Containerization has been in demand for years, and Docker is one of its most prominent players. The company is raising subscription fees by up to 80 percent later this year. In exchange, customers get bundled services that previously could be ordered separately.
Docker has four pricing tiers: Personal (free), Pro ($60 per year), Team ($108 per year) and Business ($288 per year). All prices are per user, but only Personal and Pro are for individual use. The prices of Pro (+80 percent to $108 p/y) and Team (+67 percent to $180 p/y) increase sharply, while Personal and Business remain the same.
Professionals and organizations with 100 or fewer Docker users thus face a significantly higher price tag. That 100-user limit, by the way, was introduced in October 2022, the last time Docker raised prices in a meaningful way.
Not feeling more expensive?
The company boasts about “seamless access to the full capabilities of Docker under one subscription” with the revamped pricing model. It’s very reminiscent of the infamous Broadcom changes to the VMware portfolio. While customers typically use only a small piece of the total VMware offering, they are now forced to purchase a large suite of services with a single subscription.
Also read: VCF 9 is a new beginning for VMware by Broadcom
Dev Class spoke with Docker CPO Giri Sreenivas about the price increases. According to him, customers don’t feel like the prices have increased all that much. The added value is derived from the inclusion of services such as Docker Build Cloud, Scout and Hub. Docker Insights Dashboards will also follow on Nov. 1, with more details to follow later.
Another sticky strategy
Developers pointed to Docker as the most widely used developer tool in the world in the 2023 annual Stack Overflow survey. On its landing page, Docker flaunts this feat.
Docker can be considered a pretty “sticky” product, given it’s fundamental role for building cloud-native applications. Containerization, or packaging isolated applications so they fit into any environment, has for years been preferred to virtualization when it comes to new apps.
In this, Docker’s position is emphatically different from VMware’s. It is by no means a legacy solution. Yet it has just as much of an opportunity to benefit substantially from its market dominance. It now sees itself as more than just a developer tool, but an “end-to-end” platform for developers.
In a world where more and more software vendors are positioning themselves as such a platform, the revenue model is changing accordingly. More often than not, this trend mainly benefits larger customers and leaves smaller parties out in the cold. In that area, Docker has learned a lot from Broadcom.