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Developer Tools · head to head

Earthly vs Recorded Future

Earthly logo

Earthly

Developer Tools

Engineering guardrails for the AI era

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Recorded Future logo

Recorded Future

Cybersecurity

Intelligence-driven cybersecurity

From
$25000/year
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Earthly has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Earthly pricing model not published; requires sales contact; Recorded Future no pricing published; all three tiers (Core, Professional, Elite) require sales contact for quotes
  • They diverge on capability: Earthly covers Policy as code, Recorded Future covers Real-time threat intelligence.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Earthly and Recorded Future actually diverge.

Attributes where Earthly and Recorded Future differ
AttributeEarthlyRecorded Future
Starting priceFree$25000/year
Pricing modelNo pricing published on websitesubscription
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, CLIWeb, Api, Cloud
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCybersecurity
Founded20202009

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 Earthly

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

Only in Recorded Future

  • Real-time threat intelligence
  • Vulnerability intelligence
  • Internet-wide data analysis
  • Insikt group intelligence
  • Brand intelligence
  • API-first platform
  • Alert and notification system
  • Custom reporting

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

Recorded Future

  • Threat intelligence and monitoringnot Earthly
  • Dark web monitoring and brand protectionnot Earthly
  • Third-party risk managementnot Earthly
  • Security operations and incident responsenot 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

Recorded Future

  • No pricing published; all three tiers (Core, Professional, Elite) require sales contact for quotes
  • Pricing depends on organization size, usage levels, and services in addition to tier selection
  • API usage limits vary by package but limits not specified on pricing page

Pricing, plan by plan

Earthly

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Earthly review.

Recorded Future

$25000/year
  • Threat Intelligence$25000/year
    • Threat feeds
    • IP reputation
    • Domain analysis
  • Vulnerability Intelligence$35000/year
    • CVE monitoring
    • Patch intelligence
    • Vulnerability trending
  • Complete Intelligence$50000/year
    • All features
    • Analyst access
    • Dedicated feed

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 Recorded Future if

  • You need real-time threat intelligence.
  • You work on Web, Api, Cloud.
  • You also want vulnerability intelligence.
Recorded Future review

Questions people ask

Is Earthly or Recorded Future better?
Neither clearly leads. Earthly starts at Free and Recorded Future at $25000/year, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Earthly or Recorded Future?
Earthly has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Earthly and $25000/year for Recorded Future.
Does Earthly or Recorded Future run on more platforms?
Earthly runs on Web, CLI. Recorded Future runs on Web, Api, Cloud.
Can I use Earthly for free?
Yes. Earthly has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Recorded Future starts at $25000/year.
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 Recorded Future is typically brought in for.
What can Earthly do that Recorded Future cannot?
Earthly covers Policy as code, Multi-stage enforcement, AI agent governance, Repository-wide policies. Recorded Future covers Real-time threat intelligence, Vulnerability intelligence, Internet-wide data analysis, Insikt group intelligence.

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
Recorded Future: What are the main pricing tiers offered by Recorded Future?

Recorded Future offers three tiers: Core (foundational intelligence), Professional (marked most-popular with automation and autonomous threat hunts), and Elite (comprehensive coverage including third-party risk assessment). Specific pricing requires contacting sales.

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
Recorded Future: What is included in Recorded Future's Core pricing tier?

Core tier includes cyber operations monitoring with threat and malware insights, digital risk protection covering dark web monitoring and credential detection, and the new digital risk hub. Exact cost depends on organization size and usage.

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
Recorded Future: What features does Recorded Future Professional tier add?

Professional tier adds autonomous threat hunts, continuous threat monitoring, automated threat preventions, external intelligence ingestion, and external asset discovery. Pricing is custom-quoted based on organization size and services.

Source
Recorded Future: How does Recorded Future handle user limits and API access?

Recorded Future does not limit the number of platform users or integrations across any tier. API usage limits vary by package tier but exact limits are not specified on the public pricing page.

Source
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