Chainguard vs. Minimus Hardened Images
Get the catalog, customization, and compliance depth engineers need to build safely with AI across the software development lifecycle.
Features
Catalog Depth
2,200+ projects, 940+ FIPS variants, 30,000+ packages, 140+ Helm charts.
~1,200+ projects (with limited tags), limited proprietary Helm Charts support.
SDLC Coverage
Chainguard Containers, VMs, Libraries for Python, Java, and JavaScript, and Actions and Agent Skills provide a complete, secure-by-default foundation.
No additional open source artifacts.
Security SLA
Contractual SLA of 7 days Critical, 14 days all other severities, with actual average patch times significantly faster: Critical <20 hours, High 2.05 days, Medium 2.5 days, Low 3.05 days
48 hours for Critical/High, 14 days for Medium/Low.
OS
Purpose-built Linux OS. Total control from source to artifact.
Bootstrapped Linux OS.
Ecosystem Support
Broad and deep scanner support, including Wiz, Prisma, Microsoft Cloud Defender, CrowdStrike, and AWS Inspector, as well as artifact managers.
Narrow scanner support.
Migration
The Guardener agent intelligently rebuilds Dockerfiles layer by layer, testing as it builds, so platform teams standardize faster and developers never break stride.
No public migration tooling or support.
Compliance
940+ FIPS image variants leveraging Chainguard FIPS Provider for OpenSSL 3.4, eliminating third-party patch reliance and update certificates.
~230 FIPS images, reliant on third-party FIPS module, slowing CVE remediation and certificate updates.
Customization
Image customization with Custom Assembly, powered by the Chainguard Factory and underpinned by 30k+ packages, with all custom images covered under Chainguard's CVE remediation SLA.
UI-based Image Creator, limited package repository.
The world’s leading companies trust Chainguard
What sets Chainguard apart from Minimus?
Chainguard has helped hundreds of engineering and security teams adopt a secure-by-default foundation of trusted open source artifacts, built for the AI era.
Talk to an expertTrusted OSS artifacts for every developer, AI agent, and workload.
Choose from over 2,000 projects and 200,000 container images alongside a broad catalog of VMs, CI/CD actions, libraries, and agent skills for comprehensive coverage across the software development lifecycle.
FIPS compliance without the third-party limitations.
Chainguard’s CMVP-validated module means no dependency on a third party to update certificates or fix vulnerabilities.
Enterprise-grade rigor, built to go the distance.
The team behind Sigstore, SLSA, and Google Distroless. Trusted by 500+ enterprises for a long-term foundation your org can rely on.
See Chainguard in action
Results that speak for themselves
A secure stack for every stage of the AI software development lifecycle
Engineering Hours Saved
CVEs Remediated
avG remediation time for critical cves
Reduction in Attack Surface
Avg. Reduction in CVEs
Related resources
The State of Trusted Open Source: March 2026
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Chainguard Image Directory: Get started with CVE-free container images today
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