Cybersecurity · head to head
Cosign vs Yoti
Cosign
Cybersecurity
Signs and verifies container images and artifacts, with or without managing keys
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Yoti
Cybersecurity
Reusable digital identity, facial age estimation and identity verification
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
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.; Yoti age estimation returns a probabilistic range rather than a verified date of birth, so it only works with a safety buffer above the legal threshold and cannot prove an exact age.
- They diverge on capability: Cosign covers Keyless signing, Yoti covers Facial age estimation.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Cosign and Yoti actually diverge.
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 Yoti
- Facial age estimation
- Reusable digital ID
- Identity verification
- UK right to work and rent
- Digital ID for retail
- Selective disclosure
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 Yoti
- Attaching a signed bill of materials to a release so consumers can verify its provenancenot Yoti
- Meeting a customer or regulatory requirement for signed artifactsnot Yoti
- Verifying third-party images before they enter an internal registrynot Yoti
Yoti
- A social platform meeting UK Online Safety Act age assurance duties without collecting identity documents from teenagersnot Cosign
- A supermarket removing staff interventions at self-checkout for age-restricted purchasesnot Cosign
- A UK employer running digital right-to-work checks under the certified trust framework rather than inspecting passportsnot Cosign
- A gambling operator needing an age gate with high completion rates before the account funding stepnot 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.
Yoti
- Age estimation returns a probabilistic range rather than a verified date of birth, so it only works with a safety buffer above the legal threshold and cannot prove an exact age.
- Estimation accuracy varies by demographic and reported error margins widen at the age bands that matter most for eighteen-year thresholds, which pushes borderline users into a document fallback you still have to pay for.
- Pricing is not published, so buyers cannot compare the cost of an estimation check against a document check without going through sales.
- Regulatory acceptance of facial estimation differs by jurisdiction, so a method that satisfies Ofcom may not satisfy a regulator elsewhere and multi-market platforms need more than one approach.
- The reusable digital identity app depends on consumer adoption, which is meaningful in the UK and thin elsewhere, limiting the reusability benefit outside its home market.
Pricing, plan by plan
Cosign
Free- CosignFree
- Apache-2.0
- Public Sigstore infrastructure free to use
- No usage limits published
Yoti
On request- Yoti Age and Identity Services$undefined/year
- Per-check pricing quoted by volume and method
- Age estimation, document verification and digital ID priced differently
- Right to work and right to rent checks 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.
Choose Yoti if
- You need facial age estimation.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android, API.
- You also want reusable digital id.
Questions people ask
- Is Cosign or Yoti better?
- Neither clearly leads. Cosign starts at Free and Yoti at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Cosign or Yoti?
- Cosign has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Cosign and On request for Yoti.
- Does Cosign or Yoti run on more platforms?
- Cosign runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker. Yoti runs on Web, iOS, Android, API.
- Can I use Cosign for free?
- Yes. Cosign has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Yoti 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 Yoti is typically brought in for.
- What can Cosign do that Yoti cannot?
- Cosign covers Keyless signing, Key and KMS signing, Registry-native storage, In-toto attestations. Yoti covers Facial age estimation, Reusable digital ID, Identity verification, UK right to work and rent.
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.
Yoti: Does age estimation store my face?
The image is used to produce an estimate and then deleted rather than retained, which is the specific property that makes it usable for age assurance on minors.
Cosign: Is signing alone enough?
No. Verification is a command somebody runs. Without an admission controller enforcing it, an unsigned image still runs.
Yoti: Is it accepted for UK Online Safety Act compliance?
Facial age estimation is one of the methods regulators have accepted as highly effective age assurance. Confirm the current position with your own counsel for your content category.
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.
Yoti: Can it prove someone is exactly 21?
No. It gives a range. If you need a precise age you need a document or database check, which Yoti also sells.
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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