Opportunities › Secure Docker socket access for containers › Proposed app
Gatewarden
Policy control for Docker socket access, with a hosted audit trail and rule editor
- Score
- 39
- confidence 35
- Evidence
- 2
- items on the page
- Rivals
- 2
- named in sources
- First version
- 35 d
- estimate
- Type
- Desktop app
- PWA: runs in the browser, installs on Mac and Windows
- Market since
- 2016
- Established market · AI estimate
ScreensConcept
Desktop app: DevOps teams write rules, run dry-tests, and review audit logs across hosts—detailed policy work at a desk. Sample screens on a computer, in the proposed brand. Their numbers are sample data.
Edit policy
Draft- Clienttraefik
About this appAI proposal
Gatewarden sits between your containers and the Docker socket. Each container gets only the API calls you allow, written as simple rules with regular expressions for paths, methods and resource names. Nothing else gets through.
It is built for DevOps engineers and platform teams who today use a socket proxy with fixed on/off switches per API section. Gatewarden adds a policy editor, a dry-run mode that shows what a rule would block, and a log of every allowed and denied call.
The proxy is meant to be a small, memory-safe binary with no runtime dependencies. A hosted dashboard manages policies across hosts and keeps the audit trail. The proxy keeps enforcing its last policy if the dashboard is unreachable.
- Tagline
- Give each container only the Docker access it needs.
- Voice
- PreciseCalmDirect
- Why this name
- A warden controls a gate and admits only who is allowed. That is what the proxy does at the Docker socket.
In the first version
Members say which features they would use. It tells PWAS what people want; it changes no score.
Regex rules per route and method
Allow or deny Docker API calls by method, path and resource name pattern, not only by broad API section.
No member yet
Dry-run before enforcing
Replay recent traffic against a draft policy and see which calls would be blocked before you ship it.
No member yet
One policy per client container
Give Traefik, a CI runner and a monitoring agent each their own narrow rules on the same socket.
No member yet
Audit log of every call
Searchable record of allowed and denied requests with client, route and time, exportable for reviews.
No member yet
Brand identityAI proposal
Check the name against trademark registers before using it.
Palette
#1F2A33Deep Slate · primary#F6F4EEPaper · surface#16202AInk · text#E0A030Signal Amber · accent#3F7D5AMoss · data allow#B5473ABrick · data deny
Typography
Aa
Gatewarden
PricingAI proposal
The material gives no competitor prices; the two named proxies are open-source projects. These tiers are a starting point to test, with a free proxy and paid hosted management.
Open core
Free
- Single-host proxy
- Regex rules
- Local log file
Team
$19 a month
- Up to 5 hosts
- Hosted dashboard
- Dry-run replay
- 30-day audit log
Platform
$79 a month
- Up to 50 hosts
- Fleet view
- 1-year audit log export
- Priority support
Would you pay Team · $19 a month?
Your answer tells PWAS which prices people accept. It changes no score.
No answers yet.
What it could be worthEstimate
What a software business making this much sells for today, from real deals. Pick a monthly revenue.
If it makes
Worth about
$194,000
Sale range $132,000 to $263,000
$120,000 a year in revenue
From 87 software businesses listed and sold on Empire Flippers in the last year, revenue vetted by the broker: they sell for about 19× their monthly revenue, most between 13× and 26×.
Measured on profit, the middle deal is 32× monthly net profit: about 2.7 years of profit.
An estimate, not an offer or financial advice. A real price depends on profit, growth, churn, how much of the work is the owner's, and the buyer.
How it would growAI proposal
How the product would reach new customers through its own use, and how the first ones would be found. A plan to test, not a result.
- Built-in loop
- No loop in the product. Reaches customers through open-source repository visibility, documentation and content. The proxy runs on private hosts, so use is not visible to others.
- Do they become customers?
- Users who find the free proxy are the same people who could buy the dashboard. Test whether teams with several hosts pay for shared policies and audit logs.
- First customers
- Platform engineers at small companies running Docker on 3 to 20 self-managed hosts, who give CI runners or reverse proxies socket access.
- Where to reach them
- GitHub and docs: Publish the free proxy with ready policy examples for common tools and a comparison guide.
- Self-hosting communities: Share policy templates in homelab and DevOps forums, and invite feedback on the rule format.
- First milestone
- Five teams with at least three hosts each pay for the Team tier within 60 days of launch.
Why people already pay for this
- VerifiedGitHub repository gained 445 stars in 1119 days
- Public claimExisting Docker socket proxy tools lack modern security design, flexible configuration, and memory-safe implementation in production containers.
Tech stack
Every proposal builds on the same PWA base, installable from the browser on any phone or computer. Dashed boxes are what this app adds.
- AppNext.js and TypeScript
- PWAManifest and service worker
- UITailwind CSS
- Data and authSupabase Postgres
- PaymentsStripe
- EmailResend
- HostingVercel
- This app · Proxy binaryMemory-safe compiled language (Rust or Go)The enforcement point must be small, dependency-free and safe, and ship as a container image.
- This app · Agent channelSigned policy pull over HTTPSHosts fetch and verify policies and send logs without opening inbound ports.
RisksAI inference
- TechnicalA proxy that mishandles Docker's streaming and hijacked connections (exec, attach, events) can break clients or let calls bypass rules.
- CommercialFree open-source proxies already work for many teams. Paying for hosted management on top of a free proxy is unproven.
- DataAudit logs may contain container names, image names and environment details that customers consider sensitive.
- PlatformDocker API changes between versions could break regex rules or route matching.
- CommercialEvidence shows repository interest (445 stars), not willingness to pay for a hosted layer.
Everything marked AI proposal or AI inference was written by a model from the evidence on the opportunity page. The proposed name must be checked against trademark registers before it is used.