Member-only story
Still Shipping 1GB Docker Images? Here’s How to Crush Them in Half an Hour
Shrink your images. Speed up your builds. Look like a wizard in front of your team
Introduction
Let’s be real for a second how big is your Docker image?
No, really.
If your answer sounds anything like “about a gig, I think?”, you’re not alone. Most of us have shipped bloated container images without giving it a second thought — Python apps with half of Debian still inside, Node projects that carry an entire node_modules forest, or worse, images so huge they could crash a CI runner just by existing.
But in 2025, that’s no longer acceptable. Between Fargate cost limits, CI/CD speed bottlenecks, and supply chain risks, image size matters now more than ever.
Luckily, shrinking your Docker image isn’t rocket science. In fact, you can go from 1GB to under 100MB in less than 30 minutes — without rewriting your app.
This article isn’t about “best practices” in abstract. It’s a real-world, battle-tested guide packed with:
- Quick wins you can apply today
- Advanced tricks that separate rookies from pros
- Tools like Dive, DockerSlim, and…
