Docker's Actuary vs SecretScanner: 2026 Comparison
Docker's Actuary is a free container security tool. SecretScanner is a free container security tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best container security fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of available product data, here is our conclusion:
Teams building container CI/CD pipelines need Docker's Actuary because it catches misconfigured deployments before they reach production, and it does this for free without vendor lock-in. The tool audits against 81 community-maintained checks covering image layer scanning, runtime permissions, and secrets exposure, catching the kinds of oversights that slip past code review. Skip it if your threat model prioritizes runtime behavior detection or if you need enforcement controls that block bad deployments; Actuary is assessment-only, not prevention.
DevOps and platform teams scanning container images in CI/CD pipelines should use SecretScanner because it catches 140 secret types without the complexity of proprietary commercial tools, and the 3,273 GitHub stars signal real adoption among engineering teams who've validated it works. The free pricing and standalone design mean you can integrate it immediately without procurement cycles or vendor lock-in. Skip this if you need secrets management, rotation, or policy enforcement downstream; SecretScanner detects and alerts, it doesn't remediate.
