Google Cloud: Artifact Registry vs Container Registry

Question

What's the difference between these two products?

Artifact Registry - https://cloud.google.com/artifact-registry/
Container Registry - https://cloud.google.com/container-registry/

Answer 1

Artifact Registry is simply a better version of Container Registry. Build artifact formats beyond container images are supported, including popular language and Debian-related packages.

As of this writing, only Docker image and Helm chart support are GA. (You have to sign up through this form to access the pre-GA functionality for Java (Maven/Gradle), Node (npm), Python (PEP 503), and Debian (APT) packages.)

Container Registry will still continue to work and will not go away soon. You can still use both services in the same project.

Here's the key differences:

1. Artifact Registry supports multiple repositories per project. Repositories are separate and unique resources and you are required to create one before pushing an image. With this feature, you'll be able to give names, descriptions, and specific permissions on a repository so you can properly manage who can access your images.
2. Artifact Registry has its own IAM permissions to access your repositories.
3. Artifact Registry uses new hosts under pkg.dev rather than gcr.io.
4. Container Registry is only multi regional but Artifact Registry supports multi regional or regional repositories.
5. Artifact Registry has its own pricing. Users are charged for storage and network egress.

Answer 2

Artifact Registry includes all the features of Container Registry (storing container images) as well as new features for language-specific artifact repositories.

From https://cloud.google.com/artifact-registry/docs/transition/transition-from-gcr

Artifact Registry is the evolution of Container Registry. As a fully-managed service with support for both container images and non-container artifacts, Artifact Registry extends the capabilities of Container Registry.

From https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/application-development/understanding-artifact-registry-vs-container-registry, the key improvements are:

• "A unified control plane for container, OS and language repositories" - AR is for storing language and OS packages as well
• "A more granular permission model with Cloud IAM" - permissions can be per-repository
• "Repositories in the region of your choice" - can choose individual regions for repositories instead of multi-regions
• "A pricing model that respects your region" - higher costs for storage, but potentially lower (or no) costs for network egress
• "Part of a secure supply chain" - works directly with other Google Cloud 'secure supply chain' products