbor is 26.4%, down from 28.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Container Registry Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Amazon ECR18.3%
Harbor26.4%
Other55.3%
Container Registry
 

Featured Reviews

Eli Chavez - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution delivers consistent reliability and high stability
ECR is reliable, however, I don't consider it the best container registry available. The main reason is that it is not entirely based on the original Docker registry. For instance, I prefer Azure's ACR because, in ACR, there is no need to create repositories; I simply push. Logging into the repository and specifying the path automatically creates everything. This structure resembles an S3 setup with a container registry layout.
reviewer2584182 - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhance security with automated vulnerability detection and private registry support
We use Harbor for Docker containers to build from our GitLab CI/CD pipeline. This pipeline then automatically pushes to our Harbor instance. We are still working on storing Helm charts in the Harbor instance as well Harbor has improved our organization's security and stability in our container…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The autoscaling functionality is the main beneficial feature of Amazon ECR. It simplifies management, but some configurations can complicate things a bit."
"ECR provides robust security features, including image scanning and vulnerability assessment, supported by AWS identity and access management for fine-grained access control."
"What I like most about Amazon ECR is that it's swift."
"The solution is very stable."
"The most tool's valuable feature is image scanning."
"The most valuable feature of Amazon ECR is its ease of use and the centralized management console."
"The ECR solution is good. It is integrated with AWS, and it's free. Everything is free, which makes it nice to use."
"One feature of Amazon ECR that I find particularly useful is its web interface, which makes management easy. The ability to manage and support token image updates is crucial for us. Moreover, utilizing load balancers via AWS features allows us to manage all traffic."
"The most valuable feature of Harbor is its security scanning capability."
"Right now this is the leading product in this category."
 

Cons

"Amazon ECR should improve the integration with Amazon CloudWatch. For example, allowing us to monitor the queues better. Additionally, some of the features could be made more accessible."
"The UI for managing ECR and other services could be improved. It could be user-friendly compared to other cloud services."
"Deeper integration with other security tools would enhance usability."
"There is no room for improvement mentioned; it's good as is."
"If there were a way to use containers as tasks directly, that would simplify things. Currently, when we use EC2 instances, scaling horizontally means increasing the instance count by five times, which might not be cost-effective. Maybe using containers directly for tasks could be a better option."
"There could be improvements to the interface of AWS concerning ECR."
"If I could use less code and have more of the user interface provide predictions of the coding required in my CLI or Terraform, that would be nice."
"Amazon ECR needs to improve its downtime."
"There is a need for more support for public repositories, like the Google Cloud GTR, which is not as integrated as desired."
"The GUI needs to improve."
"The product should integrate better with other storage options."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's prices are high in India as compared to the US."
"Amazon ECR does not have a high cost."
"The main difference between Amazon ECR and other solutions, like Google Kubernetes Engine, is that I haven't personally used GKE. However, I know that GKE costs around $60 per month, which is quite cost-effective."
"The solution's price is reasonable compared to its competitors"
"My company currently has Amazon ECR under the pay-as-you-go model. The tool is more affordable than Azure Container Registry, and it's worth the money."
"The product is expensive."
"The cost of the product is free."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Insurance Company
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise7
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon ECR?
One feature of Amazon ECR that I find particularly useful is its web interface, which makes management easy. The ability to manage and support token image updates is crucial for us. Moreover, utili...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon ECR?
I haven't observed the costs associated with Amazon ECR services in detail.
What needs improvement with Amazon ECR?
I would appreciate a feature in Amazon ECR that allows direct image downloads from open source into ECR, bypassing the current need to first pull the image to my server. This would streamline the p...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Harbor?
Harbor is open source and part of the graduated Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) landscape, making it a cost-effective solution.
What needs improvement with Harbor?
There is a need for more support for public repositories, like the Google Cloud GTR, which is not as integrated as desired. Additionally, more example implementations for installation using Ansible...
What is your primary use case for Harbor?
We use Harbor for Docker containers to build from our GitLab CI/CD pipeline. This pipeline then automatically pushes to our Harbor instance. We are still working on storing Helm charts in the Harbo...
 

Also Known As

Amazon Elastic Container Registry
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
AXA, Talking Data
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon ECR vs. Harbor and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
868,787 professionals have used our research since 2012.