Tool profile
Chainguard Containers: cost, fit and limits
Chainguard Containers is a catalog of minimal, continuously rebuilt container images from Chainguard, Inc. that ship with signed software bills of materials and aim for zero known vulnerabilities, sold per image or as a full catalog subscription.
What to know first
Chainguard Containers replaces the base images in your Dockerfiles instead of scanning the ones you already use. The vendor says an AI-assisted factory rebuilds images from source, and each image carries a signed SBOM and Sigstore signatures. Five images are free for production use, while paid plans add a contractual CVE fix window, FIPS variants and new image requests. Most of the effort lies in editing Dockerfiles, not in operating new infrastructure.
Chainguard Containers at a glance
| Maker | Chainguard, Inc., United States |
|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes |
| Entry price | Free for five images, Catalog from $19K per year |
| API access | No |
| Category | Best AI Container Security Software in 2026, rank 4 of 10 |
| Website | chainguard.dev |
Who Chainguard Containers is best for
Platform teams standardizing bases
A team that controls the shared base images behind dozens of services can swap them once and cut the findings every downstream scanner reports, instead of triaging each service.
Regulated and public sector builders
The page lists FIPS 140-3 validation, over 1,200 FIPS variants and STIG hardening, which matter to contractors facing FedRAMP, CMMC or similar requirements.
Teams wanting a free trial of the idea
The free tier gives five images for production use with a business email, which is enough to test one language runtime and a web server before paying.
Chainguard Containers plans and pricing
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free Images | $0 | Five images for production use, up to five users per organization, business email required. Free images carry no CVE remediation SLA. |
| Per Image | Quote only | Contractual CVE SLA, all upstream supported tags, STIG and FIPS access and no-cost new image requests, licensed by the number and type of image. |
| Catalog | From $19K for a team of 10 | Access to the full image catalog, a contractual CVE SLA and new image requests, licensed by engineering organization size. |
| Libraries and VMs | Quote only | Chainguard Libraries is licensed per language ecosystem by developer count, and Chainguard VMs follow the Per Image or Catalog model. |
Checked November 2026.
What Chainguard Containers does
- Rebuilt from source
- The vendor describes AI reconciler agents in its Chainguard Factory that rebuild images continuously, and a tool called Guardener that analyzes and rebuilds Dockerfiles layer by layer.
- Signed SBOMs and provenance
- Each image ships with a signed SBOM and Sigstore signatures that can be checked with Cosign. The pages state SLSA provenance but name Level 2 in one place and Level 3 in another.
- FIPS and STIG variants
- The page lists more than 1,200 FIPS variants and operating-system-level STIG hardening, and it cites support for FedRAMP, PCI DSS, SOC 2, CMMC and the EU Cyber Resilience Act.
- Standard OCI images
- Images deploy through normal CI/CD and any OCI-compatible registry or runtime, so adopting them is a Dockerfile change instead of a new agent on every node.
How Chainguard Containers handles your data
Chainguard's privacy notice names Chainguard, Inc. at a Seattle, Washington address and says the company is headquartered in the United States with employees globally. It states Chainguard has not sold or shared personal information for business purposes in the past 12 months, discloses data to service providers under written contracts and keeps personal information as long as necessary for stated purposes, with no fixed retention period. The notice does not cover data in products running inside a customer's network that Chainguard cannot access. A trust page with certifications, regions and AI data statements was not found, so the vendor's policy was not checked for this.
Where Chainguard Containers falls short in practice
- Free tier has no SLA. The five free images and five users come without a CVE remediation SLA, so a critical advisory may wait. The contractual fix window starts only on Per Image or Catalog subscriptions.
- Pages disagree on counts. The containers page cites over 3,000 images while a pricing FAQ cites 1,800, and a free-image FAQ mentions about 50 images with only the latest tag. Ask for the exact list for your languages.
- Only the base layer. Chainguard rebuilds its own images. Your application code, packages added in later layers and Kubernetes misconfiguration stay unchecked, so a scanner and policy tool remain necessary.
Works with
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Chainguard Containers: common questions
How many Chainguard images are free?
The pricing page says five images for production use, up to five users per organization and a business email. A separate FAQ mentions around 50 free images with only latest tags, so the pages disagree. Confirm the current allowance in writing, and note free images have no CVE remediation SLA.
What does the $19K Catalog plan include?
The Catalog starts at $19K for a team of 10 and includes access to the 3,000-plus image catalog, a contractual CVE SLA and no-cost new image requests. It is licensed by engineering organization size, while the Per Image plan is priced by image count and type.
Does Chainguard replace a vulnerability scanner?
No. Chainguard rebuilds its own images and ships SBOMs, so scans of those images report few findings. Your application dependencies, added packages and cluster configuration are not covered, so most teams keep a scanner for their own layers and a policy tool for Kubernetes.
Can I run Chainguard images without installing an agent?
Yes. The images are standard OCI images that deploy through ordinary CI/CD and can be verified with Cosign and Sigstore. Switching is a Dockerfile change, though your build may need adjustments because the images are minimal and may omit shells and package managers.
Is Chainguard FIPS validated?
The containers page shows FIPS 140-3 and SLSA L3 badges and lists more than 1,200 FIPS variants, with FIPS and STIG access listed on the Per Image plan. Check which variants cover your base images and confirm certificate scope with the vendor.