Amazon Elastic Container Registry vs Alibaba Cloud Container Registry

Amazon Elastic Container Registry8.8Visit Alibaba Cloud Container Registry8.7Visit

Higher score Amazon Elastic Container Registry #7 in Container Registries 8.8/10 Paid ✓ 4 of 4 features Visit Amazon ECR

vs

Alibaba Cloud Container Registry #8 in Container Registries 8.7/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 4 of 4 features Visit Alibaba Cloud

• Amazon Elastic Container Registry fits best

  AWS-native container workloads

• Alibaba Cloud Container Registry fits best

  Teams operating primarily in Alibaba Cloud

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Side by side

Feature	Amazon Elastic Container Registry 8.8/10 Visit ↗	Alibaba Cloud Container Registry 8.7/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	8.8	8.7
Ranking	#7 in Container Registries	#8 in Container Registries
Best for	AWS-native container workloads	Teams operating primarily in Alibaba Cloud
Pricing model	Paid	Free plan + paid
Starting price	$0.10/GB/mo	—
Free plan	—	✓ (best)
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Cloud	Cloud
Platforms	Web	Web
Support	Docs	Live chat, Tickets, Docs · 24/7
Integrations	7 integrations	9 integrations
Built for	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Solo, Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Amazon Elastic Container Registry 4/4 · Alibaba Cloud Container Registry 4/4
Image scanning	✓	✓
OCI artifacts	✓	✓
Immutable tags	✓	✓
Retention policies	✓	✓
Specs
Replication scope	Multi-region	Global
Included storage	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Maximum image size	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Our review
Pros	Deep integration with ECS, EKS, Fargate, Lambda, and Elastic Beanstalk Scanning, immutable tags, lifecycle policies, signing, and encrypted storage Cross-Region and cross-account replication with pull-through caching	Free Personal Edition with 3 namespaces and 300 public repositories OCI artifacts, Helm charts, scanning, immutability, and cleanup rules Global replication, network controls, builds, and ActionTrail logging
Cons	Usage-based pricing requires cost planning rather than fixed subscription budgeting Its strongest fit is within the AWS ecosystem The 52,000 MiB layer limit may matter for unusually large layers	Personal Edition includes no SLA guarantee Enterprise pricing varies by region Enterprise image storage is billed through OSS usage
Our verdict	Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR) is a fully managed registry for Docker and Open Container Initiative images and artifacts. It supports private and public repositories, with access through the web, APIs, Docker-compatible… Read the review →	Alibaba Cloud Container Registry is a managed service for storing, securing, building, and distributing container images and cloud-native artifacts. It supports individual developers through the free Personal Edition and production teams… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• Amazon Elastic Container Registry — where it wins

  • Deep integration with ECS, EKS, Fargate, Lambda, and Elastic Beanstalk
  • Scanning, immutable tags, lifecycle policies, signing, and encrypted storage
  • Cross-Region and cross-account replication with pull-through caching

  Where it doesn't

  • Usage-based pricing requires cost planning rather than fixed subscription budgeting
  • Its strongest fit is within the AWS ecosystem
  • The 52,000 MiB layer limit may matter for unusually large layers

• Alibaba Cloud Container Registry — where it wins

  • Free Personal Edition with 3 namespaces and 300 public repositories
  • OCI artifacts, Helm charts, scanning, immutability, and cleanup rules
  • Global replication, network controls, builds, and ActionTrail logging

  Where it doesn't

  • Personal Edition includes no SLA guarantee
  • Enterprise pricing varies by region
  • Enterprise image storage is billed through OSS usage

• Amazon Elastic Container Registry8.8/10 · Paid

  A capable AWS-native registry with strong controls, scanning, and multi-Region support.

  Visit Amazon ECRFull verdict →
• Alibaba Cloud Container Registry8.7/10 · Free plan

  A broad registry service with a free tier and Alibaba Cloud-focused enterprise capabilities.

  Visit Alibaba CloudFull verdict →