Docker Desktop Restricts Free Services

Docker is a virtualization tool that allows you to reproduce the same environment and run applications anywhere. Docker Desktop is a tool that allows you to use Docker on Windows or Mac. However, the Docker desktop plan has changed significantly, and businesses with 250 or more employees and $10 million or more in annual revenue are no longer eligible for the free plan.

Docker Desktop, which has undergone a major change this time, changed the name of the free plan Free to Personal, and at the same time limited the terms of use to individual developers, education, open source community workers, and small and medium-sized enterprises. The definition of a small business here is less than 250 employees and less than $10 million in annual revenue, so businesses that fall into either of these categories can get free Docker desktop access.

The $5 per month Pro and $7 per month Team plans remain the same as before, but there is a new $21 per month Business plan for large businesses. The business plan is recommended for 50 people or more, and SMAL, one of the central management and SSO standards, will be available in addition to all the functions used in the team plan.

Also, Docker has some components, and Docker Desktop is only a few of them. In addition to Docker desktop, it is provided as open source under many Apache licenses, version 2.0. Docker Desktop, available as a paid plan, is a GUI tool for managing components and features.

Commenting on the price increase, Docker CEO Scott Johnson said the developer market continues to grow, and recent statistics show that the global developer population will grow from 18 million today to 45 million by 2030, which requires a sustainable and scalable business. It is said to be a signal that

Johnson said that the majority of Docker users have used Docker desktops for free. Johnson said the price increase is expected to double the number of users using the subscription service, but said that it accounts for less than 10% of all Docker users. Although it is expected that the number of paid plan users will increase, it appeals to the fact that 90% of users can maintain and use the service for free.

He also pointed out that forcing a paid plan is causing Docker desktop churn, he said, saying that although the risk can’t always be zero, companies that already add a lot of value to Docker desktop are setting up a $5 paid plan. For businesses that don’t have access to the free service, the $5/month plan will still allow you to use Docker desktops.

In addition, the newly added business plan adds even more features to $21 per month, he said. A representative example is a secure software supply chain function, and the user can set the content to allow access to the developer through the control plane, which is then placed on the Docker desktop. It said that it is possible to apply the policy to the development environment. In addition, it provides a SaaS-based central management function to control settings such as CPU utilization, memory port, and firewall access.

Regarding the point that Docker desktop does not support Linux, he said, according to the company’s estimate, that Linux accounts for 20-25% of the development environment, and wants to realize consistent management control in all development environments, so please look forward to Docker. Suggested for desktop Linux.

When asked about using Docker in remote development environments such as GitHub codespaces as another problem, he said that he plans to solve some problems by releasing Docker desktop for Linux. Related information can be found here.