diff --git a/k8s/base-image/Makefile b/k8s/base-image/Makefile
index 07e538b7..053fbb90 100644
--- a/k8s/base-image/Makefile
+++ b/k8s/base-image/Makefile
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 .PHONY: build push test update clean help
 
+# Detect container engine (podman or docker)
+CONTAINER_CMD := $(shell command -v podman 2>/dev/null || command -v docker 2>/dev/null)
+
 REGISTRY ?= registry.gitlab.com/towerops/towerops
+DOCKERHUB_REGISTRY ?= docker.io/gmcintire
 IMAGE_NAME ?= elixir-runtime
 ERLANG_VERSION ?= 28.3
 ELIXIR_VERSION ?= 1.19.5
@@ -18,34 +22,46 @@ update: build ## Alias for build (rebuilds with latest packages)
 
 test: ## Test the built image
 	@echo "Testing Erlang..."
-	@docker run --rm $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest erl -eval 'erlang:display(erlang:system_info(otp_release)), halt().' -noshell
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) run --rm $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest erl -eval 'erlang:display(erlang:system_info(otp_release)), halt().' -noshell
 	@echo "Testing Elixir..."
-	@docker run --rm $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest elixir --version
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) run --rm $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest elixir --version
 	@echo "Testing locale..."
-	@docker run --rm $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest locale
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) run --rm $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest locale
 	@echo "✅ All tests passed!"
 
-push: ## Push image to registry
-	@docker push $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):$(TAG)
-	@docker push $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest
+push: ## Push image to GitLab and Docker Hub
+	@echo "Pushing to GitLab registry..."
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) push $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):$(TAG)
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) push $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest
+	@echo "Tagging for Docker Hub..."
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) tag $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):$(TAG) $(DOCKERHUB_REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):$(TAG)
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) tag $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest $(DOCKERHUB_REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest
+	@echo "Pushing to Docker Hub..."
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) push $(DOCKERHUB_REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):$(TAG)
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) push $(DOCKERHUB_REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest
 
 pull: ## Pull latest image from registry
-	@docker pull $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) pull $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest
 
 inspect: ## Show image details (size, layers, labels)
 	@echo "Image size:"
-	@docker images $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest --format "table {{.Repository}}:{{.Tag}}\t{{.Size}}\t{{.CreatedAt}}"
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) images $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest --format "table {{.Repository}}:{{.Tag}}\t{{.Size}}\t{{.CreatedAt}}"
 	@echo ""
 	@echo "Image labels:"
-	@docker inspect $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest --format '{{range $$k, $$v := .Config.Labels}}{{$$k}}={{$$v}}{{println}}{{end}}'
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) inspect $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest --format '{{range $$k, $$v := .Config.Labels}}{{$$k}}={{$$v}}{{println}}{{end}}'
 
 clean: ## Remove local images
-	@docker rmi $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):$(TAG) || true
-	@docker rmi $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest || true
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) rmi $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):$(TAG) || true
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) rmi $(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest || true
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) rmi $(DOCKERHUB_REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):$(TAG) || true
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) rmi $(DOCKERHUB_REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME):latest || true
 	@echo "✅ Cleaned local images"
 
 login: ## Login to GitLab container registry
-	@docker login registry.gitlab.com
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) login registry.gitlab.com
+
+login-dockerhub: ## Login to Docker Hub
+	@$(CONTAINER_CMD) login docker.io
 
 # Quick commands
 b: build ## Shortcut for build
diff --git a/k8s/base-image/QUICKSTART.md b/k8s/base-image/QUICKSTART.md
index eefd9ce5..a7bb5080 100644
--- a/k8s/base-image/QUICKSTART.md
+++ b/k8s/base-image/QUICKSTART.md
@@ -2,11 +2,14 @@
 
