Is Helm or Steampipe better?

Neither clearly leads. Helm 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, Helm or Steampipe?

Helm starts at Free and Steampipe at Free.

Does Helm or Steampipe run on more platforms?

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

Can I use Helm for free?

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

What is Helm best used for?

Helm is most often used for kubernetes package manager and deployment tool. Of those, kubernetes package manager and deployment tool is not what Steampipe is typically brought in for.

What can Helm do that Steampipe cannot?

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

Developer Tools · head to head

Helm vs Steampipe

Helm

Developer Tools

The package manager for Kubernetes

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: Helm licensed under Apache License 2.0 per the project's GitHub repository (helm/helm LICENSE); as open source software it has no paid tier or vendor price to compare; 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 Helm and Steampipe actually diverge.

Attributes where Helm and Steampipe differ
Attribute	Helm	Steampipe
Pricing model	open-source	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 Helm

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.

Helm

Kubernetes package manager and deployment toolnot Steampipe

Steampipe

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

Where each one falls short

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

Helm

Licensed under Apache License 2.0 per the project's GitHub repository (helm/helm LICENSE); as open source software it has no paid tier or vendor price to compare
Contributors must sign commits under the Developer Certificate of Origin to have them accepted, per helm.sh, a process requirement not all Kubernetes tools impose

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

Helm

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Helm review.

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 Helm if

You want to start without paying.

Helm 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 Helm or Steampipe better?: Neither clearly leads. Helm 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, Helm or Steampipe?: Helm starts at Free and Steampipe at Free.
Does Helm or Steampipe run on more platforms?: Helm runs on Web. Steampipe runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker, Web.
Can I use Helm for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Helm best used for?: Helm is most often used for kubernetes package manager and deployment tool. Of those, kubernetes package manager and deployment tool is not what Steampipe is typically brought in for.
What can Helm do that Steampipe cannot?: Steampipe covers SQL over live APIs, Wide plugin set, Embedded Postgres, Compliance benchmarks.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Helm: How much does Helm cost?

Helm is free and open-source. It is a graduated project in the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) with no commercial pricing model.

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.

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.

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.

Helm vs Steampipe

Helm

Steampipe

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Helm

Only in Steampipe

What people use each for

Helm

Steampipe

Where each one falls short

Helm

Steampipe

Pricing, plan by plan

Helm

Steampipe

Which should you pick?

Choose Helm if

Choose Steampipe if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Helm

More on Steampipe

Keep looking

Other head to heads