Technology · head to head
Canny vs Steampipe
Canny
Technology
Capture, organize, and analyze product feedback
- 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: Canny tracked user pricing model causes costs to balloon as product grows and engagement increases, creating perverse incentive where more successful feedback gathering means higher costs; 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: Canny covers Feedback boards, 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 Canny 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 Canny
- Feedback boards
- Voting system
- Roadmap planning
- Changelog
- User segmentation
- Status updates
- Admin moderation
- Analytics
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.
Canny
- Feature request managementnot Steampipe
- Product roadmappingnot Steampipe
- Customer feedback collectionnot Steampipe
- Changelog communicationnot Steampipe
- User engagementnot Steampipe
Steampipe
- Security teams answering posture questions against live cloud accounts rather than a nightly exportnot Canny
- Compliance evidence gathering where the answer must reflect the account at the moment it is askednot Canny
- Inventory and drift questions spanning several cloud providers in one querynot Canny
- Engineers who would rather write SQL than learn each provider command line toolnot Canny
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Canny
- Tracked user pricing model causes costs to balloon as product grows and engagement increases, creating perverse incentive where more successful feedback gathering means higher costs
- Limited integrations on Core plan; must upgrade to Pro to connect with Jira and Linear
- Lacks built-in analytics for identifying themes and patterns across hundreds of feedback requests without manual tagging
- Customizations limited for public-facing interfaces regarding branding and information presentation
- Autopilot AI cannot be linked to product knowledge bases to better understand products and improve function
- Slow response times reported by users, affecting feedback management efficiency
- Limited custom user fields and manual data updates require API access
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
Canny
Free- FreeFree
- Up to 100 tracked users
- Unlimited feedback
- 1 board
- Starter$400/month
- 1,000 tracked users
- Unlimited boards
- Private boards
- Growth$900/month
- 5,000 tracked users
- API access
- SSO
- Business$undefined/month
- Unlimited tracked users
- White label
- SLA
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 Canny if
- You need feedback boards.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Claude AI (MCP).
- You also want voting system.
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 Canny or Steampipe better?
- Neither clearly leads. Canny 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, Canny or Steampipe?
- Canny starts at Free and Steampipe at Free.
- Does Canny or Steampipe run on more platforms?
- Canny runs on Web, Claude AI (MCP). Steampipe runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker, Web.
- Can I use Canny for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Canny best used for?
- Canny is most often used for feature request management, product roadmapping, customer feedback collection, changelog communication. Of those, feature request management and product roadmapping are not what Steampipe is typically brought in for.
- What can Canny do that Steampipe cannot?
- Canny covers Feedback boards, Voting system, Roadmap planning, Changelog. Steampipe covers SQL over live APIs, Wide plugin set, Embedded Postgres, Compliance benchmarks.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Canny: Does Canny offer a free plan?
Yes. Canny offers a free plan that allows collecting up to 100 feedback ideas. Free users get basic features without roadmap, changelog, or integrations.
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.
Canny: How is Canny priced?
Canny pricing scales based on tracked users. Core starts at $19/month (100 users, annual), Pro starts at $79/month (100 users, annual). Prices increase as tracked users grow.
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.
Canny: What is a tracked user in Canny?
A tracked user is anyone who posts, votes, or comments on your Canny board or embedded widget. Each unique end user counts once and the count accumulates.
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.
Canny: What is Canny Autopilot?
Canny Autopilot is an AI feature that automatically captures feature requests from communication tools like Gong, Intercom, Slack, and Zendesk. It prioritizes requests by revenue impact.
SourceSteampipe: 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.
Canny: Does Canny have a public roadmap feature?
Yes. Canny provides a public roadmap where customers can see what is planned, building, and shipped. Customers can vote on features and watch their feedback progress.
SourceSteampipe: 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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