Cybersecurity · head to head
Cosign vs Passbolt
Cosign
Cybersecurity
Signs and verifies container images and artifacts, with or without managing keys
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Passbolt
Cybersecurity
Open-source password manager for teams with self-hosted or cloud deployment
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- 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.; Passbolt pro Edition requires a minimum of 10 users, making it costlier for very small teams.
- They diverge on capability: Cosign covers Keyless signing, Passbolt covers Password sharing and folders.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Cosign and Passbolt actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 Passbolt
- Password sharing and folders
- Groups and role-based access
- Browser extensions and CLI
- Open API
- LDAP provisioning and SSO
- Activity audit log
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 Passbolt
- Attaching a signed bill of materials to a release so consumers can verify its provenancenot Passbolt
- Meeting a customer or regulatory requirement for signed artifactsnot Passbolt
- Verifying third-party images before they enter an internal registrynot Passbolt
Passbolt
- Self-hosting a team password manager for data sovereigntynot Cosign
- Provisioning vault access from an existing LDAP/AD directorynot Cosign
- Sharing credentials across engineering or IT teams via folders and groupsnot Cosign
- Automating credential retrieval through the CLI or open APInot 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.
Passbolt
- Pro Edition requires a minimum of 10 users, making it costlier for very small teams.
- Community Edition lacks SSO and LDAP provisioning, which many organizations need for onboarding at scale.
- Self-hosting the Community Edition requires infrastructure and maintenance effort compared to fully managed competitors.
- Enterprise-tier support and HA consulting require custom, quote-based pricing rather than transparent rates.
Pricing, plan by plan
Cosign
Free- CosignFree
- Apache-2.0
- Public Sigstore infrastructure free to use
- No usage limits published
Passbolt
Free- Community EditionFree
- Unlimited users
- Password sharing and folders
- Role-based access control
- Pro Edition$4.9/month
- Minimum 10 users, billed annually
- LDAP/AD provisioning
- Single sign-on
- Enterprise Edition$undefined/month
- High availability and disaster recovery consulting
- White-glove migration
- Custom feature development
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.
Choose Passbolt if
- You need password sharing and folders.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on web, windows, mac, linux, api.
- You also want groups and role-based access.
Questions people ask
- Is Cosign or Passbolt better?
- Neither clearly leads. Cosign starts at Free and Passbolt at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Cosign or Passbolt?
- Cosign starts at Free and Passbolt at Free.
- Does Cosign or Passbolt run on more platforms?
- Cosign runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker. Passbolt runs on web, windows, mac, linux, api.
- Can I use Cosign for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- 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 Passbolt is typically brought in for.
- What can Cosign do that Passbolt cannot?
- Cosign covers Keyless signing, Key and KMS signing, Registry-native storage, In-toto attestations. Passbolt covers Password sharing and folders, Groups and role-based access, Browser extensions and CLI, Open API.
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.
Passbolt: Is Passbolt free to use?
Yes. The Community Edition is free forever with unlimited users, including password sharing, folders, groups, role-based access, browser extensions, a CLI, and an open API.
SourceCosign: Is signing alone enough?
No. Verification is a command somebody runs. Without an admission controller enforcing it, an unsigned image still runs.
Passbolt: What does the Pro Edition cost and add?
Pro Edition costs $4.90 per user per month billed annually, with a 10-user minimum, and adds LDAP/AD provisioning, single sign-on, account recovery escrow, activity audit logs, and next-business-day support.
SourceCosign: 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.
Passbolt: What license is Passbolt distributed under?
All Passbolt editions, including Pro and Enterprise, are distributed under the AGPL v3 open-source license.
SourceCosign: 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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