 ## One-Time Setup
 
+Works with both **Podman** and **Docker** - the scripts auto-detect which one you have installed.
+
 ```bash
 cd k8s/base-image
 
-# Login to GitLab registry
-docker login registry.gitlab.com
+# Login to registries
+make login            # GitLab registry
+make login-dockerhub  # Docker Hub
 
 # Build the base image
 make build
@@ -14,7 +17,7 @@ make build
 # Test it works
 make test
 
-# Push to registry
+# Push to both registries
 make push
 ```
 
@@ -81,14 +84,17 @@ make clean         # Remove local images
 
 **Build fails:**
 ```bash
-# Try with verbose output
+# Try with verbose output (use podman or docker)
+podman build --progress=plain --no-cache -f Dockerfile .
+# or
 docker build --progress=plain --no-cache -f Dockerfile .
 ```
 
 **Can't push to registry:**
 ```bash
 # Re-login
-docker login registry.gitlab.com
+make login
+make login-dockerhub
 ```
 
 **Application crashes with missing library:**
diff --git a/k8s/base-image/README.md b/k8s/base-image/README.md
index 01e651cd..dce6eaf5 100644
--- a/k8s/base-image/README.md
+++ b/k8s/base-image/README.md
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 This directory contains scripts to build a minimal Debian 13 (Trixie) base image with Erlang/OTP and Elixir runtime pre-installed.
 
+## Container Engine Support
+
+The build scripts automatically detect and use either **Podman** or **Docker**, preferring Podman if both are installed. No configuration needed - just install your preferred container engine and the scripts will use it.
+
 ## Why a Custom Base Image?
 
 Building a custom base image provides several benefits:
@@ -66,13 +70,22 @@ Verifies:
 - Elixir is installed and working
 - Locale is configured correctly
 
-### Pushing to Registry
+### Pushing to Registries
 
 ```bash
+# Login to registries (one-time setup)
+make login            # GitLab Container Registry
+make login-dockerhub  # Docker Hub
+
+# Push to both GitLab and Docker Hub
 make push
 ```
 
-Pushes both versioned and `:latest` tags to GitLab Container Registry.
+Automatically pushes to both:
+- **GitLab Container Registry**: `registry.gitlab.com/towerops/towerops/elixir-runtime`
+- **Docker Hub**: `docker.io/gmcintire/elixir-runtime`
+
+Both versioned and `:latest` tags are pushed to each registry.
 
 ## Image Tags
 
diff --git a/k8s/base-image/build.sh b/k8s/base-image/build.sh
index 825e7b8a..bdf7a581 100755
--- a/k8s/base-image/build.sh
+++ b/k8s/base-image/build.sh
@@ -4,6 +4,16 @@ set -euo pipefail
 # Build script for minimal Debian base image with Erlang/OTP and Elixir
 # This script can be re-run to rebuild with latest packages
 
+# Detect container engine (podman or docker)
+if command -v podman &> /dev/null; then
+  CONTAINER_CMD="podman"
+elif command -v docker &> /dev/null; then
+  CONTAINER_CMD="docker"
+else
+  echo "Error: Neither podman nor docker found. Please install one of them."
+  exit 1
+fi
+
 # Configuration
 REGISTRY="${REGISTRY:-registry.gitlab.com/towerops/towerops}"
 IMAGE_NAME="${IMAGE_NAME:-elixir-runtime}"
@@ -23,6 +33,7 @@ TAG_DATED="${TAG_FULL}-${BUILD_DATE//[:-]*/}"  # YYYY-MM-DD format
 echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"
 echo "Building Minimal Debian Base Image"
 echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"
+echo "Container:      ${CONTAINER_CMD}"
 echo "Registry:       ${REGISTRY}"
 echo "Image:          ${IMAGE_NAME}"
 echo "Erlang:         ${ERLANG_VERSION}"
@@ -35,7 +46,7 @@ echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 # Build the image with no cache to ensure latest packages
 echo ""
 echo "🔨 Building image (no cache, pulling latest packages)..."
-docker build \
+$CONTAINER_CMD build \
   --no-cache \
   --pull \
   --build-arg DEBIAN_VERSION="${DEBIAN_VERSION}" \
@@ -62,33 +73,50 @@ echo ""
 
