What is Chainguard used for?

Chainguard provides hardened container images, language libraries and VM images built from open source to reduce vulnerabilities in the software supply chain. It is a good fit for platform teams standardizing on minimal, secure base images; regulated organizations reducing CVE backlogs; and federal contractors meeting FedRAMP or CMMC requirements.

Yes. Chainguard has a free plan, and paid plans start at $19,000.

Is Chainguard open source?

No. Chainguard is proprietary (closed-source) software. In the Security category, open-source options include BunkerWeb, DefectDojo and Dependency-Track.

What are some alternatives to Chainguard?

Chainguard competes with Snyk, Socket and JFrog.

Chainguard: features, pricing and alternatives

About Chainguard

Chainguard is a software supply chain security company that supplies secure-by-default builds of open source software. It offers hardened, production-ready artifacts for several layers of the stack: containers, language libraries and virtual machine images.

Its product line includes Chainguard Containers, Libraries, VMs, OS Packages, Actions and Agent Skills, supported by an image directory that is updated daily, a build factory and integrations. Use cases listed on the site include golden images, CVE remediation and protection against AI-related threats, and compliance pages cover FedRAMP, PCI DSS, CMMC 2.0 and SOC 2.

Chainguard is a commercial vendor with a pricing page, a free way to get started, and regular technical demos led by its engineers. Industry pages cover technology, the public sector, financial services and telecommunications, and the company also publishes documentation, a trust center and a Slack community.

Key features

Hardened container images
Secure language libraries
Hardened VM images
OS package builds
Daily updated image directory
CVE remediation support
Compliance-oriented golden images

Good fit for

→Platform teams standardizing on minimal, secure base images
→Regulated organizations reducing CVE backlogs
→Federal contractors meeting FedRAMP or CMMC requirements

Tags: container-images; supply-chain-security; open-source; cve-remediation; hardened-images; devsecops

Chainguard: questions and answers

What is Chainguard used for?: Chainguard provides hardened container images, language libraries and VM images built from open source to reduce vulnerabilities in the software supply chain. It is a good fit for platform teams standardizing on minimal, secure base images; regulated organizations reducing CVE backlogs; and federal contractors meeting FedRAMP or CMMC requirements.
Is Chainguard free?: Yes. Chainguard has a free plan, and paid plans start at $19,000.
Is Chainguard open source?: No. Chainguard is proprietary (closed-source) software. In the Security category, open-source options include BunkerWeb, DefectDojo and Dependency-Track.
What are some alternatives to Chainguard?: Chainguard competes with Snyk, Socket and JFrog.