Docker pricing has Personal (free), Pro ($9/mo annual / $11/mo monthly), Team ($15/user/mo annual), and Business (custom). The Docker pricing page shows the current tiers. The team that uses Personal for solo dev, Pro for small teams, Team for organizations with collaboration needs. The team that confuses Docker (the product) with Docker Hub (the registry) pays for registry features they don’t need.
Table of contents
- The current tiers
- Docker Hub vs Docker Engine
- Pull rate limits (the gotcha)
- Build minutes and storage
- Docker Scout (security scanning)
- Self-hosted alternatives
- When Docker Desktop costs vs Engine
- FAQ
The current tiers
| Tier | Annual | Monthly | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal | $0 | $0 | 1 user, 200 pulls/hr, unlimited public repos |
| Pro | $9/user | $11/user | Unlimited pulls, 5K builds/mo, 300GB storage |
| Team | $15/user | $17/user | 5K builds/mo, SSO, audit logs |
| Business | Custom | Custom | SSO, RBAC, security policies |
The team that picks Pro for solo, Team for collaboration.
Docker Hub vs Docker Engine
Two products:
- Docker Engine (the runtime, docker CLI): open-source, free.
- Docker Hub (the registry, image storage): has free + paid tiers.
The team that uses Docker Engine locally has zero cost. The team that needs private repos on Docker Hub pays for Pro or Team.
Pull rate limits (the gotcha)
Docker Hub enforces pull rate limits:
- Anonymous: 100 pulls / 6 hours per IP.
- Free: 200 pulls / 6 hours per IP.
- Pro/Team: unlimited.
CI/CD pipelines that pull from Docker Hub repeatedly hit these limits. The team that uses mirror registries (ghcr.io, GitLab Container Registry, ECR) avoids the limit.
Build minutes and storage
Pro tier:
- 5,000 build minutes/month (cloud builds).
- 300GB storage (private images).
Team tier:
- 5,000 build minutes/month (shared across team).
- Per-user storage.
The team that runs heavy CI has build minutes matter.
Docker Scout (security scanning)
Included in Pro and above. Scans images for vulnerabilities, shows CVE lists. The team that uses Docker Scout in CI catches CVEs before deploy.
Self-hosted alternatives
- GitHub Container Registry (ghcr.io): free for public, paid for private (GitHub Pro/Team).
- GitLab Container Registry: free tier with GitLab SaaS.
- AWS ECR, GCP Artifact Registry, Azure ACR: $0.10/GB/month storage.
- Self-hosted registry: Harbor, Distribution (Docker’s OSS), Nexus.
The team that uses cloud-provider registries has lower cost (especially ECR’s free tier) and better CI integration.
When Docker Desktop costs vs Engine
Docker Desktop (Mac/Windows):
- Free for personal use.
- Paid for companies > 250 employees or > $10M revenue.
Docker Engine (Linux server): always free.
The team that runs Docker on Linux has zero cost. The team that runs Docker Desktop on Mac/Windows in a small company is free. Large companies pay.
FAQ
Is Docker free?
Docker Engine (runtime): yes. Docker Hub: free for public repos, paid for private. Docker Desktop: free for small companies, paid for large.
Why are my CI builds hitting pull rate limits?
Docker Hub limits anonymous/free users. The team that uses Pro/Team tier or self-hosted registry avoids the limit.
Is Docker Pro per user or per company?
Per user. The team that has 10 developers pays 10 × $9 = $90/month.
What’s the difference between Pro and Team?
Pro: individual with private repos. Team: collaboration features (audit logs, SSO for orgs, role-based access).
Can I use Docker Hub for free in production?
Yes for public images. For private images, Pro/Team tier or self-hosted registry.
If you are sizing the infrastructure for the kind of project this post covers, the RunxBuild hosting calculator is the right place to model the line items. The compute, the memory, the storage, the bandwidth, the database - each one is a separate number, and the team’s mental model for the platform is the sum of those numbers. The RunxBuild dashboard is where the team sees the actual usage in one place.
Useful related references: