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Government · head to head

ArchiveSocial vs Cosign

ArchiveSocial logo

ArchiveSocial

Government

Social media archiving that captures public agency accounts as legally defensible open records

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Cosign logo

Cosign

Cybersecurity

Signs and verifies container images and artifacts, with or without managing keys

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Cosign has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: ArchiveSocial coverage depends entirely on third party platform APIs, so when a network restricts or reprices its API the archive's completeness changes for reasons the vendor does not control.; Cosign keyless signing inherits every weakness of the identity provider behind it. Sigstore’s own threat model states that if an identity provider is compromised, Sigstore will issue certificates to those identities, so a compromised account produces perfectly valid signatures.
  • They diverge on capability: ArchiveSocial covers Continuous capture, Cosign covers Keyless signing.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which ArchiveSocial and Cosign actually diverge.

Attributes where ArchiveSocial and Cosign differ
AttributeArchiveSocialCosign
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWebmacOS, Linux, Windows, Docker
CategoryGovernmentCybersecurity

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in ArchiveSocial

  • Continuous capture
  • Deletion and edit capture
  • Authenticated records
  • Records request search
  • Litigation hold export
  • Multi platform coverage

Only in Cosign

  • Keyless signing
  • Key and KMS signing
  • Registry-native storage
  • In-toto attestations
  • Offline verification
  • Trusted root and signing config

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

ArchiveSocial

  • A city whose legal department has flagged deleted social media comments as a records liabilitynot Cosign
  • A police department that must produce social media records under an open records requestnot Cosign
  • An agency under litigation hold needing authenticated social media evidence rather than screenshotsnot Cosign
  • A communications team operating many accounts across departments with no consistent archivingnot Cosign

Cosign

  • Signing container images in a build pipeline without managing long-lived private keysnot ArchiveSocial
  • Attaching a signed bill of materials to a release so consumers can verify its provenancenot ArchiveSocial
  • Meeting a customer or regulatory requirement for signed artifactsnot ArchiveSocial
  • Verifying third-party images before they enter an internal registrynot ArchiveSocial

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

ArchiveSocial

  • Coverage depends entirely on third party platform APIs, so when a network restricts or reprices its API the archive's completeness changes for reasons the vendor does not control.
  • Pricing scales with the number of archived accounts, so an agency where every department runs its own page pays repeatedly for the same compliance obligation.
  • It archives rather than governs, so it will faithfully preserve a policy violation without preventing it, and agencies still need social media policy and training.
  • Since the 2021 CivicPlus acquisition the product is part of a municipal suite, so buyers avoiding that vendor for other reasons are still buying from them.
  • The value is entirely insurance shaped, which makes it a perennial target during budget cuts right up until the first records request it would have answered.

Cosign

  • Keyless signing inherits every weakness of the identity provider behind it. Sigstore’s own threat model states that if an identity provider is compromised, Sigstore will issue certificates to those identities, so a compromised account produces perfectly valid signatures.
  • A signature proves who signed, never whether they should have. The documentation is explicit that Sigstore cannot determine authorisation, so every consumer must write and maintain their own identity and issuer policy or verification means nothing.
  • Nothing is enforced without an admission controller. Signing changes what you can prove, not what runs, and the official policy controller has a small maintainer base for a component sitting in a cluster admission path.
  • Upgrades break pipelines. Version 3 changed defaults, version 4 is announced as removing legacy functionality and roughly half the command line flags, and two official client libraries still lacked support for the new log format as of mid 2026.
  • Signatures do not expire. An artifact signed before a maintainer account was compromised and one signed after are indistinguishable unless somebody is actively monitoring the transparency log, and almost nobody is.

Pricing, plan by plan

ArchiveSocial

On request
  • ArchiveSocial$undefined/year
    • Quoted annually, typically scaled by number of archived accounts
    • Additional accounts and platforms increase the subscription
    • Bundled pricing common for agencies already buying CivicPlus products

Cosign

Free
  • CosignFree
    • Apache-2.0
    • Public Sigstore infrastructure free to use
    • No usage limits published

Which should you pick?

Choose ArchiveSocial if

  • You need continuous capture.
  • You also want deletion and edit capture.
ArchiveSocial review

Choose Cosign if

  • You need keyless signing.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker.
  • You also want key and kms signing.
Cosign review

Questions people ask

Is ArchiveSocial or Cosign better?
Neither clearly leads. ArchiveSocial starts at On request and Cosign at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, ArchiveSocial or Cosign?
Cosign has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for ArchiveSocial and Free for Cosign.
Does ArchiveSocial or Cosign run on more platforms?
ArchiveSocial runs on Web. Cosign runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker.
Can I use Cosign for free?
Yes. Cosign has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. ArchiveSocial starts at On request.
What is ArchiveSocial best used for?
ArchiveSocial is most often used for a city whose legal department has flagged deleted social media comments as a records liability, a police department that must produce social media records under an open records request, an agency under litigation hold needing authenticated social media evidence rather than screenshots, a communications team operating many accounts across departments with no consistent archiving. Of those, a city whose legal department has flagged deleted social media comments as a records liability and a police department that must produce social media records under an open records request are not what Cosign is typically brought in for.
What can ArchiveSocial do that Cosign cannot?
ArchiveSocial covers Continuous capture, Deletion and edit capture, Authenticated records, Records request search. Cosign covers Keyless signing, Key and KMS signing, Registry-native storage, In-toto attestations.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

ArchiveSocial: Why not just export data from the platforms?

Platform exports do not reliably capture deleted or edited content and carry no chain of custody, which is what makes an archive usable as evidence.

Cosign: Does Cosign tell me if an image is vulnerable?

No. It has no vulnerability knowledge whatsoever. It can carry an SBOM as a signed attestation but never reads it. Pair it with a scanner.

ArchiveSocial: Are public comments on our posts records?

In many United States jurisdictions yes, and deleted comments have been the subject of litigation against agencies.

Cosign: Is signing alone enough?

No. Verification is a command somebody runs. Without an admission controller enforcing it, an unsigned image still runs.

ArchiveSocial: Who owns ArchiveSocial?

CivicPlus, which acquired it in 2021 and sells it alongside its municipal website and communications products.

Cosign: What does a bare cosign verify actually prove?

Very little. Without a pinned certificate identity and OIDC issuer, it accepts a valid signature from any identity at all.

ArchiveSocial: How is it priced?

By archived accounts, quoted rather than published. Comparable agency contracts are public records.

Cosign: What is the risk of keyless signing?

Your OIDC provider becomes the root of trust. Compromise of that account yields genuine, verifiable signatures, so account security is the control that matters.

Cosign: Should we expect breaking changes?

Yes. Version 4 is announced to remove roughly half the flags, and a post-quantum migration is named as a further breaking change after that.

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