diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 116e55eb30..4f90fb86c4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 ### Linting
 
 - Warn if container access is denied ([#2270](https://github.com/nf-core/tools/pull/2270))
+- Detect if container is 'simple name' and try to contact quay.io server by default ([#2281](https://github.com/nf-core/tools/pull/2281))
 
 ### Modules
 
diff --git a/nf_core/modules/lint/main_nf.py b/nf_core/modules/lint/main_nf.py
index 102d5ead12..90f92d0ff7 100644
--- a/nf_core/modules/lint/main_nf.py
+++ b/nf_core/modules/lint/main_nf.py
@@ -290,8 +290,9 @@ def check_process_section(self, lines, fix_version, progress_bar):
             else:
                 self.failed.append(("docker_tag", "Unable to parse docker tag", self.main_nf))
                 docker_tag = None
-            if l.startswith("biocontainers/"):
-                # When we think it is a biocontainer, assume we are querying quay.io/biocontainers and insert quay.io as prefix
+            # Guess if container name is simple one (e.g. nfcore/ubuntu:20.04)
+            # If so, add quay.io as default container prefix
+            if l.count("/") == 1 and l.count(":") == 1:
                 l = "quay.io/" + l
             url = urlparse(l.split("'")[0])
             # lint double quotes