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Dagger vs VMware Carbon Black

Dagger logo

Dagger

Developer Tools

Programmable CI/CD engine that runs your pipeline as containers on any runner

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
V

VMware Carbon Black

Cybersecurity

Cloud-delivered endpoint protection and EDR, now owned by Broadcom and positioned alongside Symantec.

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Dagger has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Dagger dagger is not a CI provider, so you keep paying for GitHub Actions or GitLab runners underneath it; the Dagger Cloud subscription is an addition to your CI bill, not a replacement for it.; VMware Carbon Black broadcom's enterprise model concentrates direct sales and support on its largest accounts and moves everyone else to resellers, so a mid-size customer can lose named support contacts and face a substantially repriced renewal with limited notice.
  • They diverge on capability: Dagger covers Pipelines as code, VMware Carbon Black covers Endpoint Standard.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Dagger and VMware Carbon Black actually diverge.

Attributes where Dagger and VMware Carbon Black differ
AttributeDaggerVMware Carbon Black
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelPer month per team for Dagger Cloudsubscription
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsLinux, macOS, Windows, Self-hostedDesktop, Api
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCybersecurity
FoundedUnknown2002

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 Dagger

  • Pipelines as code
  • Local and CI parity
  • Content-addressed caching
  • Dagger Functions and modules
  • CI-provider agnostic
  • Dagger Cloud traces
  • GitHub Checks integration
  • Container-native execution

Only in VMware Carbon Black

  • Endpoint Standard
  • Enterprise EDR
  • Audit and Remediation
  • Single sensor
  • Live Response
  • Workload protection
  • Container security
  • Watchlists and feeds

What people use each for

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

Dagger

  • A platform team maintaining near-identical build YAML across forty repositories that wants one versioned module every repository calls insteadnot VMware Carbon Black
  • An engineering organisation migrating off a CI provider that does not want to rewrite every pipeline as part of the migrationnot VMware Carbon Black
  • A team whose engineers waste hours pushing commits to debug CI-only failures and needs to reproduce the exact run locallynot VMware Carbon Black
  • A monorepo where most commits touch a small subset of services and cache-accurate step skipping cuts build minutes materiallynot VMware Carbon Black

VMware Carbon Black

  • A SOC that wants unfiltered endpoint telemetry to hunt over rather than only vendor-generated alertsnot Dagger
  • A vSphere estate that wants workload protection deployed through the hypervisor instead of installing an agent in every guestnot Dagger
  • Replacing signature antivirus after an incident where the incumbent product had no record of what the attacker didnot Dagger
  • An organisation already inside a Broadcom or Symantec enterprise agreement that can consolidate endpoint onto an existing contractnot Dagger

Where each one falls short

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

Dagger

  • Dagger is not a CI provider, so you keep paying for GitHub Actions or GitLab runners underneath it; the Dagger Cloud subscription is an addition to your CI bill, not a replacement for it.
  • Writing pipelines in Go or TypeScript raises the barrier to entry: a release engineer who could edit a YAML step now needs to read code, and the people who can fix a broken build shrink to those comfortable with the SDK.
  • The engine runs as a container on the runner and needs a persistent cache volume to deliver its main benefit, so ephemeral CI runners give you correctness without the speed, and provisioning durable cache storage is extra platform work.
  • The Team plan caps at ten users and ten million events per month; an organisation of any size crosses that quickly and moves to Enterprise pricing that is not published, so cost at scale is unknowable up front.
  • The module ecosystem is young and thinly maintained relative to the marketplace of a mature CI provider, so integrations that exist as a one-line Action often have to be written yourself as a Dagger function.

VMware Carbon Black

  • Broadcom's enterprise model concentrates direct sales and support on its largest accounts and moves everyone else to resellers, so a mid-size customer can lose named support contacts and face a substantially repriced renewal with limited notice.
  • Continuous EDR recording is retained for a defined window and longer retention is a paid tier, so the investigation you most need is often the one whose telemetry has already aged out, and that is discovered during the incident rather than before it.
  • The product assumes an operator: watchlists, policy tuning and alert triage are ongoing work, and organisations without a dedicated analyst or an MDR contract typically leave policies in monitor mode and pay for telemetry that is never reviewed.
  • The sensor operates in the same kernel and file-filter territory as other endpoint agents, so running it alongside an incumbent antivirus, DLP or backup agent commonly produces performance complaints and requires maintained exclusion lists on both sides.
  • Linux sensor support is tied to specific distribution and kernel versions, so a routine operating system upgrade can leave hosts without a supported sensor until a matching build ships, and anything outside the supported list gets no coverage at all.

