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Cybersecurity · head to head

Cosign vs Omada Identity

Cosign logo

Cosign

Cybersecurity

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Omada Identity logo

Omada Identity

Cybersecurity

Identity governance and administration focused on access certification and compliance evidence

From
On request
Rated
-
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.; Omada Identity pricing is per managed identity, so organisations with large numbers of contractors, service accounts or seasonal staff pay governance fees on identities nobody is really governing.
  • They diverge on capability: Cosign covers Keyless signing, Omada Identity covers Access certification.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Cosign and Omada Identity actually diverge.

Attributes where Cosign and Omada Identity differ
AttributeCosignOmada Identity
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feequote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsmacOS, Linux, Windows, DockerWeb

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 Cosign

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

Only in Omada Identity

  • Access certification
  • Joiner mover leaver
  • Role modelling
  • Segregation of duties
  • Access request
  • Connectors

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 Omada Identity
  • Attaching a signed bill of materials to a release so consumers can verify its provenancenot Omada Identity
  • Meeting a customer or regulatory requirement for signed artifactsnot Omada Identity
  • Verifying third-party images before they enter an internal registrynot Omada Identity

Omada Identity

  • An organisation whose auditors flagged that access recertification is run on spreadsheets and cannot be evidencednot Cosign
  • A company with high staff turnover where leavers keep access to systems weeks after their last daynot Cosign
  • A regulated firm needing documented segregation of duties across finance and ERP entitlementsnot Cosign
  • A business that abandoned a previous multi-year IGA implementation and needs something that reaches production this yearnot 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.

Omada Identity

  • Pricing is per managed identity, so organisations with large numbers of contractors, service accounts or seasonal staff pay governance fees on identities nobody is really governing.
  • It governs access but provides no single sign-on, multi-factor authentication or privileged session management, so it is always a second or third identity subscription rather than a consolidation.
  • The fast-deployment promise depends on accepting its standard process model; organisations with genuinely unusual entitlement structures end up in custom work and the timeline advantage disappears.
  • Connector coverage is strong for mainstream enterprise systems and thin for bespoke or industry-specific applications, and each custom connector is a project with ongoing maintenance.
  • Data quality in the HR system determines whether joiner mover leaver automation works, so companies with messy HR records find the tool exposes that problem rather than solving it.

Pricing, plan by plan

Cosign

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

Omada Identity

On request
  • Omada Identity Cloud$undefined/year
    • Priced per managed identity per year
    • SaaS on Microsoft Azure with regional deployment options
    • Implementation delivered on a defined methodology, quoted separately

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 Omada Identity if

  • You need access certification.
  • You also want joiner mover leaver.
Omada Identity review

Questions people ask

Is Cosign or Omada Identity better?
Neither clearly leads. Cosign starts at Free and Omada Identity at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Cosign or Omada Identity?
Cosign has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Cosign and On request for Omada Identity.
Does Cosign or Omada Identity run on more platforms?
Cosign runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker. Omada Identity runs on Web.
Can I use Cosign for free?
Yes. Cosign has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Omada Identity starts at On request.
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 Omada Identity is typically brought in for.
What can Cosign do that Omada Identity cannot?
Cosign covers Keyless signing, Key and KMS signing, Registry-native storage, In-toto attestations. Omada Identity covers Access certification, Joiner mover leaver, Role modelling, Segregation of duties.

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.

Omada Identity: Does it provide single sign-on?

No. Omada is governance only. You still need Entra ID, Okta or equivalent for authentication.

Cosign: Is signing alone enough?

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

Omada Identity: How is it licensed?

Per managed identity per year. Count contractors and service accounts before you compare quotes, because they usually count.

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.

Omada Identity: How long does deployment take?

Months rather than years is the positioning, and it is achievable if you accept the standard process model. Heavy customisation returns you to traditional IGA timelines.

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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