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Cybersecurity · head to head

Rapid7 InsightVM vs Steampipe

Rapid7 InsightVM logo

Rapid7 InsightVM

Cybersecurity

Vulnerability management at scale

From
$1.62/month
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
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
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Steampipe has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Rapid7 InsightVM insightVM is now sold inside Exposure Command rather than as a standalone product; 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: Rapid7 InsightVM covers Asset discovery, Steampipe covers SQL over live APIs.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Rapid7 InsightVM and Steampipe actually diverge.

Attributes where Rapid7 InsightVM and Steampipe differ
AttributeRapid7 InsightVMSteampipe
Starting price$1.62/monthFree
Pricing modelusage-basedOpen source, with paid hosting through Turbot Pipes
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, Cloud, ApimacOS, Linux, Windows, Docker, Web
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper Tools
Founded2000Unknown

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 Rapid7 InsightVM

  • Asset discovery
  • Vulnerability scanning
  • Risk prioritization
  • Threat intelligence
  • Custom policies
  • Remediation tracking
  • Compliance reporting
  • 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.

Rapid7 InsightVM

  • Vulnerability management and risk assessmentnot Steampipe
  • Web application security scanningnot Steampipe
  • Cloud infrastructure security monitoringnot Steampipe

Steampipe

  • Security teams answering posture questions against live cloud accounts rather than a nightly exportnot Rapid7 InsightVM
  • Compliance evidence gathering where the answer must reflect the account at the moment it is askednot Rapid7 InsightVM
  • Inventory and drift questions spanning several cloud providers in one querynot Rapid7 InsightVM
  • Engineers who would rather write SQL than learn each provider command line toolnot Rapid7 InsightVM

Where each one falls short

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

Rapid7 InsightVM

  • InsightVM is now sold inside Exposure Command rather than as a standalone product
  • Rapid7 states pricing is not publicly listed and is provided by custom quote based on the customer's environment
  • Billing counts billable assets including devices, software, identities, cloud compute instances and applications, so the asset count grows faster than a device inventory suggests
  • Cloud security, compliance, infrastructure as code scanning and application security testing require the Ultimate package rather than Essentials
  • Volume discounts are described as commonly available for larger asset counts, so smaller buyers pay the higher unit rate

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

Rapid7 InsightVM

$1.62/month
  • InsightVM$1.62/month per asset
    • Vulnerability risk management
    • Unlimited user accounts
    • 24/7 technical support
  • InsightAppSec$175/month
    • Web application security
    • Per application pricing
    • Unlimited user accounts
  • InsightCloudsec$5775/month
    • Cloud security
    • Up to 500 instances
    • Unlimited user accounts

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 Rapid7 InsightVM if

  • You need asset discovery.
  • You work on Web, Cloud, Api.
  • You also want vulnerability scanning.
Rapid7 InsightVM 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 Rapid7 InsightVM or Steampipe better?
Neither clearly leads. Rapid7 InsightVM starts at $1.62/month and Steampipe at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Rapid7 InsightVM or Steampipe?
Steampipe has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $1.62/month for Rapid7 InsightVM and Free for Steampipe.
Does Rapid7 InsightVM or Steampipe run on more platforms?
Rapid7 InsightVM runs on Web, Cloud, Api. 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. Rapid7 InsightVM starts at $1.62/month.
What is Rapid7 InsightVM best used for?
Rapid7 InsightVM is most often used for vulnerability management and risk assessment, web application security scanning, cloud infrastructure security monitoring. Of those, vulnerability management and risk assessment and web application security scanning are not what Steampipe is typically brought in for.
What can Rapid7 InsightVM do that Steampipe cannot?
Rapid7 InsightVM covers Asset discovery, Vulnerability scanning, Risk prioritization, Threat intelligence. Steampipe covers SQL over live APIs, Wide plugin set, Embedded Postgres, Compliance benchmarks.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Rapid7 InsightVM: What is the starting price for Rapid7 InsightVM?

InsightVM starts at $1.62 per month per asset, with example pricing provided for 500-asset deployments.

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.

Rapid7 InsightVM: How much does InsightAppSec cost?

InsightAppSec starts at $175 per month per application for web application security scanning.

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.

Rapid7 InsightVM: What does InsightCloudsec cover?

InsightCloudsec starts at $5,775 per month for cloud security monitoring of up to 500 instances.

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.

Rapid7 InsightVM: Do Rapid7 products include unlimited user accounts?

Yes, all Rapid7 products include unlimited user accounts, 24/7 technical support, single sign-on, and customer-success team access.

Source
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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