Is Harness or Steampipe better?

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

Which is cheaper, Harness or Steampipe?

Harness starts at Free and Steampipe at Free.

Does Harness or Steampipe run on more platforms?

Harness runs on Web. Steampipe runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker, Web.

Can I use Harness for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is Harness best used for?

Harness is most often used for deploying apps to aws, azure, and google cloud with rollbacks, integrating security scanners throughout build pipelines before production, automating cloud cost reduction and tracking unit-level expenses, enabling developers to provision infrastructure without operations bottlenecks. Of those, deploying apps to aws, azure, and google cloud with rollbacks and integrating security scanners throughout build pipelines before production are not what Steampipe is typically brought in for.

What can Harness do that Steampipe cannot?

Steampipe covers SQL over live APIs, Wide plugin set, Embedded Postgres, Compliance benchmarks.

Developer Tools · head to head

Harness vs Steampipe

Harness

Developer Tools

Software delivery platform across CI, CD, security testing and cost management

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Steampipe

Developer Tools

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

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Harness essentials and Enterprise pricing requires sales contact; no published rates; 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.
Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Harness and Steampipe actually diverge.

Attributes where Harness and Steampipe differ
Attribute	Harness	Steampipe
Pricing model	freemium	Open source, with paid hosting through Turbot Pipes
Platforms	Web	macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker, Web

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Developer Tools).

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 Harness

Nothing recorded that Steampipe does not also cover.

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.

Harness

Deploying apps to AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud with rollbacksnot Steampipe
Integrating security scanners throughout build pipelines before productionnot Steampipe
Automating cloud cost reduction and tracking unit-level expensesnot Steampipe
Enabling developers to provision infrastructure without operations bottlenecksnot Steampipe
Assessing deployment frequency and lead time productivity metricsnot Steampipe

Steampipe

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

Where each one falls short

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

Harness

Essentials and Enterprise pricing requires sales contact; no published rates
DevOps Essentials has no on-premises deployment option
Internal Developer Portal requires minimum 20 developer licenses
Pipeline execution history retention 6 months (Essentials) vs 25 months as add-on (Enterprise)

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

Harness

Free

FreeFree
- Starter platform for software delivery lifecycle
- Open source options available (Harness Open Source, Litmus Chaos)
Essentials$null/month
- Growing organizations with small to mid-size teams
- Packaged DevOps Essentials bundle
- Continuous software delivery capabilities
Enterprise$null/month
- Large-scale organizations
- Pick any modules based on needs
- Advanced features

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 Harness if

You want to start without paying.

Harness 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 Harness or Steampipe better?: Neither clearly leads. Harness starts at Free and Steampipe at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Harness or Steampipe?: Harness starts at Free and Steampipe at Free.
Does Harness or Steampipe run on more platforms?: Harness runs on Web. Steampipe runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker, Web.
Can I use Harness for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Harness best used for?: Harness is most often used for deploying apps to aws, azure, and google cloud with rollbacks, integrating security scanners throughout build pipelines before production, automating cloud cost reduction and tracking unit-level expenses, enabling developers to provision infrastructure without operations bottlenecks. Of those, deploying apps to aws, azure, and google cloud with rollbacks and integrating security scanners throughout build pipelines before production are not what Steampipe is typically brought in for.
What can Harness do that Steampipe cannot?: Steampipe covers SQL over live APIs, Wide plugin set, Embedded Postgres, Compliance benchmarks.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Harness: Is there a free Harness plan?

Yes, Harness offers a free plan for individual developers and small teams with open source options including Harness Open Source and Litmus Chaos.

Source

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.

Harness: What are Harness's paid pricing tiers?

Harness offers Essentials for growing teams and Enterprise for large-scale organizations. Both require contacting sales for custom pricing. Pricing is based on modules and features selected.

Source

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.

Harness: Can Harness be deployed on-premises?

Enterprise plans include self-managed platform deployment option. DevOps Essentials bundle does not offer on-premises deployment.

Source

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.

Harness vs Steampipe

Harness

Steampipe

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Harness

Only in Steampipe

What people use each for

Harness

Steampipe

Where each one falls short

Harness

Steampipe

Pricing, plan by plan

Harness

Steampipe

Which should you pick?

Choose Harness if

Choose Steampipe if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Harness

More on Steampipe

Keep looking

Other head to heads