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Cybersecurity · head to head

BeyondTrust vs Steampipe

BeyondTrust logo

BeyondTrust

Cybersecurity

Privileged access management, endpoint privilege management and secure remote access

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Steampipe logo

Steampipe

Developer Tools

Query cloud APIs, SaaS tools and code with SQL, with no extract or load step

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Steampipe 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.; 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: BeyondTrust covers Password Safe, Steampipe covers SQL over live APIs.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which BeyondTrust and Steampipe actually diverge.

Attributes where BeyondTrust and Steampipe differ
AttributeBeyondTrustSteampipe
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteOpen source, with paid hosting through Turbot Pipes
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWindows, macOS, Linux, WebmacOS, Linux, Windows, Docker, Web
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper Tools

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 BeyondTrust

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

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.

BeyondTrust

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

Steampipe

  • Security teams answering posture questions against live cloud accounts rather than a nightly exportnot BeyondTrust
  • Compliance evidence gathering where the answer must reflect the account at the moment it is askednot BeyondTrust
  • Inventory and drift questions spanning several cloud providers in one querynot BeyondTrust
  • Engineers who would rather write SQL than learn each provider command line toolnot 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.

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

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

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 BeyondTrust if

  • You need password safe.
  • You work on Windows, macOS, Linux, Web.
  • You also want endpoint privilege management.
BeyondTrust review

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.
Steampipe review

Questions people ask

Is BeyondTrust or Steampipe better?
Neither clearly leads. BeyondTrust starts at On request and Steampipe at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, BeyondTrust or Steampipe?
Steampipe has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for BeyondTrust and Free for Steampipe.
Does BeyondTrust or Steampipe run on more platforms?
BeyondTrust runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Web. Steampipe runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker, Web.
Can I use Steampipe for free?
Yes. Steampipe 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 Steampipe is typically brought in for.
What can BeyondTrust do that Steampipe cannot?
BeyondTrust covers Password Safe, Endpoint Privilege Management, Privileged Remote Access, Remote Support. Steampipe covers SQL over live APIs, Wide plugin set, Embedded Postgres, Compliance benchmarks.

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.

Steampipe: 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.

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.

Steampipe: 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.

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.

Steampipe: 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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