Anchore Enterprise vs Clair
Anchore Enterprise
anchore.comClair
clairproject.orgSide by side
| Figure | Anchore Enterprise | Clair |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 1 |
| Spec score · Software Composition Analysis Software | 8.3 (#9) | 7.9 (#26) |
| Spec score · Container Security Software | 8.3 (#6) | 8.0 (#10) |
| API | The maker says every feature and operation can be instrumented through an API, and the pricing page states all tiers include full API access. | Clients use the Clair API to index container images and match them against known vulnerabilities. |
| Deployment | Anchore Enterprise is offered as an AWS machine image or as container images installable with Helm on Kubernetes-compatible platforms. | Clair supports microservice, monolithic, CI pipeline, and disconnected deployment methods. |
| Purpose | Anchore Enterprise is an SBOM-powered platform for continuous software supply chain security and compliance. | Clair continuously scans container images for vulnerabilities and security problems. |
| Support | The pricing page lists Basic support with a 9×5 SLA, setup and configuration guidance, and expert office hours; paid support tiers add 24×7 priority SLA and other services. | The project directs questions to its Google Group and bug reports to GitHub Issues. |
Plans
Anchore Enterprise
- Commercial Cloud ImagePriced on request
- Commercial Container ImagePriced on request
- Government Cloud ImagePriced on request
- Government Container ImagePriced on request
In their own words
Anchore Enterprise
Anchore Enterprise is an SBOM-powered platform for continuous software supply-chain security and compliance. It generates software bills of materials for containers, source code, and filesystems in Syft, CycloneDX, and SPDX formats, then continuously scans those SBOMs for vulnerabilities, secrets, and malware. Policy packs cover NIST, FedRAMP, and DISA, while policy-as-code rules use JSON instructions that can be version controlled in Git. Runtime inventory can cover images running across EKS, ECS, AKE, GKE, and OpenShift clusters. Deployment options include an AWS machine image or container images installed with Helm on Kubernetes-compatible platforms, including air-gapped environments. Every feature and operation can be instrumented through an API. Integrations include major CI, registry, and cloud services such as GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Amazon ECR, Azure DevOps, Docker Hub, and Harbor. It supports API, Linux, self-hosted, and web environments. Pricing is on request; there is no free plan, but a free trial is available.
Clair
Clair is free, self-hosted software that continuously scans container images for vulnerabilities in operating-system bases, installed packages, and programming-language components. Clients use its API to index images and match them against known vulnerabilities. Clair updates its vulnerability database as new issues appear and can reanalyze images without rereading their complete contents. It supports OCI Distribution and Docker v2 images, and lists RHEL, Alpine, Ubuntu, Debian, Oracle, Photon, and SUSE distributions, plus Java, Python, Golang, and Javascript. Deployment options include microservices, monolithic installations, CI pipelines, and disconnected environments. Clair can run as an indexer, matcher, notifier, or combo process. It uses PostgreSQL for persistence and is released as a Quay.io container, with the clairctl command-line tool among its artifacts. Clair runs on Linux, supports registry scanning, and is licensed under Apache 2.0. Runtime protection is not provided.