Distroless container images
Ranked 5 of 5 container base images by recommenders
Very small container base images that people recommend for reducing attack surface and keeping Docker images small.
Very small container base images that people recommend for reducing attack surface and keeping Docker images small.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Effective attack surface reduction
“Combined with minimal distroless containers, it's a very effective attack surface reduction strategy”
Comment from 7 May 2026 in “Cloudflare responded to the "Copy Fail" Linux vulnerability” Very small images
“Can build from scratch, or use the very small Distroless images.”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Building small Docker images faster” Handy to use
“These are pretty handy to use”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “A Decade of Docker Containers”
Other container base images people recommend
The four most recommended other container base images, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| StageX | 12 | 5 | 71% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Docker Hardened Images | 11 | 14 | 44% | 4 | — | — |
| Chainguard Images | 9 | 25 | 26% | 4 | — | — |
| Minimus container images | 6 | 10 | 38% | 3 | — | — |
| Distroless container imagesThis page | 5 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
3 of the 5 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Combined with minimal distroless containers, it's a very effective attack surface reduction strategy”
“These are pretty handy to use”
“Can build from scratch, or use the very small Distroless images.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.