GravityKit
GravityKit folds every GravityView extension into one Pro plugin.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
Clair vs Quay
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Clair and Quay — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Clair vs Quay: 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 Quay?
Quay patches three supported lines on one afternoon, mostly CVE bumps.
Quay's enterprise lines ship paired monthly security releases. On November 13 three lines moved within minutes: 3.14.10, 3.12.24 and 3.10.28, each bumping PyJWT, cryptography, pillow, oauthlib and other pinned libraries for CVEs, plus a fix for an onboarding issue. The mirror-registry installer tagged v3.0.0 on November 9 with only dependency bumps noted.
Clair vs Quay: 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.
Quay
5.0INFRA · APIS
Quay patches three supported lines on one afternoon, mostly CVE bumps.
◆ Current state
Quay's enterprise lines ship paired monthly security releases. On November 13 three lines moved within minutes: 3.14.10, 3.12.24 and 3.10.28, each bumping PyJWT, cryptography, pillow, oauthlib and other pinned libraries for CVEs, plus a fix for an onboarding issue. The mirror-registry installer tagged v3.0.0 on November 9 with only dependency bumps noted.
◆ Where it's heading
Quay's public changelog is now maintenance only: CVE pins backported to every supported line and build files aligned for Red Hat's ART pipeline. No user-facing features have shipped on these lines in recent months.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next set of paired CVE releases around mid-December; nothing in the entries points to a feature release.
Alternatives to Clair and Quay
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 Quay.
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.
Recent activity from Clair and Quay
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 13h agoClairClair 4.10 RC reads CycloneDX SBOMs for Java matching
- 19h agoQuayQuay 3.10.28 backports November CVE fixes to LTS
- 19h agoQuayQuay 3.12.24 patches PyJWT, pillow and other CVEs
- 20h agoQuayQuay 3.14.10 rolls up CVE fixes and RHEL 8 builds
- 4d agoQuaymirror-registry 3.0.0 tagged with only a dependency bump noted
- 1mo agoQuayQuay 3.12.23 patches four CVEs and adds ART build file
- 1mo agoQuayQuay 3.10.27 backports October CVE fixes to LTS
- 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 Quay?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Quay 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 Quay?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Quay 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 Quay?
Top Quay alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Quay alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/quay for the full list with editorial commentary on each.