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SPECIFICTION
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Docker Buildx vs ko

Docker Buildx

docs.docker.com

ko

ko.build

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FigureDocker Buildxko
Price from—Free
Free plan—Yes
Free trial——
Open source——
WindowsYesYes
macOSYesYes
LinuxYesYes
Plans published01
Spec score · Container Build Tools6.0 (#33)8.3 (#8)

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Docker Buildx

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ko

  • koFree

ko pricing →

In their own words

Docker Buildx

Docker Buildx has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

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ko

ko is an open-source builder for container images of Go applications. It runs `go build` locally, so Docker does not need to be installed. The project positions it for a single Go application with few operating-system base-image dependencies, such as one without cgo or OS package requirements. Builds can target all platforms supported by the configured base image or selected platforms such as linux/amd64 and linux/arm64. For Kubernetes, `ko resolve` builds images for `ko://` references in YAML and replaces those references with image references; `ko apply` can apply the resolved configuration. ko reuses the normal Go build cache and avoids pushing image blobs already present in the remote registry. It generates and uploads SPDX-format SBOMs by default, with an option to disable this. Registry credentials can come from Docker configuration, with built-in environment credential support for Google, Amazon, Azure, and GitHub container registries. A Terraform provider supports Infrastructure-as-Code workflows. ko supports Go applications only and defaults to CGO_ENABLED=0. Windows container image support is experimental and requires a Windows base image.

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