What is the difference between JFrog Container Registry and JFrog Artifactory?

Question

Is the registry a pivot for JFrog product portfolio or is it some set of additional capabilities? The functionality is very interesting either way but it would be nice to to understand the details.

Answer 1

In a nutshell, JFrog Container Registry is Artifactory. It is the same codebase, the same architecture and mostly the same features. You get:

• Unlimited Docker and Helm registries*
  • local registries for your images
  • remote proxies of remote registries
  • virtual registries (a single URL to access any combination of other registries)
• Free and immediate promotion (you can move your images between registries with an API call, without pulling/pushing)
• Build metadata with Artifactory Query Language and other stuff you might know from Artifactory, like the flexible and intuitive RBAC. We will also introduce security scanning with JFrog Xray soon.

Best difference? The JFrog Container Registry is free, both on-prem and in the cloud!

^{*We call them “repositories” in Artifactory}

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^{I am with JFrog, the company behind artifactory and jfrog-container-registry, see my profile for details and links.}

Answer 2

JFrog Container Registry (JCR) is the gateway drug to JFrog Artifactory - it's open-source and a freemium that can be used as your private registry.

Just a note on terminology: Docker Registry hosts multiple repositories (collection of container images), while JFrog Artifactory hosts multiple Docker Registries; you have a bit of freedom in how you structure your registries/repositories across regions and teams.