Nexus does support a lot of types of artifacts like docker images, npm packages, maven packages, etc. This means it is a good choice for a artifactory. It is also very easy to setup and use. The downside of Nexus is it can get messy very easy because it has so much features. My recommendation is to use Nexus for storing docker images, composer(php) and maven packages.
Nexus also can be like a proxy for other repositories like npmjs, maven central, etc. This has as advantage that you can use your own nexus repository as a proxy for other repositories. When you use a package from a other repository it will be stored inside your nexus repository. This way you can use your own nexus repository as a cache for other repositories.
Nexus also has a rest api what can be used to push and pull artifacts. This is very useful when you want to automate the process of pushing and pulling artifacts.
It also has multi tenancy support what means you can create multiple repositories for different users. This is very useful when you have multiple teams that use the same nexus repository.
You can also limit access to the repositories by using roles and users. This is very useful when you want to limit access to the repositories.
You can also run Nexus inside a docker container. This is very useful when you want to run Nexus inside a container. And this is also very useful when you want to run Nexus inside a Kubernetes cluster.
Examples how to use the nexus api:
-
list all repos available
curl -u user:pwd -X GET 'http://{host}:8081/service/rest/v1/repositories' -
list all components in specific repository
curl -u user:pwd -X GET 'http://{host}:8081/service/rest/v1/components?repository=<INSERT_REPO>' -
list all assets for specific component
curl -u user:pwd -X GET 'http://6{host}:8081/service/rest/v1/components/<ID>'