Cybersecurity · head to head
Socket vs Steampipe
Socket
Cybersecurity
Supply chain security platform detecting and blocking malicious dependencies
- From
- Free
- Free plan
- Yes
Steampipe
Developer Tools
Query cloud APIs, SaaS tools and code with SQL, with no extract or load step
- From
- Free
- Free plan
- Yes
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Socket team plan requires minimum 5-developer commitment, expensive for small teams; 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: Socket covers Malware detection, 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 Socket and Steampipe actually diverge.
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 Socket
- Malware detection
- Automatic blocking
- AI behavior analysis
- Reachability analysis
- Slack integration
- SBOM support
- SAML SSO
- GitHub Actions scanning
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.
Socket
- Blocking zero-day malware attacks in JavaScript dependenciesnot Steampipe
- Managing CVE false positives with precomputed reachability analysisnot Steampipe
- Securing Python and Go supply chains at scalenot Steampipe
- Automating compliance requirements for regulated industriesnot Steampipe
- Real-time threat notifications via Slack integrationnot Steampipe
Steampipe
- Security teams answering posture questions against live cloud accounts rather than a nightly exportnot Socket
- Compliance evidence gathering where the answer must reflect the account at the moment it is askednot Socket
- Inventory and drift questions spanning several cloud providers in one querynot Socket
- Engineers who would rather write SQL than learn each provider command line toolnot Socket
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Socket
- Team plan requires minimum 5-developer commitment, expensive for small teams
- Business plan $50/dev/month becomes costly for teams exceeding 20 members
- Enterprise pricing requires custom consultation with no transparent pricing
- Free plan limited to individual developers without team collaboration
- Reachability analysis improvement (90% false positive reduction) only on Enterprise
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
Socket
Free- FreeFree
- For individual developers
- Detects 70+ risk types
- Blocks malicious dependencies automatically
- Team$25/month
- Per developer on minimum 5 developers
- Precomputed reachability analysis cuts 60% false positives
- Slack alerts for threats
- Business$50/month
- Per developer on minimum 20 developers
- All Team features
- Compliance integrations with Vanta
- Enterprise$undefined/custom
- Function-level reachability eliminates up to 90% irrelevant CVEs
- Multi-repository system support
- Named account manager
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 Socket if
- You need malware detection.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, CLI, GitHub.
- You also want automatic blocking.
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.
Questions people ask
- Is Socket or Steampipe better?
- Neither clearly leads. Socket starts at Free and Steampipe at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Socket or Steampipe?
- Socket starts at Free and Steampipe at Free.
- Does Socket or Steampipe run on more platforms?
- Socket runs on Web, CLI, GitHub. Steampipe runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker, Web.
- Can I use Socket for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Socket best used for?
- Socket is most often used for blocking zero-day malware attacks in javascript dependencies, managing cve false positives with precomputed reachability analysis, securing python and go supply chains at scale, automating compliance requirements for regulated industries. Of those, blocking zero-day malware attacks in javascript dependencies and managing cve false positives with precomputed reachability analysis are not what Steampipe is typically brought in for.
- What can Socket do that Steampipe cannot?
- Socket covers Malware detection, Automatic blocking, AI behavior analysis, Reachability analysis. Steampipe covers SQL over live APIs, Wide plugin set, Embedded Postgres, Compliance benchmarks.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Socket: How many zero-day attacks does Socket detect?
Socket detects over 100 zero-day attacks weekly across JavaScript, Python, and Go ecosystems.
SourceSteampipe: 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.
Socket: What is precomputed reachability analysis?
Socket's precomputed reachability analysis cuts CVE false positives by 60% automatically on Team plans, and up to 90% on Enterprise plans through function-level analysis.
SourceSteampipe: 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.
Socket: Is there a discount for annual billing?
Yes. Socket offers a 20% discount for annual commitments across all subscription tiers.
SourceSteampipe: 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.
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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