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Business Intelligence · head to head

Quid vs Steampipe

Quid logo

Quid

Business Intelligence

Consumer and market intelligence combining social listening with unstructured text network analysis

From
On request
Free plan
No
Visit QuidFull review
Steampipe logo

Steampipe

Developer Tools

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

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit SteampipeFull review

The short version

  • Steampipe starts at $49/mo; Quid prices on request.
  • Only Quid lists social listening; only Steampipe lists SQL over live APIs.
  • Prices and features on this page were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Quid and Steampipe actually diverge.

Attributes where Quid and Steampipe differ
AttributeQuidSteampipe
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelQuoteOpen source, with paid hosting through Turbot Pipes
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWebmacOS, Linux, Windows, Self-hosted, Web
CategoryBusiness IntelligenceDeveloper 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 Quid

  • Social listening
  • Network analysis
  • Non-social data sets
  • Quid Terminal
  • Quid Monitor
  • AI agents
  • Image analytics
  • API access

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.

Quid

  • A corporate strategy team mapping which technology clusters in a patent set are accelerating and which companies own them, before an acquisition decisionnot Steampipe
  • A consumer insights function that wants to know what themes drive negative sentiment about a category rather than counting mentions of its own brandnot Steampipe
  • An innovation group scanning research literature and startup activity for adjacent white space it has no internal expertise innot Steampipe
  • A brand tracking how a reputational incident propagates across news, social and forums with sentiment broken down by theme rather than by channelnot Steampipe

Steampipe

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

Where each one falls short

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

Quid

  • The company has changed name twice, from NetBase to NetBase Quid to Quid, which fragments documentation, third-party comparisons and support material across three brand identities and makes older guidance unreliable
  • Nothing is published on price and contracts sit well above ordinary listening tools, so the evaluation cost is high before you know whether the network analysis will actually be used
  • The network maps require an analyst who knows how to interpret them; teams without a dedicated insights person tend to use the platform as an expensive listening tool and never touch the capability they paid for
  • Historical data depth and source coverage are scoped per contract rather than included, so a question that needs five years of back data can require a contract amendment mid-project
  • Social platform access is subject to the same API restrictions that affect every listening vendor, and coverage of closed networks is thinner than the marketing implies, which matters if your category lives in private communities

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

Quid

On request
  • QuidOn request
    • Quid Terminal analyst workspace
    • Social listening and sentiment
    • Network analysis over patents, filings, news and research

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/mo
    • Three users
    • 2,000 compute minutes
    • 20GB storage
  • Pipes Enterprise$249/mo
    • Three users
    • 10,000 compute minutes
    • 100GB storage

Which should you pick?

Choose Quid if

  • You need social listening.
  • You also want network analysis.
Quid review

Choose Steampipe if

  • You need sql over live apis.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on macOS, Linux, Windows, Self-hosted, Web.
  • You also want wide plugin set.
Steampipe review

Questions people ask

Is Quid or Steampipe better?
Neither clearly leads. Quid 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, Quid or Steampipe?
Steampipe has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Quid and Free for Steampipe.
Does Quid or Steampipe run on more platforms?
Quid runs on Web. Steampipe runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Self-hosted, Web.
Can I use Steampipe for free?
Yes. Steampipe has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Quid starts at On request.
What is Quid best used for?
Quid is most often used for a corporate strategy team mapping which technology clusters in a patent set are accelerating and which companies own them, before an acquisition decision, a consumer insights function that wants to know what themes drive negative sentiment about a category rather than counting mentions of its own brand, an innovation group scanning research literature and startup activity for adjacent white space it has no internal expertise in, a brand tracking how a reputational incident propagates across news, social and forums with sentiment broken down by theme rather than by channel. Of those, a corporate strategy team mapping which technology clusters in a patent set are accelerating and which companies own them, before an acquisition decision and a consumer insights function that wants to know what themes drive negative sentiment about a category rather than counting mentions of its own brand are not what Steampipe is typically brought in for.
What can Quid do that Steampipe cannot?
Quid covers Social listening, Network analysis, Non-social data sets, Quid Terminal. Steampipe covers SQL over live APIs, Wide plugin set, Embedded Postgres, Compliance benchmarks.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Quid: Is this the same company as NetBase?

Yes. NetBase and Quid merged in 2020, traded as NetBase Quid, and now sell under the single Quid brand.

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.

Quid: Is it a social listening tool?

It includes social listening, but the reason to buy it is the network analysis over patents, filings, news and research. If you only need social listening, cheaper tools cover it.

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.

Quid: What does it cost?

Not published. Expect an annual enterprise contract priced by seats, data sources and historical depth.

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.

Quid: Who uses it day to day?

Corporate insights, strategy and innovation analysts more often than social media managers. It rewards someone trained in analysis.

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.

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