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Developer Tools · head to head

Earthly vs Endor Labs

Earthly logo

Earthly

Developer Tools

Engineering guardrails for the AI era

From
Free
Rated
-
Endor Labs logo

Endor Labs

Cybersecurity

Security and AI agent governance for code and supply chain

From
Free
Rated
-

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Earthly pricing model not published; requires sales contact; Endor Labs pricing requires contacting sales, no transparent rates
  • They diverge on capability: Earthly covers Policy as code, Endor Labs covers AI coding agent governance.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 29 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Earthly and Endor Labs actually diverge.

Attributes where Earthly and Endor Labs differ
AttributeEarthlyEndor Labs
Pricing modelNo pricing published on websiteSeat-based per contributing developer with volume discounts
PlatformsWeb, CLIWeb, CLI, IDE
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCybersecurity
Founded20202021

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 Earthly

  • Policy as code
  • Multi-stage enforcement
  • AI agent governance
  • Repository-wide policies
  • Incident response automation
  • Compliance management
  • Earthfiles build tool
  • Satellites

Only in Endor Labs

  • AI coding agent governance
  • SAST scanning
  • Secrets detection
  • Reachability analysis
  • Open source dependency scanning
  • Package firewall
  • MCP server integration

What people use each for

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

Earthly

  • Enforcing engineering standards across AI and human developersnot Endor Labs
  • Automating incident response procedures across all repositoriesnot Endor Labs
  • Embedding compliance requirements into development workflowsnot Endor Labs
  • Standardizing build processes with Earthfilesnot Endor Labs

Endor Labs

  • Securing AI coding agent outputs before deploymentnot Earthly
  • Reducing SAST false positives with reachability analysisnot Earthly
  • Managing open source supply chain risknot Earthly
  • Enforcing security policies in CI/CD pipelinesnot Earthly

Where each one falls short

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

Earthly

  • Pricing model not published; requires sales contact
  • Earthly Lunar is a recent launch (2025) with limited track record
  • Primarily GitHub-focused; limited integration with other platforms
  • No public documentation on pricing or feature tiers

Endor Labs

  • Pricing requires contacting sales, no transparent rates
  • Developer tier lacks UI and historical scan data
  • Free tier limited to local scanning only
  • Seat-based model may become expensive for large teams

Pricing, plan by plan

Earthly

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Earthly review.

Endor Labs

Free
  • DeveloperFree
    • Local scanning
    • Read-only vulnerability data
    • No UI, policies, or scan history

Which should you pick?

Choose Earthly if

  • You need policy as code.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, CLI.
  • You also want multi-stage enforcement.

Choose Endor Labs if

  • You need ai coding agent governance.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, CLI, IDE.
  • You also want sast scanning.

Questions people ask

Is Earthly or Endor Labs better?
Neither clearly leads. Earthly starts at Free and Endor Labs at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Earthly or Endor Labs?
Earthly starts at Free and Endor Labs at Free.
Does Earthly or Endor Labs run on more platforms?
Earthly runs on Web, CLI. Endor Labs runs on Web, CLI, IDE.
Can I use Earthly for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Earthly best used for?
Earthly is most often used for enforcing engineering standards across ai and human developers, automating incident response procedures across all repositories, embedding compliance requirements into development workflows, standardizing build processes with earthfiles. Of those, enforcing engineering standards across ai and human developers and automating incident response procedures across all repositories are not what Endor Labs is typically brought in for.
What can Earthly do that Endor Labs cannot?
Earthly covers Policy as code, Multi-stage enforcement, AI agent governance, Repository-wide policies. Endor Labs covers AI coding agent governance, SAST scanning, Secrets detection, Reachability analysis.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Earthly: What is the difference between Earthfiles and Earthly Lunar?

Earthfiles is an open-source build tool that reached 12,000 GitHub stars and is used by companies like NVIDIA, Intel, and Databricks. Earthly Lunar is a separate governance platform launched in 2025 for enforcing standards across development workflows.

Source
Endor Labs: What is the difference between Endor Labs Developer and paid tiers?

Developer tier is free and provides local scanning via MCP server with read-only vulnerability access and no UI. Paid tiers (Core and Pro) add team features like policy enforcement, enterprise integrations, reporting, and scan history.

Source
Earthly: How does Earthly Lunar enforce standards?

Lunar converts engineering standards, compliance requirements, and processes documented in AGENTS.md files, wikis, and incident postmortems into enforceable guardrails that apply consistently across repositories and development stages.

Source
Endor Labs: How does Endor Labs define seats for pricing?

Seats are calculated per contributing developer (those with commits in monitored repositories within the last 90 days). Volume discounts apply as team size grows.

Source
Earthly: What is the pricing for Earthly Lunar?

Pricing is not published on the website. Interested customers should contact Earthly's sales team for current pricing and feature tiers.

Source
Endor Labs: Does Endor Labs support on-premises deployment?

The platform is cloud-based SaaS by default. Enterprise customers should contact sales to discuss custom deployment options.

Source
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