Is Earthly or Okta better?

Neither clearly leads. Earthly starts at Free and Okta at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Earthly or Okta?

Earthly starts at Free and Okta at Free.

Does Earthly or Okta run on more platforms?

Earthly runs on Web, CLI. Okta runs on Web, SaaS.

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 Okta is typically brought in for.

What can Earthly do that Okta cannot?

Earthly covers Policy as code, Multi-stage enforcement, AI agent governance, Repository-wide policies. Okta covers Single sign-on (SSO), Multi-factor authentication, Lifecycle management, Universal directory.

Developer Tools · head to head

Earthly vs Okta

Earthly

Developer Tools

Engineering guardrails for the AI era

From: Free
Free plan: Yes

Full review Website

Okta

Technology

The identity platform for builders

From: Free
Free plan: Yes

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Earthly pricing model not published; requires sales contact; Okta requires $1,500 annual minimum contract
They diverge on capability: Earthly covers Policy as code, Okta covers Single sign-on (SSO).
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Earthly and Okta actually diverge.

Attributes where Earthly and Okta differ
Attribute	Earthly	Okta
Pricing model	No pricing published on website	Unknown
Platforms	Web, CLI	Web, SaaS
Category	Developer Tools	Technology
Founded	2020	2009

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 Okta

Single sign-on (SSO)
Multi-factor authentication
Lifecycle management
Universal directory
API access management
B2B integration
Passwordless authentication
Adaptive MFA

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

Okta

Employee SSOnot Earthly
Customer identitynot Earthly
B2B integrationnot Earthly
Zero Trust securitynot Earthly
Compliancenot 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

Okta

Requires $1,500 annual minimum contract
Admin-only MFA can be vulnerable to push notification fatigue attacks
Implementation requires significant services and integration fees in year one

Pricing, plan by plan

Earthly

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Earthly review.

Okta

Free

Starter Suite$6/user/month
- SSO
- MFA
- Universal Directory
Core Essentials Suite$14/user/month
- Adaptive MFA
- Privileged Access
- Lifecycle Management
Essentials Suite$17/user/month
- Same as Core Essentials
- Most popular
Professional Suite$undefined/custom
- Device Access
- Identity Security Posture
- Threat 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.

Earthly review

Choose Okta if

You need single sign-on (sso).
You want to start without paying.
You work on Web, SaaS.
You also want multi-factor authentication.

Okta review

Questions people ask

Is Earthly or Okta better?: Neither clearly leads. Earthly starts at Free and Okta at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Earthly or Okta?: Earthly starts at Free and Okta at Free.
Does Earthly or Okta run on more platforms?: Earthly runs on Web, CLI. Okta runs on Web, SaaS.
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 Okta is typically brought in for.
What can Earthly do that Okta cannot?: Earthly covers Policy as code, Multi-stage enforcement, AI agent governance, Repository-wide policies. Okta covers Single sign-on (SSO), Multi-factor authentication, Lifecycle management, Universal directory.

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

Okta: What is the minimum contract for Okta Workforce Identity?

Okta requires a $1,500 annual minimum contract for Workforce Identity plans. Pricing starts at $6 per user per month (Starter) and ranges to $17 per user per month (Essentials), billed annually.

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

Okta: Does Okta offer a free trial?

Yes, Okta provides a 30-day free trial so customers can explore all product capabilities before committing to a paid plan.

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

Okta: How many pre-built integrations does Okta support?

Okta offers over 7,000 pre-built integrations with popular enterprise applications including Salesforce, Slack, Workday, Box, Confluence, and Zendesk.

Source

Okta: What security features does Okta provide for admins?

Okta provides multi-factor authentication, adaptive MFA, single logout, and identity threat detection and response. However, only 94% of Okta customers have MFA enabled for administrators.

Source

Okta: Can Okta integrate with on-premises directories?

Yes, Okta's Universal Directory and lifecycle management support cloud and on-premises identity sources, including Active Directory and LDAP.

Source

Earthly vs Okta

Earthly

Okta

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Earthly

Only in Okta

What people use each for

Earthly

Okta

Where each one falls short

Earthly

Okta

Pricing, plan by plan

Earthly

Okta

Which should you pick?

Choose Earthly if

Choose Okta if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Earthly

More on Okta

Keep looking

Other head to heads