Minimus vs Docker Hardened Images

Built on Alpine or Debian. You inherit a full OS.

Minimal and distroless foundations.

A full OS brings along hundreds of packages you did not ask for. Each one is another potential CVE, another scan result, another patch cycle. Over time, your team spends more effort maintaining the image than securing the application.

Minimus images include only what your application needs. Fewer binaries mean fewer CVEs, cleaner scan results, and less noise to triage. Your team focuses on real risk, not background noise.

Improved compared to public images.

97%+ CVE reduction compared to public equivalents.

Instead of drowning in low-priority findings, you start with dramatically fewer vulnerabilities. Releases move faster, tickets drop, and security reviews become simpler because most risk was removed before the build finished.

No SLA or formal update commitments.

Daily rebuilds and a 48-hour SLA for critical and high severity fixes.

When a critical CVE hits, you know exactly when an updated image will land. No scrambling, no guessing, no internal blame cycle. Just a clear path to remediation you can communicate to stakeholders and auditors.

Not available in the free tier.

FIPS 140-3 compliant images and STIG compliant images available.

In regulated industries, compliance gaps delay deals and deployments. Without built-in FIPS or STIG alignment, teams build custom variants and carry the risk themselves. Integrated options remove that burden and accelerate approvals.

Security-focused, but not built around formal compliance frameworks.

Aligned with CIS and NIST benchmarks checks at both the container and application layer

Audits stop being reactive exercises. You begin from an image already aligned to recognized standards, which shortens audit cycles and reduces back-and-forth across security and compliance teams.

Limited visibility into granular image changes.

Version-by-version detailed changelogs.

When a vulnerability appears or an update ships, you can immediately trace what was added, removed, or modified. No manually inspecting layers, no reverse-engineering builds. Just precise change visibility that accelerates investigations and shortens security review cycles.

Limited built-in customization workflows.

Full Private Image Creator platform with creation-as-code options

Customization typically requires rebuilding images manually or maintaining separate Dockerfiles, with limited guardrails or centralized governance. As environments grow, that approach increases drift, inconsistencies, and long-term maintenance overhead.

With Minimus, teams extend images without rebuilding from scratch. That keeps environments consistent, reduces drift, and preserves security posture even as customization grows.