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Cybersecurity · head to head

Sigstore vs Sourcegraph

Sigstore logo

Sigstore

Cybersecurity

Free public signing and transparency infrastructure for open source artifacts

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit SigstoreFull review
Sourcegraph logo

Sourcegraph

Developer Tools

Code search and intelligence platform for large codebases with Cody AI assistant

From
$16000/year
Free plan
No
Visit SourcegraphFull review

The short version

  • Sourcegraph is an enterprise code intelligence platform.
  • Sigstore is free; Sourcegraph starts at $16000/yr.
  • Where Sourcegraph falls short: enterprise pricing starting at $16k annually creates significant barrier for small teams.
  • Prices and features on this page were last checked on 13 November 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Sigstore and Sourcegraph actually diverge.

Attributes where Sigstore and Sourcegraph differ
AttributeSigstoreSourcegraph
Starting priceFree$16000/year
Pricing modelOpen source, public instance free to useSubscription
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Linux, macOS, Windows, Self-hostedWeb, Self-hosted
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper 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 Sigstore

  • Fulcio
  • Rekor
  • Keyless signing
  • Multi-language clients
  • Timestamp authority
  • Neutral governance

Only in Sourcegraph

Nothing recorded that Sigstore does not also cover.

What people use each for

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

Sigstore

  • Open source projects signing releases without running a certificate authoritynot Sourcegraph
  • Organisations meeting a signed-artifact requirement without buying a signing productnot Sourcegraph
  • Publishing provenance that a consumer can verify independently of younot Sourcegraph
  • Self-hosting the same components where a public log is unacceptablenot Sourcegraph

Sourcegraph

  • Large-scale code migrations across hundreds of repositoriesnot Sigstore
  • Enterprise governance and code ownership trackingnot Sigstore
  • AI-assisted bug hunting and security pattern detectionnot Sigstore
  • Onboarding engineers into large unfamiliar codebasesnot Sigstore
  • Regulatory compliance and code audit trailsnot Sigstore

Where each one falls short

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

Sigstore

  • The security model depends on somebody watching the log. The documentation states that compromise of an identity provider or of Fulcio itself is detectable only if third parties monitor the transparency log, the monitoring tool is a community-tier rather than core project, and almost no consumer runs one
  • It is a 99.5 percent objective with no service level agreement, which permits several hours of downtime a month and offers no remedy. A pipeline that signs on every build has taken a hard dependency on a free service with no contract behind it
  • Log scale is a live engineering problem rather than a theoretical one. The active shard holds billions of entries, the log has already been sharded twice, and sharding version 1 requires stopping traffic, which is why a replacement was built
  • Ten-minute certificates make trust depend on log availability. Verifying an older signature relies on the log entry proving it was made inside that window, so a lost or unreachable entry can render a valid artifact unverifiable
  • Migration debt is substantial and ongoing. Version 2 of the log is generally available but not the public default, the signing client has an announced breaking release ahead, some official clients lag the new log format, and a post-quantum migration is named as the next break after that

Sourcegraph

  • Enterprise pricing starting at $16k annually creates significant barrier for small teams
  • No free tier or standard plan published; all options require custom sales engagement
  • Complex enterprise-only positioning limits adoption compared to GitHub Copilot's pervasiveness
  • Requires indexing entire codebase; not suitable for small or ephemeral projects

Pricing, plan by plan

Sigstore

Free
  • Public good instanceFree
    • Free to everyone with no contract
    • 99.5 percent availability objective, not an agreement
    • 100KB cap per attestation upload
  • Self-hostedFree
    • Apache-2.0
    • Run your own Fulcio and Rekor
    • Rekor v2 available for self-hosters

Sourcegraph

$16000/year
  • Enterprise$16,000/yr
    • Scales with team size
    • Credits for AI features per user
    • Deep Search

Which should you pick?

Choose Sigstore if

  • You need fulcio.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows, Self-hosted.
  • You also want rekor.
Sigstore review

Choose Sourcegraph if

  • You work on Web, Self-hosted.
Sourcegraph review

Questions people ask

Is Sigstore or Sourcegraph better?
Neither clearly leads. Sigstore starts at Free and Sourcegraph at $16000/year, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Sigstore or Sourcegraph?
Sigstore has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Sigstore and $16000/year for Sourcegraph.
Does Sigstore or Sourcegraph run on more platforms?
Sigstore runs on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows, Self-hosted. Sourcegraph runs on Web, Self-hosted.
Can I use Sigstore for free?
Yes. Sigstore has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Sourcegraph starts at $16000/year.
What is Sigstore best used for?
Sigstore is most often used for open source projects signing releases without running a certificate authority, organisations meeting a signed-artifact requirement without buying a signing product, publishing provenance that a consumer can verify independently of you, self-hosting the same components where a public log is unacceptable. Of those, open source projects signing releases without running a certificate authority and organisations meeting a signed-artifact requirement without buying a signing product are not what Sourcegraph is typically brought in for.
What can Sigstore do that Sourcegraph cannot?
Sigstore covers Fulcio, Rekor, Keyless signing, Multi-language clients.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Sigstore: Is the public instance really free?

Yes, with no contract and no paid tier. That is also the weakness: a 99.5 percent objective with no agreement, no remedy and support through Slack.

Sigstore: Has the public log moved to Rekor v2?

No. Version 2 reached general availability in October 2025 and self-hosters can use it, but the public instance still defaults to version 1 and the project has said it will for the foreseeable future.

Sigstore: Does Sigstore make my dependencies safe?

No, and this is a category error worth avoiding. It tells you who published something. It has no knowledge of what the artifact contains or whether it is vulnerable.

Sigstore: What are the rate limits?

Not published. Only the 100KB cap per attestation upload is documented, so do not design a high-volume pipeline around assumed throughput.

Sigstore: Should we self-host it?

If a public record of every signature is unacceptable, or if a free service with no agreement cannot sit in your build path, then yes. Otherwise the public instance is what most projects use.

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