GravityKit
GravityKit folds every GravityView extension into one Pro plugin.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
Clair vs Harbor
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Clair and Harbor — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Clair vs Harbor: at a glance
What is Clair?
Clair 4.10 RC can read SBOMs to match Java vulnerabilities.
Clair cut its first 4.10.0 release candidate on November 13, eleven months after 4.9.0. Its Java indexers can now read CycloneDX SBOM files and treat them as the source of truth, and Red Hat's VEX data now covers Maven advisories, so Java packages in Red Hat images can be matched. It also reduces memory use when many packages share a source package.
What is Harbor?
Harbor backports security hardening to 2.15 while 2.16 nears GA.
Harbor spent September and October on security patch candidates and rolling back defaults that broke webhooks and legacy signer pulls. The 2.16.0 candidates are its first feature release in that window, with arm64 builds, custom project roles, proxy-cache filters, referrer API proxying and Valkey caching. 2.15.5-rc1 brings the same period's hardening to the older line: size limits on audited and manifest request bodies, redacted URLs in error messages, a fix for replication filters and updated Trivy and Go versions.
Clair vs Harbor: editorial side-by-side
Clair
2.5INFRA · APIS
Clair 4.10 RC can read SBOMs to match Java vulnerabilities.
◆ Current state
Clair cut its first 4.10.0 release candidate on November 13, eleven months after 4.9.0. Its Java indexers can now read CycloneDX SBOM files and treat them as the source of truth, and Red Hat's VEX data now covers Maven advisories, so Java packages in Red Hat images can be matched. It also reduces memory use when many packages share a source package.
◆ Where it's heading
Since 4.8 Clair has moved from Red Hat's older OVAL data to VEX, and each release follows Red Hat's security data more closely. 4.10 adds SBOMs as an input, so Clair can match what an image's own manifest declares, not only what it finds on disk.
◆ Prediction
More 4.10 release candidates and then a final are likely; the long gap between releases suggests that could take weeks.
Harbor
5.0INFRA · APIS
Harbor backports security hardening to 2.15 while 2.16 nears GA.
◆ Current state
Harbor spent September and October on security patch candidates and rolling back defaults that broke webhooks and legacy signer pulls. The 2.16.0 candidates are its first feature release in that window, with arm64 builds, custom project roles, proxy-cache filters, referrer API proxying and Valkey caching. 2.15.5-rc1 brings the same period's hardening to the older line: size limits on audited and manifest request bodies, redacted URLs in error messages, a fix for replication filters and updated Trivy and Go versions.
◆ Where it's heading
Three candidates in two weeks suggest 2.16.0 is close to final. The release moves Harbor toward multi-arch and finer access control after a quarter of security-only work.
◆ Prediction
Expect 2.16.0 GA within one to two weeks, followed by matching 2.15.x and 2.14.x patch releases.
Alternatives to Clair and Harbor
Other Infra & APIs products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Clair or Harbor.
Payload CMS
Payload's v4 beta.9 keeps every past image crop and raises the Node floor again.
Nautobot
Nautobot 3.3 alpha 2 adds test helpers and a cable location filter after 3.2.9's token-leak fix.
Shuffle
Shuffle tags builds almost daily, but the notes are empty.
KrakenD
KrakenD's community edition is shipping only dependency bumps.
Velociraptor
Velociraptor's recent releases are mostly about patching CVEs.
See all Clair alternatives → · See all Harbor alternatives →
Recent activity from Clair and Harbor
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 15h agoClairClair 4.10 RC reads CycloneDX SBOMs for Java matching
- 2d agoHarbor2.15.5 RC1: request size limits, redacted errors, replication fix
- 4d agoHarbor2.16.0 RC3: arm64, custom roles, referrer API proxying
- 8d agoHarbor2.16.0 RC2: Valkey cache, task failure details, ACR chunked uploads
- 18d agoHarbor2.16.0 RC1: arm64 builds, custom project roles, proxy-cache filters
- 23d agoHarbor2.14.6 RC2: Go CVE fixes and decompression limit
- 1mo agoHarbor2.14.6 RC1: private-network webhooks and legacy signer pulls restored
- 11mo agoClairClair 4.9 moves CVSS data to NVD's 2.0 feeds
- 2y agoClairClair 4.8 replaces Red Hat OVAL data with VEX
- 2y agoClairClair 4.7.4 changes the default layer download location
- 2y agoClairClair 4.7.3 requires TLS 1.2 or newer
- 3y agoClairClair 4.7.2 drops the retired CRDA source
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Clair and Harbor?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Harbor is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 2.5), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Clair better than Harbor?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Harbor is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 2.5), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Clair?
Top Clair alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Clair alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/clair for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Harbor?
Top Harbor alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Harbor alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/harbor for the full list with editorial commentary on each.