Docker Hub Image Popularity Tracker

Compare Docker Hub official images by pull count, star count, and freshness — ranked by popularity. DevOps/infra audience. Official Docker Hub v2 API, no key required.

Who This Is For

• DevOps/Platform engineers evaluating base images for reliability and community trust
• Engineering teams choosing container runtimes and databases based on ecosystem health
• Cloud architects assessing which images have the most active maintenance and adoption
• Security teams identifying stale base images that need updating

Key Features & Value

• Cross-image popularity ranking: not a single-image lookup — compare up to 20 images side by side
• Composite popularity labels: MEGA (>=15K stars + >=5B pulls), STAR (>=10K stars), SUPER_POPULAR (>=10B pulls), POPULAR (>=5B pulls), HEALTHY (>=1B pulls), ACTIVE
• Freshness tracking: days since last update for each image — spot stale images at a glance
• Rich metadata: description, star count, pull count, last update date
• No API key needed: uses Docker Hub's public v2 API for official library images

Quick Start

Run with default top-10 images:

{
  "images": "nginx,ubuntu,alpine,node,postgres,redis,mysql,mongo,python,busybox"
}

Or compare your own set:

{
  "images": "nginx,alpine,python,node,traefik,caddy,flink,neo4j,rabbitmq,grafana"
}

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
images	string	Yes	nginx,ubuntu,alpine,node,postgres,redis,mysql,mongo,python,busybox	Comma-separated Docker Hub official image names (max 20)

Output Structure

{
  "imageName": "nginx",
  "description": "Official build of Nginx.",
  "starCount": 21340,
  "pullCount": 13178954773,
  "lastUpdated": "2026-07-18",
  "daysSinceUpdate": 1,
  "popularityLabel": "MEGA"
}

Each run produces one result item per image, ranked by pull count descending.

Usage Examples

1. Base image comparison Input: nginx,ubuntu,alpine,debian,busybox Use case: Choose a base image with the best combination of star count, pull count, and freshness.

2. Database image health check Input: postgres,mysql,mongo,redis,cassandra,mariadb,neo4j,couchdb Use case: Compare database image popularity and maintenance recency across options.

3. AI-agent workflow — weekly infrastructure health report

{
  "images": "nginx,ubuntu,alpine,postgres,redis,node,python"
}

Output feeds into a dashboard that flags images with daysSinceUpdate > 90.

4. Zapier/automation — Slack alert for stale base images

• Cron trigger runs the actor weekly
• Filter output rows where daysSinceUpdate > 180
• Post to Slack: "🚨 Stale base image: {imageName} hasn't been updated in {daysSinceUpdate} days"

5. CI/CD — pre-build base image freshness check Before a production build, run the actor on your base images. If any show daysSinceUpdate > 90, surface a warning in CI: "Base image {imageName} is {daysSinceUpdate} days stale — consider updating."

6. Runtime platform comparison Input: traefik,caddy,nginx,haproxy,envoy Use case: Compare reverse-proxy/proxy image popularity and maintenance velocity across the ecosystem.

Integration Notes

• Zapier/Make/n8n: HTTP GET output via Apify webhook. Filter on popularityLabel or daysSinceUpdate field.
• MCP: Include as a tool for agents to query Docker image popularity on demand.
• AI Agent: Call with { "images": "your,images,here" }, process the ranked list programmatically.
• API: Uses Docker Hub's public v2 API — no key management needed for official library images. Community image names (username/repo) also work.

Pricing & Typical Cost

• Run start: $0.01 (one per actor execution)
• Per result item: $0.003 (one per image)
• Typical 10-image run: $0.01 + 10 × $0.003 = $0.04 total
• Maximum 20-image run: $0.01 + 20 × $0.003 = $0.07 total

Troubleshooting

• "No results": Check image names exist on Docker Hub. Official library images use short names (nginx, not library/nginx). Community images need full path (username/repo).
• "HTTP 404": The image name is not found in Docker Hub's official library. Verify the name or use the community namespace format.
• Slow run: The actor makes 1 fast API call per image. With 20 images that's 20 calls — each completes in <1s. Retries add time only on transient errors.
• Auth: No API key is needed. Docker Hub's v2 API requires no auth for public repository metadata.

Changelog

• 1.0 (2026-07-19): Initial release. Cross-image popularity ranking via Docker Hub v2 API.