Azure Container Registry

Azure Container Registry (ACR) is a fully managed, private Docker container registry service hosted on Microsoft Azure. It provides a secure, scalable registry for storing and managing container images and related artifacts, integrated with the broader Azure ecosystem including Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure DevOps, and Azure Active Directory.

Overview

Azure Container Registry is Microsoft’s managed container registry offering, designed for teams building and deploying containerized applications on Azure. ACR supports standard Docker and OCI image formats and integrates natively with Azure Kubernetes Service for seamless image pulls. It also supports Helm charts, OCI artifacts, and supports features like geo-replication for multi-region deployments and content trust for image signing.

ACR is a cloud-only service — there is no self-hosted version. It is designed for organizations already invested in the Azure ecosystem who want a managed, low-maintenance container registry with enterprise-grade security and compliance features.

Key Features

  • Fully managed: No infrastructure to manage — Microsoft handles scaling, patching, and availability
  • Docker and OCI support: Standard Docker Registry HTTP API V2 and OCI image format support
  • Helm chart storage: Store and manage Helm charts alongside container images
  • Geo-replication: Replicate images across multiple Azure regions for low-latency pulls worldwide (Premium tier)
  • Content trust: Sign images using Docker Content Trust for supply chain security
  • Azure AD integration: Authenticate using Azure Active Directory for fine-grained access control
  • Integration with AKS: Seamless image pulls from ACR to Azure Kubernetes Service clusters
  • Task-based automation: ACR Tasks for automated image building, testing, and patching on triggers
  • Private endpoints: Connect to ACR via Azure Private Link for network isolation
  • Vulnerability scanning: Integration with Microsoft Defender for Containers for image scanning
  • Retention policies: Automatically clean up untagged manifests and old images
  • Storage tiers: Three service tiers (Basic, Standard, Premium) to match performance and feature needs
  • Web portal: Browse and manage images through the Azure Portal

Technical Stack

  • Service type: Fully managed PaaS (Platform as a Service) on Microsoft Azure
  • API: Docker Registry HTTP API V2, OCI Distribution Specification
  • Authentication: Azure Active Directory (AAD), service principals, managed identities
  • Storage: Azure-managed storage (backed by Azure Blob Storage)
  • Deployment: Cloud-only — no self-hosted option
  • CLI: Azure CLI (az acr commands), Docker CLI

Licensing

Azure Container Registry is a commercial, proprietary cloud service from Microsoft. There is no open-source edition and no self-hosted version. ACR is billed based on the selected service tier and usage (storage and data transfer). It is included in some Azure enterprise agreements but is generally a pay-as-you-go service.

Pricing

Tier Cost (approx.) Notes
Basic ~$0.167/day 10 GiB storage, 2 webhooks. Entry-level for dev/test.
Standard ~$0.667/day 100 GiB storage, 10 webhooks, geo-replication add-on. Production workloads.
Premium ~$1.667/day 500 GiB storage, 500 webhooks, geo-replication, content trust, dedicated resources. Enterprise.

Additional costs: Data transfer (egress) charges apply. Geo-replication is charged per additional region. ACR Tasks (build compute) are billed separately.

Pricing based on Azure public pricing as of June 2026. Actual costs vary by region and Azure subscription type. Check the Azure pricing calculator for current rates.

Self-Hosting

No. Azure Container Registry is a cloud-only managed service. It cannot be self-hosted or deployed on-premises. Organizations requiring an on-premises container registry should consider Harbor, Sonatype Nexus, or JFrog Artifactory instead.

Official Resources