Pricing, plan by plan

Dagger

Free
  • IndividualFree
    • One user
    • One million events per month
    • Workflow logs and function call traces
  • Team$50/month
    • Up to ten users
    • Ten million events per month
    • Module insights and module catalogue
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Custom user and event limits
    • SSO
    • Managed single-tenant deployment

VMware Carbon Black

On request
  • CB Endpoint StandardFree
    • NGAV
    • Behavioral EDR
    • Device control
  • CB Endpoint AdvancedFree
    • All Standard features
    • Threat hunting
    • Audit and remediation
  • CB Endpoint EnterpriseFree
    • All Advanced features
    • Advanced threat hunting
    • Live response

Which should you pick?

Choose Dagger if

  • You need pipelines as code.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows, Self-hosted.
  • You also want local and ci parity.
Dagger review

Choose VMware Carbon Black if

  • You need endpoint standard.
  • You work on Desktop, Api.
  • You also want enterprise edr.
VMware Carbon Black review

Questions people ask

Is Dagger or VMware Carbon Black better?
Neither clearly leads. Dagger starts at Free and VMware Carbon Black at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Dagger or VMware Carbon Black?
Dagger has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Dagger and On request for VMware Carbon Black.
Does Dagger or VMware Carbon Black run on more platforms?
Dagger runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Self-hosted. VMware Carbon Black runs on Desktop, Api.
Can I use Dagger for free?
Yes. Dagger has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. VMware Carbon Black starts at On request.
What is Dagger best used for?
Dagger is most often used for a platform team maintaining near-identical build yaml across forty repositories that wants one versioned module every repository calls instead, an engineering organisation migrating off a ci provider that does not want to rewrite every pipeline as part of the migration, a team whose engineers waste hours pushing commits to debug ci-only failures and needs to reproduce the exact run locally, a monorepo where most commits touch a small subset of services and cache-accurate step skipping cuts build minutes materially. Of those, a platform team maintaining near-identical build yaml across forty repositories that wants one versioned module every repository calls instead and an engineering organisation migrating off a ci provider that does not want to rewrite every pipeline as part of the migration are not what VMware Carbon Black is typically brought in for.
What can Dagger do that VMware Carbon Black cannot?
Dagger covers Pipelines as code, Local and CI parity, Content-addressed caching, Dagger Functions and modules. VMware Carbon Black covers Endpoint Standard, Enterprise EDR, Audit and Remediation, Single sensor.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Dagger: Does Dagger replace GitHub Actions?

No. Dagger runs inside GitHub Actions or any other CI. It replaces the YAML that describes your pipeline steps, not the trigger and runner layer.

VMware Carbon Black: Who owns Carbon Black now?

Broadcom. It acquired VMware in November 2023, and Carbon Black now sits in Broadcom's enterprise security business alongside Symantec. VMware branding is being phased out.

Dagger: Is the engine open source?

Yes, the Dagger engine and SDKs are open source and free. Dagger Cloud, the observability product, is what costs money.

VMware Carbon Black: Why do the docs use names I do not recognise?

The product has been renamed repeatedly. CB Defense is now Endpoint Standard, CB ThreatHunter is Enterprise EDR and CB LiveOps is Audit and Remediation. Older community answers and runbooks still use the previous names.

Dagger: What is an event in the pricing?

Dagger Cloud meters pipeline telemetry events. One million per month is free; the Team plan at 50 USD per month allows ten million.

VMware Carbon Black: Does it replace my existing antivirus?

Yes on supported Windows, macOS and Linux versions, and running it alongside another antivirus is not recommended because the two agents contend for the same hooks. Check your compliance requirements, as some auditors still ask for a named antivirus product.

Dagger: Can I run the same pipeline on my laptop?

Yes, that is the main reason teams adopt it. The dagger CLI executes the identical graph locally, so CI-only failures become reproducible.

VMware Carbon Black: Do I need a full-time analyst to run it?

To get value from Enterprise EDR, effectively yes. The prevention tier can run with part-time attention, but the hunting and recording capability is only worth its cost if somebody is querying it, which is why many customers buy it through an MDR provider.

VMware Carbon Black: How is it licensed?

Per endpoint, per year, with the capability tier determining the rate and workload and container protection priced separately. Extended EDR data retention is an additional line item.

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