Is Bonfire or Sardine better?

Neither clearly leads. Bonfire starts at On request and Sardine at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Bonfire or Sardine?

Bonfire starts at On request and Sardine at On request.

Does Bonfire or Sardine run on more platforms?

Bonfire runs on Web. Sardine runs on Web, iOS, Android.

What is Bonfire best used for?

Bonfire is most often used for an agency that has lost or nearly lost a bid protest and needs a defensible evaluation record, a procurement team running scoring committees currently held together by spreadsheets and email, a university or health system applying public procurement rules without a public procurement system, an agency wanting suppliers to self register and receive addenda automatically rather than by mailing list. Of those, an agency that has lost or nearly lost a bid protest and needs a defensible evaluation record and a procurement team running scoring committees currently held together by spreadsheets and email are not what Sardine is typically brought in for.

What can Bonfire do that Sardine cannot?

Bonfire covers Solicitation posting, Sealed submission intake, Scored evaluation workspace, Audit trail. Sardine covers Device intelligence, Behaviour biometrics, Scam detection, Onboarding risk scoring.

Government · head to head

Bonfire vs Sardine

Bonfire

Government

Public sector sourcing and bid evaluation software with scored, auditable award decisions

From: On request
Free plan: No

Full review Website

Sardine

Cybersecurity

Device intelligence and behaviour biometrics for fraud and compliance

From: On request
Free plan: No

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Bonfire it is a sourcing and evaluation tool rather than full procure to pay, so requisitions, purchase orders and invoicing stay in the finance system and the join between them is the agency's problem.; Sardine signal quality depends on the SDK being embedded in your own web and mobile clients, so fraud improvements become dependent on your app release cycle and any coverage gap is a blind spot.
They diverge on capability: Bonfire covers Solicitation posting, Sardine covers Device intelligence.
Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Bonfire and Sardine actually diverge.

Attributes where Bonfire and Sardine differ
Attribute	Bonfire	Sardine
Platforms	Web	Web, iOS, Android
Category	Government	Cybersecurity

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), 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 Bonfire

Solicitation posting
Sealed submission intake
Scored evaluation workspace
Audit trail
Supplier portal
Requirement matrices

Only in Sardine

Device intelligence
Behaviour biometrics
Scam detection
Onboarding risk scoring
AML transaction monitoring
Dispute and chargeback handling
Rules editor

What people use each for

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

Bonfire

An agency that has lost or nearly lost a bid protest and needs a defensible evaluation recordnot Sardine
A procurement team running scoring committees currently held together by spreadsheets and emailnot Sardine
A university or health system applying public procurement rules without a public procurement systemnot Sardine
An agency wanting suppliers to self register and receive addenda automatically rather than by mailing listnot Sardine

Sardine

A neobank losing money to authorised push payment scams where the customer genuinely approved the transfernot Bonfire
A crypto exchange trying to detect accounts being operated by remote access rather than by their ownernot Bonfire
A fintech seeing synthetic identity signups that pass document verification but share device characteristicsnot Bonfire
A lender wanting first party fraud signals at application time that a credit bureau file does not containnot Bonfire

Where each one falls short

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

Bonfire

It is a sourcing and evaluation tool rather than full procure to pay, so requisitions, purchase orders and invoicing stay in the finance system and the join between them is the agency's problem.
Since the acquisition path from GTY to GI Partners to Euna Solutions, Bonfire sits in a portfolio alongside products it once competed with, which narrows a shortlist that appears independent.
Suppliers must register on the portal to bid, and small local vendors reliably complain about the extra account, which can reduce responses on low value solicitations.
Pricing is quoted rather than published and scales with solicitation volume, so an agency with a few very large procurements pays a model designed around throughput.
Contract management after award is thin compared with dedicated contract lifecycle products, so agencies often buy a second system for the obligations the award created.

Sardine

Signal quality depends on the SDK being embedded in your own web and mobile clients, so fraud improvements become dependent on your app release cycle and any coverage gap is a blind spot.
Behavioural and device telemetry collection needs a documented lawful basis under GDPR, and EU privacy reviews frequently delay rollouts that were scoped as engineering work.
Pricing is per session or per active user, so a consumer product with many low value sessions pays in proportion to traffic rather than to fraud exposure.
As a younger private company it lacks the enforcement-tested audit history that a bank examiner expects, which makes it a harder sell inside a regulated bank than inside a fintech.
It is strongest on session-time signals and weaker as a system of record for long horizon AML typologies, so larger institutions end up running it alongside a traditional monitoring platform rather than instead of one.

Pricing, plan by plan

Bonfire

On request

Bonfire$undefined/year
- Quoted by agency size and annual solicitation volume
- Supplier side registration is free, which is how the vendor network grows
- Implementation and training quoted separately from subscription

Sardine

On request

Sardine$undefined/year
- Priced per user session or per monthly active user
- Annual contract with volume commitment
- SDK for web, iOS and Android

Which should you pick?

Choose Bonfire if

You need solicitation posting.
You also want sealed submission intake.

Bonfire review

Choose Sardine if

You need device intelligence.
You work on Web, iOS, Android.
You also want behaviour biometrics.

Sardine review

Questions people ask

Is Bonfire or Sardine better?: Neither clearly leads. Bonfire starts at On request and Sardine at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Bonfire or Sardine?: Bonfire starts at On request and Sardine at On request.
Does Bonfire or Sardine run on more platforms?: Bonfire runs on Web. Sardine runs on Web, iOS, Android.
What is Bonfire best used for?: Bonfire is most often used for an agency that has lost or nearly lost a bid protest and needs a defensible evaluation record, a procurement team running scoring committees currently held together by spreadsheets and email, a university or health system applying public procurement rules without a public procurement system, an agency wanting suppliers to self register and receive addenda automatically rather than by mailing list. Of those, an agency that has lost or nearly lost a bid protest and needs a defensible evaluation record and a procurement team running scoring committees currently held together by spreadsheets and email are not what Sardine is typically brought in for.
What can Bonfire do that Sardine cannot?: Bonfire covers Solicitation posting, Sealed submission intake, Scored evaluation workspace, Audit trail. Sardine covers Device intelligence, Behaviour biometrics, Scam detection, Onboarding risk scoring.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Bonfire: Who owns Bonfire?

Euna Solutions. Bonfire was acquired by GTY Technology in 2019, GTY was taken private by GI Partners in 2022, and the portfolio was rebranded Euna Solutions in 2023.

Sardine: Does Sardine do document verification?

It focuses on device, behavioural and transaction signals, and integrates identity verification providers rather than being one. Treat it as complementary to a KYC vendor.

Bonfire: Is it full procure to pay?

No. It covers sourcing and evaluation through award. Purchase orders and invoicing remain in the finance system.

Sardine: What does it need from us to work?

An SDK in your web and mobile applications plus transaction feeds. Without the client side collector you lose the signals that differentiate it.

Bonfire: What is the real value?

A defensible, time stamped evaluation record when an award is protested, which is the expensive failure mode in public procurement.

Sardine: Is pricing published?

No. It is quoted, typically per session or per monthly active user with an annual volume commitment.

Bonfire: Can we see what other agencies pay?

Yes. These contracts are public records. Read several comparable awards before negotiating.

Bonfire vs Sardine

Bonfire

Sardine

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Bonfire

Only in Sardine

What people use each for

Bonfire

Sardine

Where each one falls short

Bonfire

Sardine

Pricing, plan by plan

Bonfire

Sardine

Which should you pick?

Choose Bonfire if

Choose Sardine if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Bonfire

More on Sardine

Keep looking

Other head to heads