Cybersecurity · head to head
Avast One vs Steampipe

Avast One
Cybersecurity
All-in-one protection for your digital life
- From
- Free
- Free plan
- Yes

Steampipe
Developer Tools
Query cloud APIs, SaaS tools and code with SQL, with no extract or load step
- From
- Free
- Free plan
- Yes
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Avast One ransomware and Wi-Fi vulnerability protection only on paid plans; Steampipe aGPL-3.0 across all four engines is a procurement blocker at organisations that ban the licence outright, and the network clause reaches any internal portal or service that puts a web interface in front of it.
- They diverge on capability: Avast One covers Antivirus, Steampipe covers SQL over live APIs.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Avast One and Steampipe actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 Avast One
- Antivirus
- Firewall
- VPN
- Data breach monitoring
- Email Guardian
- Webcam Shield
- Ransomware Shield
- Performance optimization
Only in Steampipe
- SQL over live APIs
- Wide plugin set
- Embedded Postgres
- Compliance benchmarks
- Joins across providers
- Hosted option
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Avast One
- Antivirusnot Steampipe
- Internet Securitynot Steampipe
- Privacy Toolsnot Steampipe
Steampipe
- Security teams answering posture questions against live cloud accounts rather than a nightly exportnot Avast One
- Compliance evidence gathering where the answer must reflect the account at the moment it is askednot Avast One
- Inventory and drift questions spanning several cloud providers in one querynot Avast One
- Engineers who would rather write SQL than learn each provider command line toolnot Avast One
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Avast One
- Ransomware and Wi-Fi vulnerability protection only on paid plans
- Free plan VPN is limited, no data breakthrough monitoring
- Rebuilt app in May 2026 may have stability issues
Steampipe
- AGPL-3.0 across all four engines is a procurement blocker at organisations that ban the licence outright, and the network clause reaches any internal portal or service that puts a web interface in front of it.
- Dashboards, benchmarks and mods were removed from Steampipe entirely at version 1.0 in October 2024 and now live in a separate product, so pre-2024 documentation and tutorials describe commands that no longer exist.
- Live querying is bound by cloud provider API rate limits and keeps no persistent store by default, which is why a separate DuckDB-backed product exists for log volumes and why large accounts return slowly.
- The company is fifteen people and bootstrapped, maintaining four command line tools plus a hosted service plus two further products, and the newer tools have thin community traction relative to that surface area.
- Hosted tiers include only three users regardless of tier, with additional Enterprise users charged separately, so a team of thirty costs an order of magnitude more than the headline figure before compute and storage are counted.
Pricing, plan by plan
Avast One
Free- FreeFree
- Antivirus
- Limited VPN
- Privacy tools
- Silver$2.99/month
- Enhanced antivirus
- VPN
- Device cleanup
- Premium$4.19/month
- Full antivirus
- VPN with 55 servers
- Password manager
- Premium Plus$11.67/month
- All Premium features
- 30 devices covered
Steampipe
Free- Steampipe CLIFree
- AGPL-3.0
- All plugins
- No user or query limits
- Pipes DeveloperFree
- One user
- 400 compute minutes
- 3GB storage
- Pipes Team$49/month
- Three users
- 2,000 compute minutes
- 20GB storage
- Pipes Enterprise$249/month
- Three users
- 10,000 compute minutes
- 100GB storage
Which should you pick?
Choose Avast One if
- You need antivirus.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android.
- You also want firewall.
Choose Steampipe if
- You need sql over live apis.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker, Web.
- You also want wide plugin set.
Questions people ask
- Is Avast One or Steampipe better?
- Neither clearly leads. Avast One starts at Free and Steampipe at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Avast One or Steampipe?
- Avast One starts at Free and Steampipe at Free.
- Does Avast One or Steampipe run on more platforms?
- Avast One runs on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android. Steampipe runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker, Web.
- Can I use Avast One for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Avast One best used for?
- Avast One is most often used for antivirus, internet security, privacy tools. Of those, antivirus and internet security are not what Steampipe is typically brought in for.
- What can Avast One do that Steampipe cannot?
- Avast One covers Antivirus, Firewall, VPN, Data breach monitoring. Steampipe covers SQL over live APIs, Wide plugin set, Embedded Postgres, Compliance benchmarks.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Avast One: Is Avast One free?
Yes. Avast One offers a free tier with antivirus, VPN (limited), and privacy tools. Paid plans start at $2.99/month for Silver and $4.19/month for Premium covering up to 5 devices.
SourceSteampipe: When did Steampipe become AGPL?
May 2021, about four months after the project went public. It is a settled licence rather than a recent change, and predates the Business Source Licence wave it is often confused with.
Avast One: What does Avast One include?
Avast One provides antivirus, VPN, password manager, device cleanup, Wi-Fi security, data breach monitoring, and protection against AI-generated scams and deepfakes.
SourceSteampipe: Where did the dashboards and benchmarks go?
Into Powerpipe. They were deprecated in March 2024 and removed from Steampipe at version 1.0 in October 2024, so the check, dashboard, mod and variable commands are gone.
Avast One: Does Avast One have ransomware protection?
Ransomware protection is available only on paid plans, not the free tier. Free users get antivirus and basic protection only.
SourceSteampipe: Is it fast on a large cloud estate?
Not always. Queries call provider APIs at request time, so rate limits rather than query planning set the pace, and there is no persistent store by default.
Steampipe: Does the AGPL affect internal use?
Running it internally for your own analysis is fine. Putting a web interface in front of it that other people use is where the network clause becomes a question for your legal team.
Steampipe: Is a bootstrapped vendor a risk?
It cuts both ways. There is no investor pressure toward a licence change or an exit, and there are also fifteen people supporting a large product surface.
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