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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 July 2025, in the Container Registry category, the mindshare of Amazon ECR is 18.1%, up from 16.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Harbor is 26.7%, down from 28.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
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 integration with AWS services is very easy, and the deployment and initial setup are pretty straightforward."
"The most valuable feature of Amazon ECR is how it organizes the code and the infrastructure."
"The Docker compatibility that ECR offers is probably the most beneficial aspect of the solution."
"There are no issues. The service is remarkably stable."
"The most valuable aspect of ECR is its user-friendliness."
"ECR provides robust security features, including image scanning and vulnerability assessment, supported by AWS identity and access management for fine-grained access control."
"The autoscaling functionality is the main beneficial feature of Amazon ECR. It simplifies management, but some configurations can complicate things a bit."
"What I like most about Amazon ECR is that it's swift."
"The most valuable feature of Harbor is its security scanning capability."
"Right now this is the leading product in this category."
 

Cons

"The Amazon ECR interface could benefit from improvements to enhance user experience."
"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."
"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."
"Improving the documentation for easy understanding will help bring in more clients to use Amazon ECR."
"There could be improvements to the interface of AWS concerning ECR."
"It would be great if they could also provide a reference to fix the errors or vulnerabilities in the images rather than just notifying us about them."
"Deeper integration with other security tools would enhance usability."
"There is no room for improvement mentioned; it's good as is."
"The GUI needs to improve."
"The product should integrate better with other storage options."
"There is a need for more support for public repositories, like the Google Cloud GTR, which is not as integrated as desired."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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 prices are high in India as compared to the US."
"The product is expensive."
"The cost of the product is free."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Insurance Company
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
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: July 2025.
864,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.