Cybersecurity · head to head
Hanwha Vision vs Steampipe
Hanwha Vision
Cybersecurity
Korean camera maker whose Wisenet WAVE VMS licences are perpetual per channel with no annual renewal
- From
- On request
- Free plan
- No
Steampipe
Developer Tools
Query cloud APIs, SaaS tools and code with SQL, with no extract or load step
- From
- Free
- Free plan
- Yes
The short version
- Only Steampipe has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Hanwha Vision nDAA compliance is confirmed per model and per bill of materials rather than across the brand, and TAA status depends on whether a specific unit was made in Korea or Vietnam, so a buyer with procurement obligations must get both stated on the quote rather than relying on a brand-level claim.; 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: Hanwha Vision covers Wisenet WAVE VMS, 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 Hanwha Vision and Steampipe actually diverge.
| Attribute | Hanwha Vision | Steampipe |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | On request | Free |
| Pricing model | One-time purchase | Open source, with paid hosting through Turbot Pipes |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Platforms | Windows, Linux, Web, iOS, Android | macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker, Web |
| Category | Cybersecurity | Developer 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 Hanwha Vision
- Wisenet WAVE VMS
- On-camera AI
- NDAA and TAA positioning
- Multi-site management
- Open platform
- Wisenet cameras and recorders
- Cybersecurity hardening
- Integration licences
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.
Hanwha Vision
- A federal agency or federal contractor whose procurement rules exclude Section 889 covered manufacturersnot Steampipe
- A school district that wants a fixed one-time software cost rather than a per-camera monthly subscriptionnot Steampipe
- A site running 200 cameras for a decade where a cloud subscription would cost several times a perpetual licencenot Steampipe
- An integrator standardising on one manufacturer for cameras, recorders and VMS to simplify supportnot Steampipe
Steampipe
- Security teams answering posture questions against live cloud accounts rather than a nightly exportnot Hanwha Vision
- Compliance evidence gathering where the answer must reflect the account at the moment it is askednot Hanwha Vision
- Inventory and drift questions spanning several cloud providers in one querynot Hanwha Vision
- Engineers who would rather write SQL than learn each provider command line toolnot Hanwha Vision
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Hanwha Vision
- NDAA compliance is confirmed per model and per bill of materials rather than across the brand, and TAA status depends on whether a specific unit was made in Korea or Vietnam, so a buyer with procurement obligations must get both stated on the quote rather than relying on a brand-level claim.
- Perpetual licences mean you own the servers, storage and patching, so the cost avoided on subscription reappears as IT labour and a hardware refresh every five to seven years.
- Hanwha publishes no list pricing and sells through distributors, so the perpetual-versus-subscription comparison it wins on paper still requires a distributor quote to verify.
- Wisenet WAVE is a solid mid-market VMS but does not match Genetec or Milestone on enterprise features such as federation across independently owned systems, scripted operator procedures or deep access control unification.
- Hanwha Vision is part of Hanwha Group, a large Korean conglomerate spanning defence, chemicals and finance, so the video business is one line among many and roadmap priority is set at a corporate level well above the security division.
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
Hanwha Vision
On request- Wisenet WAVE channel licence$undefined/year
- Perpetual per-channel licence that does not expire once activated
- No annual renewal fee to keep the system running
- Sold singly and in 4, 8, 16, 24 and 48 channel bundles
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 Hanwha Vision if
- You need wisenet wave vms.
- You work on Windows, Linux, Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want on-camera ai.
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.
Questions people ask
- Is Hanwha Vision or Steampipe better?
- Neither clearly leads. Hanwha Vision 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, Hanwha Vision or Steampipe?
- Steampipe has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Hanwha Vision and Free for Steampipe.
- Does Hanwha Vision or Steampipe run on more platforms?
- Hanwha Vision runs on Windows, Linux, Web, iOS, Android. 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. Hanwha Vision starts at On request.
- What is Hanwha Vision best used for?
- Hanwha Vision is most often used for a federal agency or federal contractor whose procurement rules exclude section 889 covered manufacturers, a school district that wants a fixed one-time software cost rather than a per-camera monthly subscription, a site running 200 cameras for a decade where a cloud subscription would cost several times a perpetual licence, an integrator standardising on one manufacturer for cameras, recorders and vms to simplify support. Of those, a federal agency or federal contractor whose procurement rules exclude section 889 covered manufacturers and a school district that wants a fixed one-time software cost rather than a per-camera monthly subscription are not what Steampipe is typically brought in for.
- What can Hanwha Vision do that Steampipe cannot?
- Hanwha Vision covers Wisenet WAVE VMS, On-camera AI, NDAA and TAA positioning, Multi-site management. Steampipe covers SQL over live APIs, Wide plugin set, Embedded Postgres, Compliance benchmarks.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Hanwha Vision: Is Hanwha Vision NDAA compliant?
Hanwha is a South Korean manufacturer and is not among the Section 889 covered entities, which are Hikvision, Dahua, Huawei, ZTE and Hytera, and its cameras do not use banned Chinese system-on-chip processors. Confirm compliance per model on the quote.
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.
Hanwha Vision: Are Wisenet WAVE licences subscriptions?
No. Channel licences are perpetual and do not expire once activated, with no annual renewal fee.
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.
Hanwha Vision: Is Wisenet WAVE the same as Nx Witness?
It is built on the Network Optix platform, so the two share a common core, with Hanwha adding its own camera integration and support.
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.
Hanwha Vision: Is Hanwha TAA compliant?
Many models are, manufactured in South Korea and Vietnam, but TAA is a per-unit question tied to manufacturing origin, so it must be verified model by model.
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.
Related pages
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