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Cybersecurity · head to head

Cosign vs Incode

Cosign logo

Cosign

Cybersecurity

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

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Incode logo

Incode

Government

Financial & HR Software for Government

From
$700/month
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Cosign has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Incode incode is now sold as Tyler ERP Pro and tylertech.com/products/incode redirects to the ERP Pro product page
  • They diverge on capability: Cosign covers Keyless signing, Incode covers General Ledger.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Cosign and Incode actually diverge.

Attributes where Cosign and Incode differ
AttributeCosignIncode
Starting priceFree$700/month
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feesubscription
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsmacOS, Linux, Windows, DockerWeb, Desktop
CategoryCybersecurityGovernment
FoundedUnknown1966

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 Cosign

  • Keyless signing
  • Key and KMS signing
  • Registry-native storage
  • In-toto attestations
  • Offline verification
  • Trusted root and signing config

Only in Incode

  • General Ledger
  • Accounts Payable
  • Payroll Management
  • Utility Billing
  • Budget Management
  • Bank Integrations
  • ADP
  • Third-party Payroll

What people use each for

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

Cosign

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

Incode

  • Financial management and ERP for small and mid-sized local governmentsnot Cosign
  • Utility billing, payroll and human resources for city and county administrationnot Cosign
  • Court and public safety records for municipalitiesnot Cosign

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Incode

  • Incode is now sold as Tyler ERP Pro and tylertech.com/products/incode redirects to the ERP Pro product page
  • No pricing is published; Tyler routes all enquiries through contact and demo requests with no published rate, minimum or cost driver
  • The product is sold only to public sector organisations

Pricing, plan by plan

Cosign

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

Incode

$700/month
  • Municipal Suite$700/month
    • Financial Management
    • HR/Payroll
    • Utility Billing

Which should you pick?

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

Choose Incode if

  • You need general ledger.
  • You work on Web, Desktop.
  • You also want accounts payable.
Incode review

Questions people ask

Is Cosign or Incode better?
Neither clearly leads. Cosign starts at Free and Incode at $700/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Cosign or Incode?
Cosign has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Cosign and $700/month for Incode.
Does Cosign or Incode run on more platforms?
Cosign runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker. Incode runs on Web, Desktop.
Can I use Cosign for free?
Yes. Cosign has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Incode starts at $700/month.
What is Cosign best used for?
Cosign is most often used for signing container images in a build pipeline without managing long-lived private keys, attaching a signed bill of materials to a release so consumers can verify its provenance, meeting a customer or regulatory requirement for signed artifacts, verifying third-party images before they enter an internal registry. Of those, signing container images in a build pipeline without managing long-lived private keys and attaching a signed bill of materials to a release so consumers can verify its provenance are not what Incode is typically brought in for.
What can Cosign do that Incode cannot?
Cosign covers Keyless signing, Key and KMS signing, Registry-native storage, In-toto attestations. Incode covers General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Payroll Management, Utility Billing.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

Cosign: Is signing alone enough?

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

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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