Cybersecurity · head to head
Cosign vs Stytch
Cosign
Cybersecurity
Signs and verifies container images and artifacts, with or without managing keys
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Stytch
Cybersecurity
Identity platform with passwordless auth, passkeys and bot detection.
- 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.; Stytch free tier limited to 10,000 monthly active users; scaling beyond this requires custom pricing negotiation
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Cosign and Stytch 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 Stytch
Nothing recorded that Cosign does not also cover.
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 Stytch
- Attaching a signed bill of materials to a release so consumers can verify its provenancenot Stytch
- Meeting a customer or regulatory requirement for signed artifactsnot Stytch
- Verifying third-party images before they enter an internal registrynot Stytch
Stytch
- Applications prioritising passwordless and passkey authenticationnot Cosign
- SaaS platforms requiring AI agent authentication and machine-to-machine flowsnot Cosign
- Companies with emerging identity needs such as bot detection and device intelligencenot Cosign
- Organisations building with Next.js and React requiring modern auth patternsnot Cosign
- Applications needing transparent pricing without surprise tiers or feature gatingnot 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.
Stytch
- Free tier limited to 10,000 monthly active users; scaling beyond this requires custom pricing negotiation
- Fraud prevention capabilities billed at $0.005 per fingerprint for usage exceeding 10,000 free checks
- Additional SSO or SCIM connections beyond the 5 included in free tier cost $125 each
- Brand customisation and email removal require one-time payment of $99
- HIPAA and advanced fraud protection only available in Enterprise tier
- No native UI builder; requires custom frontend development for fully-branded auth flows
Pricing, plan by plan
Cosign
Free- CosignFree
- Apache-2.0
- Public Sigstore infrastructure free to use
- No usage limits published
Stytch
Free- FreeFree
- 10,000 monthly active users and AI agents
- Unlimited organisations
- 5 SSO or SCIM connections
- Scaled$undefined/variable
- Usage-based pricing for users exceeding 10,000
- All free tier features
- Volume discounts available
- Enterprise$undefined/variable
- Custom pricing
- Discounted volume rates
- Enterprise support SLA
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.
Questions people ask
- Is Cosign or Stytch better?
- Neither clearly leads. Cosign starts at Free and Stytch at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Cosign or Stytch?
- Cosign starts at Free and Stytch at Free.
- Does Cosign or Stytch run on more platforms?
- Cosign runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker. Stytch runs on Web, 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 Stytch is typically brought in for.
- What can Cosign do that Stytch cannot?
- Cosign covers Keyless signing, Key and KMS signing, Registry-native storage, In-toto attestations.
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.
Stytch: What is included in Stytch's free tier?
The free tier includes 10,000 monthly active users (human and AI agents), unlimited organisations, 5 SSO or SCIM connections, and 1,000 machine-to-machine tokens with full authentication features.
SourceCosign: Is signing alone enough?
No. Verification is a command somebody runs. Without an admission controller enforcing it, an unsigned image still runs.
Stytch: Does Stytch support AI agent authentication?
Yes. Stytch provides native AI agent authentication and authorisation, with support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP) for authenticating AI agents accessing external systems.
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.
Stytch: What fraud prevention features does Stytch offer?
Stytch includes bot detection with 99.99% accuracy, device fingerprinting, invisible CAPTCHA, and zero-day device intelligence built into all tiers.
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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