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Cybersecurity · head to head

Feedzai vs Steampipe

Feedzai logo

Feedzai

Cybersecurity

Real-time transaction fraud and financial crime detection for banks and payment processors

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Steampipe logo

Steampipe

Developer Tools

Query cloud APIs, SaaS tools and code with SQL, with no extract or load step

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Steampipe has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Feedzai pricing is per transaction with an annual minimum, so a bank with seasonal or growing volume commits to a floor it may not use and pays overage above the band.; Steampipe aGPL-3.0 across all four engines is a procurement blocker at organisations that ban the licence outright, and the network clause reaches any internal portal or service that puts a web interface in front of it.
  • They diverge on capability: Feedzai covers Real-time scoring, Steampipe covers SQL over live APIs.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Feedzai and Steampipe actually diverge.

Attributes where Feedzai and Steampipe differ
AttributeFeedzaiSteampipe
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteOpen source, with paid hosting through Turbot Pipes
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, LinuxmacOS, Linux, Windows, Docker, Web
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper Tools

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 Feedzai

  • Real-time scoring
  • Rule and model hybrid
  • Case manager
  • Behavioural biometrics
  • Model explainability
  • Deployment options

Only in Steampipe

  • SQL over live APIs
  • Wide plugin set
  • Embedded Postgres
  • Compliance benchmarks
  • Joins across providers
  • Hosted option

What people use each for

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

Feedzai

  • A bank joining an instant payments scheme where transfers are irrevocable and post-hoc recovery is impossiblenot Steampipe
  • A card issuer whose existing rules engine cannot be changed without a release, so fraud waves run for daysnot Steampipe
  • An acquirer needing per-merchant risk models rather than one portfolio-wide modelnot Steampipe
  • A bank required by its regulator to explain automated declines to customers, which rules out opaque scoringnot Steampipe

Steampipe

  • Security teams answering posture questions against live cloud accounts rather than a nightly exportnot Feedzai
  • Compliance evidence gathering where the answer must reflect the account at the moment it is askednot Feedzai
  • Inventory and drift questions spanning several cloud providers in one querynot Feedzai
  • Engineers who would rather write SQL than learn each provider command line toolnot Feedzai

Where each one falls short

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

Feedzai

  • Pricing is per transaction with an annual minimum, so a bank with seasonal or growing volume commits to a floor it may not use and pays overage above the band.
  • It sits in the authorisation path, which makes every upgrade a change-controlled event with rollback plans, and the operational burden falls on the bank rather than the vendor.
  • Out of the box models need months of the customer own labelled fraud history before they beat the rules they replace, so the value case starts late.
  • AML and fraud are licensed as separate modules, so institutions expecting one platform fee find the transaction monitoring capability is a second line item.
  • The buyer profile is large institutions, so smaller banks and fintechs face minimums that make per-transaction economics unattractive below significant scale.

Steampipe

  • AGPL-3.0 across all four engines is a procurement blocker at organisations that ban the licence outright, and the network clause reaches any internal portal or service that puts a web interface in front of it.
  • Dashboards, benchmarks and mods were removed from Steampipe entirely at version 1.0 in October 2024 and now live in a separate product, so pre-2024 documentation and tutorials describe commands that no longer exist.
  • Live querying is bound by cloud provider API rate limits and keeps no persistent store by default, which is why a separate DuckDB-backed product exists for log volumes and why large accounts return slowly.
  • The company is fifteen people and bootstrapped, maintaining four command line tools plus a hosted service plus two further products, and the newer tools have thin community traction relative to that surface area.
  • Hosted tiers include only three users regardless of tier, with additional Enterprise users charged separately, so a team of thirty costs an order of magnitude more than the headline figure before compute and storage are counted.

Pricing, plan by plan

Feedzai

On request
  • Feedzai Financial Crime Platform$undefined/year
    • Priced by transaction volume with annual minimum commitment
    • Modules for fraud, AML and account opening licensed separately
    • Cloud, private cloud and on-premises deployment

Steampipe

Free
  • Steampipe CLIFree
    • AGPL-3.0
    • All plugins
    • No user or query limits
  • Pipes DeveloperFree
    • One user
    • 400 compute minutes
    • 3GB storage
  • Pipes Team$49/month
    • Three users
    • 2,000 compute minutes
    • 20GB storage
  • Pipes Enterprise$249/month
    • Three users
    • 10,000 compute minutes
    • 100GB storage

Which should you pick?

Choose Feedzai if

  • You need real-time scoring.
  • You work on Web, Linux.
  • You also want rule and model hybrid.
Feedzai review

Choose Steampipe if

  • You need sql over live apis.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker, Web.
  • You also want wide plugin set.
Steampipe review

Questions people ask

Is Feedzai or Steampipe better?
Neither clearly leads. Feedzai starts at On request and Steampipe at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Feedzai or Steampipe?
Steampipe has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Feedzai and Free for Steampipe.
Does Feedzai or Steampipe run on more platforms?
Feedzai runs on Web, Linux. Steampipe runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker, Web.
Can I use Steampipe for free?
Yes. Steampipe has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Feedzai starts at On request.
What is Feedzai best used for?
Feedzai is most often used for a bank joining an instant payments scheme where transfers are irrevocable and post-hoc recovery is impossible, a card issuer whose existing rules engine cannot be changed without a release, so fraud waves run for days, an acquirer needing per-merchant risk models rather than one portfolio-wide model, a bank required by its regulator to explain automated declines to customers, which rules out opaque scoring. Of those, a bank joining an instant payments scheme where transfers are irrevocable and post-hoc recovery is impossible and a card issuer whose existing rules engine cannot be changed without a release, so fraud waves run for days are not what Steampipe is typically brought in for.
What can Feedzai do that Steampipe cannot?
Feedzai covers Real-time scoring, Rule and model hybrid, Case manager, Behavioural biometrics. Steampipe covers SQL over live APIs, Wide plugin set, Embedded Postgres, Compliance benchmarks.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Feedzai: Can Feedzai run on-premises?

Yes. On-premises and private cloud deployments are supported, which is why it appears in markets where transaction data cannot legally leave the country.

Steampipe: When did Steampipe become AGPL?

May 2021, about four months after the project went public. It is a settled licence rather than a recent change, and predates the Business Source Licence wave it is often confused with.

Feedzai: Does it cover AML as well as fraud?

It does, but transaction monitoring is a separately licensed module. Assume two line items if you want both.

Steampipe: Where did the dashboards and benchmarks go?

Into Powerpipe. They were deprecated in March 2024 and removed from Steampipe at version 1.0 in October 2024, so the check, dashboard, mod and variable commands are gone.

Feedzai: How fast are decisions?

Designed for the authorisation window, typically tens of milliseconds. This is the constraint that rules out batch scoring architectures.

Steampipe: Is it fast on a large cloud estate?

Not always. Queries call provider APIs at request time, so rate limits rather than query planning set the pace, and there is no persistent store by default.

Steampipe: Does the AGPL affect internal use?

Running it internally for your own analysis is fine. Putting a web interface in front of it that other people use is where the network clause becomes a question for your legal team.

Steampipe: Is a bootstrapped vendor a risk?

It cuts both ways. There is no investor pressure toward a licence change or an exit, and there are also fifteen people supporting a large product surface.

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