I have read about Artifactory Registry (from now, Artifactory) from their website, and it seems that AR is described as better than Docker Registry for production environment. However, I can't find any comparison matrix between the two. What specific features that Artifactory provides that Docker Registry doesn't?
For example, I read that Artifactory provides more granular authentication and authorization mechanisms. But does that mean you can't do authorization using Docker Registry?
I am specifically interested in Artifactory Professional version.
Granular Permissions in Artifactory means that instead of just saying 'user x can access my registry' (i.e. adding a collaborator or assigning team and user permissions to your entire private registry in Docker Hub) you can specify exactly what specific images a user can access inside an existing registry without having to create separate ones to serve separate users or groups. Artifactory also bundles a lot more features in terms of security compared to Docker Hub.
Check out the wiki page about docker registries in Artifactory for the detailed explanation, but mainly what Artifactory offers for any package management system (including docker) is the ability to better maintain, trace, and manage your data and metadata - this includes extensive search capabilities using AQL or from the UI, permission management as mentioned, having multiple registries - private or public, licenses, and a bunch of other stuff that you can use that's already included when you get Artifactory.
Also, check this blog post which explains the concept of why Docker images are problematic in production unless you take means to know exactly what you release.