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Cybersecurity · head to head

BeyondTrust vs Cosign

BeyondTrust logo

BeyondTrust

Cybersecurity

Privileged access management, endpoint privilege management and secure remote access

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Cosign logo

Cosign

Cybersecurity

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Cosign has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: BeyondTrust the product lines came from separate origins and still have separate consoles, so buying the suite does not deliver the single pane of glass the bundle implies.; 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: BeyondTrust covers Password Safe, Cosign covers Keyless signing.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which BeyondTrust and Cosign actually diverge.

Attributes where BeyondTrust and Cosign differ
AttributeBeyondTrustCosign
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWindows, macOS, Linux, WebmacOS, Linux, Windows, Docker

Identical on both: 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 BeyondTrust

  • Password Safe
  • Endpoint Privilege Management
  • Privileged Remote Access
  • Remote Support
  • Discovery
  • Session recording

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.

BeyondTrust

  • An organisation removing local administrator rights across thousands of Windows endpoints without swamping the service desknot Cosign
  • A utility required to record every privileged session on operational systems for regulatory auditnot Cosign
  • A firm giving external maintenance vendors access to specific servers without handing over credentialsnot Cosign
  • A helpdesk consolidating remote support and privileged access onto one audited path rather than an unmanaged remote toolnot Cosign

Cosign

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

Where each one falls short

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

BeyondTrust

  • The product lines came from separate origins and still have separate consoles, so buying the suite does not deliver the single pane of glass the bundle implies.
  • Licensing metrics differ between products, per managed account, per endpoint, per concurrent session, which makes multi-product quotes hard to compare with competitors and hard to forecast as you grow.
  • Self-hosted deployments carry real infrastructure and upgrade burden, and organisations without a dedicated PAM administrator find the system drifts out of maintenance.
  • Endpoint privilege management requires sustained rule authoring as applications change, so the first-year saving in helpdesk tickets erodes if nobody owns the policy afterwards.
  • Discovery finds far more privileged accounts than most organisations expect, which is valuable but converts a licence purchase into a longer remediation programme before the control is real.

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

BeyondTrust

On request
  • BeyondTrust Platform$undefined/year
    • Password Safe priced by managed asset or account
    • Endpoint Privilege Management priced per endpoint
    • Remote access products priced per concurrent licence or endpoint

Cosign

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

Which should you pick?

Choose BeyondTrust if

  • You need password safe.
  • You work on Windows, macOS, Linux, Web.
  • You also want endpoint privilege management.
BeyondTrust 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 BeyondTrust or Cosign better?
Neither clearly leads. BeyondTrust 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, BeyondTrust or Cosign?
Cosign has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for BeyondTrust and Free for Cosign.
Does BeyondTrust or Cosign run on more platforms?
BeyondTrust runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, 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. BeyondTrust starts at On request.
What is BeyondTrust best used for?
BeyondTrust is most often used for an organisation removing local administrator rights across thousands of windows endpoints without swamping the service desk, a utility required to record every privileged session on operational systems for regulatory audit, a firm giving external maintenance vendors access to specific servers without handing over credentials, a helpdesk consolidating remote support and privileged access onto one audited path rather than an unmanaged remote tool. Of those, an organisation removing local administrator rights across thousands of windows endpoints without swamping the service desk and a utility required to record every privileged session on operational systems for regulatory audit are not what Cosign is typically brought in for.
What can BeyondTrust do that Cosign cannot?
BeyondTrust covers Password Safe, Endpoint Privilege Management, Privileged Remote Access, Remote Support. Cosign covers Keyless signing, Key and KMS signing, Registry-native storage, In-toto attestations.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

BeyondTrust: Is endpoint privilege management sold separately from the vault?

Yes. They are distinct products with distinct licensing metrics, and many customers buy only one.

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.

BeyondTrust: Can it record vendor sessions?

Yes, with credential injection so the third party never learns the password, and full video and keystroke recording for audit.

Cosign: Is signing alone enough?

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

BeyondTrust: Is there a FedRAMP option?

BeyondTrust offers FedRAMP-authorised deployments for United States government buyers, which is often the deciding factor in that sector.

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.

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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