# Distroless container images

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Distroless container images and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Very small container base images that people recommend for reducing attack surface and keeping Docker images small.

## Why people recommend it

- Effective attack surface reduction (1 comments): "Combined with minimal distroless containers, it's a very effective attack surface reduction strategy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48051340))
- Very small images (1 comments): "Can build from scratch, or use the very small Distroless images." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46252868))
- Handy to use (1 comments): "These are pretty handy to use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47295149))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [StageX](https://hackerapproved.com/p/stagex.md): 12 recommend
- [Docker Hardened Images](https://hackerapproved.com/p/docker-hardened-images.md): 11 recommend
- [Chainguard Images](https://hackerapproved.com/p/chainguard.md): 9 recommend
- [Minimus container images](https://hackerapproved.com/p/minimus-container-images.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Distroless container images", https://hackerapproved.com/p/distroless-container-images/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).