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Cybersecurity · head to head

Silent Eight vs Spacelift

Silent Eight logo

Silent Eight

Cybersecurity

AI adjudication of sanctions screening and AML alerts

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Spacelift logo

Spacelift

Developer Tools

Infrastructure-as-code orchestration for Terraform, OpenTofu, Pulumi and Kubernetes

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Spacelift has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Silent Eight automated disposition has to clear model risk governance and a regulator, and the shadow running period before auto-close is permitted can consume most of the first year of the contract.; Spacelift users are unlimited and private workers are metered, so deployment concurrency rather than headcount drives the bill, which inverts how most engineering budgets are built and is easy to under-forecast.
  • They diverge on capability: Silent Eight covers Alert adjudication, Spacelift covers Multi-tool orchestration.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Silent Eight and Spacelift actually diverge.

Attributes where Silent Eight and Spacelift differ
AttributeSilent EightSpacelift
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteBy private worker and tier, not by user
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, LinuxWeb, Self-hosted, Cloud
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper Tools

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 Silent Eight

  • Alert adjudication
  • Narrative generation
  • Name screening automation
  • Quality assurance
  • Shadow mode
  • Model transparency reporting

Only in Spacelift

  • Multi-tool orchestration
  • Policy as code
  • Private workers
  • Spaces
  • Blueprints
  • Drift detection

What people use each for

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

Silent Eight

  • A bank whose level one screening team spends most of its time closing obvious false name matchesnot Spacelift
  • A payments institution with alert volumes growing faster than it can recruit and train analystsnot Spacelift
  • A compliance function asked by a regulator to demonstrate consistency of alert decisions across offshore teamsnot Spacelift
  • An institution that has just tightened screening thresholds after an enforcement action and cannot staff the resulting alert increasenot Spacelift

Spacelift

  • Platform teams running infrastructure changes through approval gates rather than through application CInot Silent Eight
  • Organisations standardising Terraform and OpenTofu across many teams with policy enforcementnot Silent Eight
  • Estates needing private runners so cloud credentials never leave the networknot Silent Eight
  • Teams wanting drift detection and reconciliation rather than plan-time checks alonenot Silent Eight

Where each one falls short

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

Silent Eight

  • Automated disposition has to clear model risk governance and a regulator, and the shadow running period before auto-close is permitted can consume most of the first year of the contract.
  • It does not improve detection, so an institution with a poorly tuned monitoring system automates the handling of bad alerts rather than fixing why they exist.
  • Pricing is tied to alert volume, which means efficiency gains elsewhere that reduce alerts also reduce the vendor bill in a way sales teams structure minimums against.
  • The headcount saving is only realised if the institution actually reduces the analyst pool, and many banks redeploy rather than cut, leaving the business case unrealised on paper.
  • As a mid-sized private vendor serving tier one banks, concentration risk cuts both ways; the loss of one large client materially affects the company, and buyers should ask about financial stability during diligence.

Spacelift

  • Users are unlimited and private workers are metered, so deployment concurrency rather than headcount drives the bill, which inverts how most engineering budgets are built and is easy to under-forecast.
  • There is no affordable paid entry point. The free tier stops at two users and the next tier is a five-figure commitment with nothing in between.
  • Three of the five tiers are quote-only, so a shortlist cannot be costed without entering a sales process with each vendor on it.
  • The self-hosted build lags the hosted one, has no public worker pool and lacks the Azure and Google Cloud integrations available in the SaaS product, with OIDC federation offered as the workaround.
  • Stacks, Rego policies, Blueprints, Spaces and Spacelift-managed state are proprietary constructs, so leaving means rebuilding the orchestration layer rather than pointing it at a different runner.

Pricing, plan by plan

Silent Eight

On request
  • Iris$undefined/year
    • Priced by alert volume adjudicated
    • Deploys against existing screening and monitoring systems
    • Shadow mode evaluation period

Spacelift

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Two users
    • Public workers only
    • No private workers
  • Starter Plus$undefined/year
    • Unlimited users
    • Two public workers
    • One to two private workers
  • Business$undefined/year
    • Unlimited users
    • Three private workers
    • Quoted
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Unlimited users
    • Five to thirty private workers
    • Self-hosted option

Which should you pick?

Choose Silent Eight if

  • You need alert adjudication.
  • You work on Web, Linux.
  • You also want narrative generation.
Silent Eight review

Choose Spacelift if

  • You need multi-tool orchestration.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Self-hosted, Cloud.
  • You also want policy as code.
Spacelift review

Questions people ask

Is Silent Eight or Spacelift better?
Neither clearly leads. Silent Eight starts at On request and Spacelift at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Silent Eight or Spacelift?
Spacelift has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Silent Eight and Free for Spacelift.
Does Silent Eight or Spacelift run on more platforms?
Silent Eight runs on Web, Linux. Spacelift runs on Web, Self-hosted, Cloud.
Can I use Spacelift for free?
Yes. Spacelift has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Silent Eight starts at On request.
What is Silent Eight best used for?
Silent Eight is most often used for a bank whose level one screening team spends most of its time closing obvious false name matches, a payments institution with alert volumes growing faster than it can recruit and train analysts, a compliance function asked by a regulator to demonstrate consistency of alert decisions across offshore teams, an institution that has just tightened screening thresholds after an enforcement action and cannot staff the resulting alert increase. Of those, a bank whose level one screening team spends most of its time closing obvious false name matches and a payments institution with alert volumes growing faster than it can recruit and train analysts are not what Spacelift is typically brought in for.
What can Silent Eight do that Spacelift cannot?
Silent Eight covers Alert adjudication, Narrative generation, Name screening automation, Quality assurance. Spacelift covers Multi-tool orchestration, Policy as code, Private workers, Spaces.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Silent Eight: Does Silent Eight replace our screening system?

No. It consumes alerts from your existing screening and monitoring systems and decides them. The detection layer stays where it is.

Spacelift: How is Spacelift priced?

By tier and by private worker count rather than per user. Users are unlimited on every paid plan. The published figure on the pricing page carries no period label, and the FAQ describes the tier as an annual subscription, so confirm the period in writing.

Silent Eight: Will a regulator accept AI closing alerts?

It depends on your jurisdiction and your model governance evidence. Banks typically run extended shadow mode first and phase auto-closure by alert type.

Spacelift: Does it support OpenTofu?

Yes, and Spacelift sponsors the OpenTofu project, which is a substantive hedge for anyone avoiding Terraform under the Business Source Licence.

Silent Eight: Where is the company based?

Singapore, with offices in New York, London and Warsaw.

Spacelift: Is there a self-hosted version?

Yes, described as carrying Enterprise functionality, but it is priced on request and lags the hosted product on cloud integrations.

Spacelift: Why not just use the CI system we already have?

That is the real comparison. General purpose CI handles state, drift, approval gates and concurrency control for infrastructure poorly, and whether that is worth a five-figure floor depends on how much infrastructure change your organisation actually ships.

Spacelift: What happens to our pipelines if we leave?

They do not port. Rego policies, Blueprints, Spaces and managed state are Spacelift constructs and the orchestration has to be rebuilt elsewhere.

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