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Developer Tools · head to head

Keycloak vs Syft

Keycloak logo

Keycloak

Developer Tools

Open-source identity and access management server.

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Syft logo

Syft

Cybersecurity

Generates a software bill of materials from images, filesystems and archives

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Keycloak requires self-hosted deployment and operational expertise to install, configure and maintain; Syft lockfile parsing can drop packages silently. An open issue filed in August 2026 reports the yarn v1 cataloguer returning 118 of 745 packages with no error raised, which means a complete bill of materials and an 84 percent incomplete one look identical to the caller.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Keycloak and Syft actually diverge.

Attributes where Keycloak and Syft differ
AttributeKeycloakSyft
Pricing modelopen-sourceOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsSelf-hosted, Docker, Kubernetes, Linux, Windows, APImacOS, Linux, Windows, Docker
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCybersecurity

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 Keycloak

Nothing recorded that Syft does not also cover.

Only in Syft

  • Multi-format output
  • Broad ecosystem coverage
  • Binary classifiers
  • In-toto attestations
  • Library and CLI
  • Pairs with Grype

What people use each for

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

Keycloak

  • Organisations requiring self-hosted identity infrastructure for compliance or data residencynot Syft
  • Companies with existing LDAP/Active Directory systems needing federated authenticationnot Syft
  • Open-source projects and communities requiring free IAM without licensing costsnot Syft
  • Enterprises building custom identity workflows requiring fine-grained authorisationnot Syft
  • Teams with sufficient operational expertise to manage infrastructurenot Syft

Syft

  • Producing a bill of materials for a customer or regulator that requires onenot Keycloak
  • Feeding an inventory into a vulnerability scanner rather than scanning images directlynot Keycloak
  • Recording what shipped in a build so a future disclosure can be answered quicklynot Keycloak
  • Public sector work where an SBOM is a contractual deliverablenot Keycloak

Where each one falls short

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

Keycloak

  • Requires self-hosted deployment and operational expertise to install, configure and maintain
  • No managed cloud option provided by Red Hat; organisations must operate infrastructure themselves or use third-party distributions
  • Clustering and high-availability configurations require additional operational knowledge
  • Community support only; commercial support requires third-party vendors or distributions

Syft

  • Lockfile parsing can drop packages silently. An open issue filed in August 2026 reports the yarn v1 cataloguer returning 118 of 745 packages with no error raised, which means a complete bill of materials and an 84 percent incomplete one look identical to the caller.
  • Fidelity varies sharply by ecosystem. Conan for C and C++, Haskell and Terraform get cataloguer support with no licence data, no dependency relationships and no file ownership, so a C and C++ shop gets the least from it.
  • Binary classification yields no licence or dependency metadata, and vendored or statically linked code is exactly where supply chain risk hides, so the blind spot and the risk overlap.
  • Incorrect CPE values and CPE collisions are recorded as open issues, and since Grype matches on CPE and PURL, an inventory error becomes a false negative in the security report downstream.
  • An inventory is not a risk assessment. Even a perfect bill of materials says a vulnerable version is present, never that the vulnerable function is called, and the triage burden lands entirely on the reader.

Pricing, plan by plan

Keycloak

Free
  • Open-sourceFree
    • Full platform functionality
    • Self-hosted deployment
    • Community support

Syft

Free
  • SyftFree
    • Apache-2.0
    • No usage limits
    • Community support
  • Anchore Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Policy enforcement and reporting
    • Federal and commercial tiers
    • Pricing not published, quoted on request

Which should you pick?

Choose Keycloak if

  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Self-hosted, Docker, Kubernetes, Linux, Windows, API.
Keycloak review

Choose Syft if

  • You need multi-format output.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker.
  • You also want broad ecosystem coverage.
Syft review

Questions people ask

Is Keycloak or Syft better?
Neither clearly leads. Keycloak starts at Free and Syft at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Keycloak or Syft?
Keycloak starts at Free and Syft at Free.
Does Keycloak or Syft run on more platforms?
Keycloak runs on Self-hosted, Docker, Kubernetes, Linux, Windows, API. Syft runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker.
Can I use Keycloak for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Keycloak best used for?
Keycloak is most often used for organisations requiring self-hosted identity infrastructure for compliance or data residency, companies with existing ldap/active directory systems needing federated authentication, open-source projects and communities requiring free iam without licensing costs, enterprises building custom identity workflows requiring fine-grained authorisation. Of those, organisations requiring self-hosted identity infrastructure for compliance or data residency and companies with existing ldap/active directory systems needing federated authentication are not what Syft is typically brought in for.
What can Keycloak do that Syft cannot?
Syft covers Multi-format output, Broad ecosystem coverage, Binary classifiers, In-toto attestations.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Keycloak: What protocols does Keycloak support?

Keycloak supports OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0 and SAML 2.0 protocols for authentication and authorisation.

Source
Syft: Does Syft find vulnerabilities?

No. It produces an inventory. Grype, from the same company, matches that inventory against vulnerability feeds. They are separate tools and the distinction is frequently lost.

Keycloak: Can Keycloak integrate with existing user directories?

Yes. Keycloak supports user federation with LDAP and Active Directory systems, allowing organisations to leverage existing user directories.

Source
Syft: Does anything in the Anchore stack do reachability analysis?

No. Neither Syft, Grype nor the commercial Anchore platform performs call graph or reachability analysis, so none of them tells you whether a vulnerable code path is actually invoked.

Keycloak: Is Keycloak free?

Yes. Keycloak is fully open-source and free to deploy and use. No licensing fees are required.

Source
Syft: Is it a CNCF or OpenSSF project?

No. It is single-vendor open source owned by Anchore, with no foundation governance. That is a different licence risk profile from Sigstore.

Syft: What does Anchore Enterprise cost?

Not published. The pricing page is contact-sales only, with named but unpriced commercial and federal tiers.

Syft: How do I know my SBOM is complete?

You largely cannot, which is the honest answer. Silent partial parsing is a known open defect, so a bill of materials used for compliance should be spot-checked against a known dependency list.

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