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Developer Tools · head to head

Garden vs Yoti

Garden logo

Garden

Developer Tools

Kubernetes development and testing automation with shared caching, now owned by Incredibuild

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Yoti logo

Yoti

Cybersecurity

Reusable digital identity, facial age estimation and identity verification

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Garden has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Garden incredibuild acquired Garden in November 2024 and the pricing page now redirects to documentation, so there is no public commercial offer and no published roadmap for a team betting a platform on it.; Yoti age estimation returns a probabilistic range rather than a verified date of birth, so it only works with a safety buffer above the legal threshold and cannot prove an exact age.
  • They diverge on capability: Garden covers Action graph, Yoti covers Facial age estimation.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Garden and Yoti actually diverge.

Attributes where Garden and Yoti differ
AttributeGardenYoti
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feequote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsLinux, macOS, Windows, KubernetesWeb, iOS, Android, API
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCybersecurity

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 Garden

  • Action graph
  • Shared result caching
  • Remote Kubernetes environments
  • In-cluster builds
  • Same config everywhere
  • Hot reload sync
  • Helm and Kustomize support
  • Templating

Only in Yoti

  • Facial age estimation
  • Reusable digital ID
  • Identity verification
  • UK right to work and rent
  • Digital ID for retail
  • Selective disclosure

What people use each for

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

Garden

  • A platform team whose integration test suite takes longer than the coffee break and needs caching to cut the loopnot Yoti
  • An organisation with thirty or more services on Kubernetes where docker-compose no longer approximates productionnot Yoti
  • Giving every developer an ephemeral namespace instead of queuing for one shared staging environmentnot Yoti
  • Running the identical build and test definition locally and in CI so failures reproduce on a laptopnot Yoti

Yoti

  • A social platform meeting UK Online Safety Act age assurance duties without collecting identity documents from teenagersnot Garden
  • A supermarket removing staff interventions at self-checkout for age-restricted purchasesnot Garden
  • A UK employer running digital right-to-work checks under the certified trust framework rather than inspecting passportsnot Garden
  • A gambling operator needing an age gate with high completion rates before the account funding stepnot Garden

Where each one falls short

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

Garden

  • Incredibuild acquired Garden in November 2024 and the pricing page now redirects to documentation, so there is no public commercial offer and no published roadmap for a team betting a platform on it.
  • It is tightly bound to Kubernetes, so teams running on ECS, Nomad, plain VMs or serverless get little from it and would need a different tool entirely.
  • The YAML action graph is a real configuration surface: a large monorepo needs someone to own and maintain Garden config as a first-class artefact, which is a standing platform-engineering cost.
  • Shared remote environments mean every developer needs cluster access and a cost allocation model, so cloud spend rises and namespace sprawl becomes a thing you have to police.
  • Caching correctness depends on declaring dependencies accurately; an under-declared action will serve a stale cached pass and hide a genuine test failure, which is a hard class of bug to notice.

Yoti

  • Age estimation returns a probabilistic range rather than a verified date of birth, so it only works with a safety buffer above the legal threshold and cannot prove an exact age.
  • Estimation accuracy varies by demographic and reported error margins widen at the age bands that matter most for eighteen-year thresholds, which pushes borderline users into a document fallback you still have to pay for.
  • Pricing is not published, so buyers cannot compare the cost of an estimation check against a document check without going through sales.
  • Regulatory acceptance of facial estimation differs by jurisdiction, so a method that satisfies Ofcom may not satisfy a regulator elsewhere and multi-market platforms need more than one approach.
  • The reusable digital identity app depends on consumer adoption, which is meaningful in the UK and thin elsewhere, limiting the reusability benefit outside its home market.

Pricing, plan by plan

Garden

Free
  • Garden open sourceFree
    • Apache 2.0 licensed CLI
    • Full action graph and caching
    • Self-managed clusters
  • Commercial tier$undefined/year
    • Hosted caching and team features
    • Support and onboarding
    • Pricing no longer published since the Incredibuild acquisition

Yoti

On request
  • Yoti Age and Identity Services$undefined/year
    • Per-check pricing quoted by volume and method
    • Age estimation, document verification and digital ID priced differently
    • Right to work and right to rent checks quoted separately

Which should you pick?

Choose Garden if

  • You need action graph.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows, Kubernetes.
  • You also want shared result caching.
Garden review

Choose Yoti if

  • You need facial age estimation.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android, API.
  • You also want reusable digital id.
Yoti review

Questions people ask

Is Garden or Yoti better?
Neither clearly leads. Garden starts at Free and Yoti at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Garden or Yoti?
Garden has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Garden and On request for Yoti.
Does Garden or Yoti run on more platforms?
Garden runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Kubernetes. Yoti runs on Web, iOS, Android, API.
Can I use Garden for free?
Yes. Garden has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Yoti starts at On request.
What is Garden best used for?
Garden is most often used for a platform team whose integration test suite takes longer than the coffee break and needs caching to cut the loop, an organisation with thirty or more services on kubernetes where docker-compose no longer approximates production, giving every developer an ephemeral namespace instead of queuing for one shared staging environment, running the identical build and test definition locally and in ci so failures reproduce on a laptop. Of those, a platform team whose integration test suite takes longer than the coffee break and needs caching to cut the loop and an organisation with thirty or more services on kubernetes where docker-compose no longer approximates production are not what Yoti is typically brought in for.
What can Garden do that Yoti cannot?
Garden covers Action graph, Shared result caching, Remote Kubernetes environments, In-cluster builds. Yoti covers Facial age estimation, Reusable digital ID, Identity verification, UK right to work and rent.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Garden: Is Garden still maintained?

The open source project remains on GitHub under Incredibuild ownership, but the commercial pricing page redirects to the docs and there is no public paid offer.

Yoti: Does age estimation store my face?

The image is used to produce an estimate and then deleted rather than retained, which is the specific property that makes it usable for age assurance on minors.

Garden: Do I need Kubernetes?

Effectively yes. Garden is built around Kubernetes environments and offers little to teams on other runtimes.

Yoti: Is it accepted for UK Online Safety Act compliance?

Facial age estimation is one of the methods regulators have accepted as highly effective age assurance. Confirm the current position with your own counsel for your content category.

Garden: Does it replace my CI system?

No. It runs inside GitHub Actions, GitLab CI or similar and speeds up what those pipelines execute.

Yoti: Can it prove someone is exactly 21?

No. It gives a range. If you need a precise age you need a document or database check, which Yoti also sells.

Garden: What is the actual saving?

It comes from skipping builds and tests whose inputs have not changed, so the benefit scales with how many services you have and how often only a few change.

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