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Developer Tools · head to head

Earthly vs Frontegg

Earthly logo

Earthly

Developer Tools

Engineering guardrails for the AI era

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Frontegg logo

Frontegg

Cybersecurity

Customer identity and access management platform for SaaS applications

From
Free
Free plan
Yes

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Earthly pricing model not published; requires sales contact; Frontegg detailed per-unit pricing beyond the free tier is not published, requiring use of an online calculator or sales contact to estimate costs.
  • They diverge on capability: Earthly covers Policy as code, Frontegg covers Hosted login.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 29 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Earthly and Frontegg actually diverge.

Attributes where Earthly and Frontegg differ
AttributeEarthlyFrontegg
Pricing modelNo pricing published on websiteusage-based
PlatformsWeb, CLIweb, api
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCybersecurity
Founded2020Unknown

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 Frontegg

  • Hosted login
  • Enterprise SSO/SCIM
  • Multi-tenant organizations
  • Custom domains
  • M2M tokens
  • Fraud protection

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 Frontegg
  • Automating incident response procedures across all repositoriesnot Frontegg
  • Embedding compliance requirements into development workflowsnot Frontegg
  • Standardizing build processes with Earthfilesnot Frontegg

Frontegg

  • Adding enterprise SSO/SCIM to a B2B SaaS productnot Earthly
  • Multi-tenant customer identity managementnot Earthly
  • White-labeled, custom-domain login experiencesnot Earthly
  • Securing AI agent access to a SaaS product via Agen.conot 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

Frontegg

  • Detailed per-unit pricing beyond the free tier is not published, requiring use of an online calculator or sales contact to estimate costs.
  • Advanced fraud protection and multiple environments are Enterprise-only, unavailable on the Pay As You Go plan.
  • The 7,500 free monthly active users is comparatively modest next to some competitors' free tiers.
  • As a broader CIAM platform, it can be more complex to integrate than lighter-weight developer-first auth tools for smaller apps.

Pricing, plan by plan

Earthly

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Earthly review.

Frontegg

Free
  • Pay As You GoFree
    • 7,500 monthly active users included
    • 5 enterprise connections (SSO/SCIM)
    • Unlimited organizations
  • Enterprise$undefined/month
    • Custom pricing
    • Multiple environments
    • Advanced fraud protection

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 Frontegg if

  • You need hosted login.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on web, api.
  • You also want enterprise sso/scim.

Questions people ask

Is Earthly or Frontegg better?
Neither clearly leads. Earthly starts at Free and Frontegg at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Earthly or Frontegg?
Earthly starts at Free and Frontegg at Free.
Does Earthly or Frontegg run on more platforms?
Earthly runs on Web, CLI. Frontegg runs on web, api.
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 Frontegg is typically brought in for.
What can Earthly do that Frontegg cannot?
Earthly covers Policy as code, Multi-stage enforcement, AI agent governance, Repository-wide policies. Frontegg covers Hosted login, Enterprise SSO/SCIM, Multi-tenant organizations, Custom domains.

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
Frontegg: What does Frontegg cost?

Frontegg's Pay As You Go plan is free up to 7,500 monthly active users, after which pricing scales with users, enterprise connections and M2M tokens via an online calculator; Enterprise pricing is custom.

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
Frontegg: Is there a free plan and what are its limits?

Yes, the free Pay As You Go plan includes 7,500 monthly active users, 5 enterprise SSO/SCIM connections, unlimited organizations, and a custom domain.

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
Frontegg: How is usage metered?

Pricing is consumption-based, driven by monthly active users, monthly enterprise connections (SSO/SCIM), and monthly M2M tokens, with customers paying only for usage beyond the free 7,500-user threshold.

Source
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