 # Show image size
 echo "📦 Image size:"
-docker images "${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_LATEST}" --format "table {{.Repository}}:{{.Tag}}\t{{.Size}}"
+$CONTAINER_CMD images "${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_LATEST}" --format "table {{.Repository}}:{{.Tag}}\t{{.Size}}"
 echo ""
 
 # Verify image works
 echo "🔍 Verifying image..."
-docker run --rm "${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_LATEST}" erl -eval 'io:format("Erlang/OTP: ~s~n", [erlang:system_info(otp_release)]), halt().' -noshell
-docker run --rm "${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_LATEST}" elixir --version
+$CONTAINER_CMD run --rm "${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_LATEST}" erl -eval 'io:format("Erlang/OTP: ~s~n", [erlang:system_info(otp_release)]), halt().' -noshell
+$CONTAINER_CMD run --rm "${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_LATEST}" elixir --version
 echo ""
 
 # Ask if user wants to push
-read -p "Push to registry? (y/N) " -n 1 -r
+read -p "Push to registries? (y/N) " -n 1 -r
 echo ""
 if [[ $REPLY =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then
-  echo "🚀 Pushing to registry..."
-  docker push "${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_FULL}"
-  docker push "${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_LATEST}"
-  docker push "${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_DATED}"
+  echo "🚀 Pushing to GitLab registry..."
+  $CONTAINER_CMD push "${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_FULL}"
+  $CONTAINER_CMD push "${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_LATEST}"
+  $CONTAINER_CMD push "${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_DATED}"
   echo ""
-  echo "✅ Pushed successfully!"
+
+  echo "🚀 Tagging for Docker Hub..."
+  DOCKERHUB_REGISTRY="docker.io/gmcintire"
+  $CONTAINER_CMD tag "${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_FULL}" "${DOCKERHUB_REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_FULL}"
+  $CONTAINER_CMD tag "${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_LATEST}" "${DOCKERHUB_REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_LATEST}"
+  $CONTAINER_CMD tag "${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_DATED}" "${DOCKERHUB_REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_DATED}"
+
+  echo "🚀 Pushing to Docker Hub..."
+  $CONTAINER_CMD push "${DOCKERHUB_REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_FULL}"
+  $CONTAINER_CMD push "${DOCKERHUB_REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_LATEST}"
+  $CONTAINER_CMD push "${DOCKERHUB_REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_DATED}"
+  echo ""
+
+  echo "✅ Pushed successfully to both registries!"
   echo ""
   echo "Update your main Dockerfile to use:"
-  echo "  ARG RUNNER_IMAGE=\"${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_FULL}\""
+  echo "  GitLab: ARG RUNNER_IMAGE=\"${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_FULL}\""
+  echo "  Docker Hub: ARG RUNNER_IMAGE=\"${DOCKERHUB_REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_FULL}\""
 else
   echo "⏭️  Skipping push. To push later, run:"
-  echo "  docker push ${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_FULL}"
-  echo "  docker push ${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_LATEST}"
-  echo "  docker push ${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_DATED}"
+  echo "  $CONTAINER_CMD push ${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_FULL}"
+  echo "  $CONTAINER_CMD push ${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_LATEST}"
+  echo "  $CONTAINER_CMD push ${REGISTRY}/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_DATED}"
+  echo "  $CONTAINER_CMD push docker.io/gmcintire/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_FULL}"
+  echo "  $CONTAINER_CMD push docker.io/gmcintire/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_LATEST}"
+  echo "  $CONTAINER_CMD push docker.io/gmcintire/${IMAGE_NAME}:${TAG_DATED}"
 fi
 
 echo ""