Cybersecurity · head to head
Authy vs Sigstore
Authy
Cybersecurity
Twilio's free authenticator app with encrypted cloud backup, mobile only since the desktop clients were withdrawn in 2024.
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Sigstore
Cybersecurity
Free public signing and transparency infrastructure for open source artifacts
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Authy there is no export function for stored TOTP secrets, so moving to a different authenticator means disabling and re-enrolling two-factor authentication on every account individually, which is the reason most users stay rather than a reason anyone should choose it.; Sigstore the security model depends on somebody watching the log. The documentation states that compromise of an identity provider or of Fulcio itself is detectable only if third parties monitor the transparency log, the monitoring tool is a community-tier rather than core project, and almost no consumer runs one.
- They diverge on capability: Authy covers Encrypted cloud backup, Sigstore covers Fulcio.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Authy and Sigstore actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cybersecurity).
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 Authy
- Encrypted cloud backup
- Multi-device sync
- Standard TOTP
- Offline code generation
- App lock
- Multi-device toggle
- Token organisation
- Free with no account tier
Only in Sigstore
- Fulcio
- Rekor
- Keyless signing
- Multi-language clients
- Timestamp authority
- Neutral governance
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Authy
- An individual who wants two-factor authentication on personal accounts and needs it to survive losing or replacing a phonenot Sigstore
- A small team sharing access to a service account where the same tokens must be available on more than one handsetnot Sigstore
- Replacing SMS-based codes with TOTP for someone who would abandon two-factor entirely if recovery were difficultnot Sigstore
- Consolidating tokens scattered across several apps onto one device list with recognisable names and iconsnot Sigstore
Sigstore
- Open source projects signing releases without running a certificate authoritynot Authy
- Organisations meeting a signed-artifact requirement without buying a signing productnot Authy
- Publishing provenance that a consumer can verify independently of younot Authy
- Self-hosting the same components where a public log is unacceptablenot Authy
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Authy
- There is no export function for stored TOTP secrets, so moving to a different authenticator means disabling and re-enrolling two-factor authentication on every account individually, which is the reason most users stay rather than a reason anyone should choose it.
- The Windows, macOS and Linux desktop applications were discontinued in 2024 and stopped working, so any workflow that depended on copying codes on a computer now requires a phone in hand, and users who held tokens only on a desktop client had to restore from backup or re-enrol.
- The account is keyed to a phone number, so an attacker who takes over that number through a SIM swap can begin the device registration flow, and the only remaining control is the backup password that most users set once and cannot recall.
- In 2024 an unauthenticated Twilio endpoint allowed attackers to confirm which numbers from a supplied list were registered Authy accounts, exposing around 33 million phone numbers, which disclosed no codes but handed phishers a validated list of people known to use two-factor authentication.
- It is a free consumer application inside a company that has already retired the paid Authy developer API it once supported, so it carries no revenue of its own, and users should treat its continued existence as a business decision rather than a roadmap commitment.
Sigstore
- The security model depends on somebody watching the log. The documentation states that compromise of an identity provider or of Fulcio itself is detectable only if third parties monitor the transparency log, the monitoring tool is a community-tier rather than core project, and almost no consumer runs one.
- It is a 99.5 percent objective with no service level agreement, which permits several hours of downtime a month and offers no remedy. A pipeline that signs on every build has taken a hard dependency on a free service with no contract behind it.
- Log scale is a live engineering problem rather than a theoretical one. The active shard holds billions of entries, the log has already been sharded twice, and sharding version 1 requires stopping traffic, which is why a replacement was built.
- Ten-minute certificates make trust depend on log availability. Verifying an older signature relies on the log entry proving it was made inside that window, so a lost or unreachable entry can render a valid artifact unverifiable.
- Migration debt is substantial and ongoing. Version 2 of the log is generally available but not the public default, the signing client has an announced breaking release ahead, some official clients lag the new log format, and a post-quantum migration is named as the next break after that.
Pricing, plan by plan
Authy
FreeNo published plan breakdown. See the Authy review.
Sigstore
Free- Public good instanceFree
- Free to everyone with no contract
- 99.5 percent availability objective, not an agreement
- 100KB cap per attestation upload
- Self-hostedFree
- Apache-2.0
- Run your own Fulcio and Rekor
- Rekor v2 available for self-hosters
Which should you pick?
Choose Authy if
- You need encrypted cloud backup.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want multi-device sync.
Choose Sigstore if
- You need fulcio.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows, Self-hosted.
- You also want rekor.
Questions people ask
- Is Authy or Sigstore better?
- Neither clearly leads. Authy starts at Free and Sigstore at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Authy or Sigstore?
- Authy starts at Free and Sigstore at Free.
- Does Authy or Sigstore run on more platforms?
- Authy runs on Web. Sigstore runs on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows, Self-hosted.
- Can I use Authy for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Authy best used for?
- Authy is most often used for an individual who wants two-factor authentication on personal accounts and needs it to survive losing or replacing a phone, a small team sharing access to a service account where the same tokens must be available on more than one handset, replacing sms-based codes with totp for someone who would abandon two-factor entirely if recovery were difficult, consolidating tokens scattered across several apps onto one device list with recognisable names and icons. Of those, an individual who wants two-factor authentication on personal accounts and needs it to survive losing or replacing a phone and a small team sharing access to a service account where the same tokens must be available on more than one handset are not what Sigstore is typically brought in for.
- What can Authy do that Sigstore cannot?
- Authy covers Encrypted cloud backup, Multi-device sync, Standard TOTP, Offline code generation. Sigstore covers Fulcio, Rekor, Keyless signing, Multi-language clients.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Authy: Is Authy still supported?
The mobile apps for iOS and Android are still available and functional. The desktop applications were withdrawn in 2024 and the Authy developer API has been retired in favour of Twilio Verify, so the surrounding product has been shrinking.
Sigstore: Is the public instance really free?
Yes, with no contract and no paid tier. That is also the weakness: a 99.5 percent objective with no agreement, no remedy and support through Slack.
Authy: Can I export my tokens?
No. There is no export of the underlying secrets, by design. Migrating to another authenticator means going to each service, disabling two-factor authentication and setting it up again with the new app.
Sigstore: Has the public log moved to Rekor v2?
No. Version 2 reached general availability in October 2025 and self-hosters can use it, but the public instance still defaults to version 1 and the project has said it will for the foreseeable future.
Authy: What happened to the desktop app?
Twilio announced its discontinuation in March 2024 and the applications stopped working later that year. There is no replacement desktop client; the mobile apps are the product now.
Sigstore: Does Sigstore make my dependencies safe?
No, and this is a category error worth avoiding. It tells you who published something. It has no knowledge of what the artifact contains or whether it is vulnerable.
Authy: Is multi-device sync safe to leave on?
It is the feature most worth understanding. Leaving new device registration enabled means anyone who controls your phone number can attempt to add a device. The usual advice is to turn the multi-device setting off once your devices are registered and turn it on only when you need to add one.
Sigstore: What are the rate limits?
Not published. Only the 100KB cap per attestation upload is documented, so do not design a high-volume pipeline around assumed throughput.
Authy: What if I lose my phone and forget the backup password?
The secrets are encrypted with that password and Twilio does not hold it, so they cannot be recovered. You would fall back to each individual service's account recovery process, which is exactly the situation the backup was meant to avoid.
Sigstore: Should we self-host it?
If a public record of every signature is unacceptable, or if a free service with no agreement cannot sit in your build path, then yes. Otherwise the public instance is what most projects use.
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