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Cybersecurity · head to head

Speakeasy vs Tilt

Speakeasy logo

Speakeasy

Cybersecurity

AI control plane for governing enterprise agents, MCP servers, and skills

From
On request
Free plan
No
Tilt logo

Tilt

Developer Tools

Local Kubernetes development loop that rebuilds and live-updates containers on save

From
Free
Free plan
Yes

The short version

  • Only Tilt has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Speakeasy no self-serve pricing is published; every plan requires a sales conversation.; Tilt docker acquired Tilt in 2022 and the team now splits its time across Compose and Docker Desktop, so feature velocity is modest and the product's long-term priority inside Docker is not guaranteed; treat it as a stable utility, not a growing platform.
  • They diverge on capability: Speakeasy covers AI tool catalog, Tilt covers Live update.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Speakeasy and Tilt actually diverge.

Attributes where Speakeasy and Tilt differ
AttributeSpeakeasyTilt
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
Platformsweb, apiLinux, macOS, Windows
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 Speakeasy

  • AI tool catalog
  • Per-agent identity
  • Role-based access control
  • Real-time policy enforcement
  • Audit logging
  • MDM and SSO integration

Only in Tilt

  • Live update
  • Tiltfile as code
  • Unified web UI
  • Selective rebuilds
  • Local and remote clusters
  • Resource dependencies
  • Extensions registry
  • Custom buttons and triggers

What people use each for

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

Speakeasy

  • Governing AI agents at enterprise scalenot Tilt
  • Preventing shadow AI tool sprawlnot Tilt
  • Enforcing least-privilege access for agentsnot Tilt
  • Auditing AI tool call activity for compliancenot Tilt

Tilt

  • A team of ten or more engineers whose application is fifteen microservices on Kubernetes and who currently wait on CI to test a changenot Speakeasy
  • An organisation onboarding new developers who want a single command that stands up the whole stack from a committed Tiltfilenot Speakeasy
  • A platform team giving product engineers a consistent local environment against a shared remote development clusternot Speakeasy
  • A codebase where one repository contains several services and rebuilding all of them on every edit is the main source of lost timenot Speakeasy

Where each one falls short

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

Speakeasy

  • No self-serve pricing is published; every plan requires a sales conversation.
  • The product pivoted away from its original SDK-generation offering, so past documentation and customers built on that use case are no longer the focus.
  • Requires integration with an existing identity provider such as Okta or Entra ID to be useful, so it is not a standalone solution.
  • No published free tier or trial pricing was found.

Tilt

  • Docker acquired Tilt in 2022 and the team now splits its time across Compose and Docker Desktop, so feature velocity is modest and the product's long-term priority inside Docker is not guaranteed; treat it as a stable utility, not a growing platform.
  • The Tiltfile is Starlark, a Python dialect, so non-trivial setups become real programs that need reviewing and maintaining, and the person who wrote yours becomes a single point of failure.
  • Live update only works when the running container can accept synced files and restart the process; compiled languages, distroless images and read-only filesystems often force you back to a full image rebuild, which removes the main benefit.
  • It assumes Kubernetes. If your development target is plain Docker Compose or serverless functions, Tilt adds a cluster you did not need and a layer of abstraction with no payoff.
  • There is no commercial support contract, no SLA and no paid tier, so when a Kubernetes version upgrade breaks something you are dependent on GitHub issues and a Slack channel rather than a vendor you can escalate to.

Pricing, plan by plan

Speakeasy

On request
  • Enterprise$undefined/mo
    • Custom pricing
    • AI tool catalog and visibility
    • Per-agent identity and access control

Tilt

Free
  • TiltFree
    • Apache 2.0 licensed
    • All features, no paid tier
    • Community support via the Kubernetes Slack #tilt channel

Which should you pick?

Choose Speakeasy if

  • You need ai tool catalog.
  • You work on web, api.
  • You also want per-agent identity.

Choose Tilt if

  • You need live update.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want tiltfile as code.

Questions people ask

Is Speakeasy or Tilt better?
Neither clearly leads. Speakeasy starts at On request and Tilt at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Speakeasy or Tilt?
Tilt has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Speakeasy and Free for Tilt.
Does Speakeasy or Tilt run on more platforms?
Speakeasy runs on web, api. Tilt runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Tilt for free?
Yes. Tilt has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Speakeasy starts at On request.
What is Speakeasy best used for?
Speakeasy is most often used for governing ai agents at enterprise scale, preventing shadow ai tool sprawl, enforcing least-privilege access for agents, auditing ai tool call activity for compliance. Of those, governing ai agents at enterprise scale and preventing shadow ai tool sprawl are not what Tilt is typically brought in for.
What can Speakeasy do that Tilt cannot?
Speakeasy covers AI tool catalog, Per-agent identity, Role-based access control, Real-time policy enforcement. Tilt covers Live update, Tiltfile as code, Unified web UI, Selective rebuilds.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Speakeasy: How much does Speakeasy cost?

Speakeasy offers an Enterprise tier with features including SaaS catalog integrations, custom server creation, code mode efficiency, and serverless hosting. No specific pricing is published; interested parties contact the company to discuss pricing.

Source
Tilt: Is Tilt free?

Yes, entirely. It is Apache 2.0 open source with no paid tier and no licence fee.

Speakeasy: What is included in Speakeasy's Enterprise plan?

The Enterprise plan includes SaaS catalog integrations, custom server creation, code mode efficiency, and serverless hosting. Customers contact Speakeasy to discuss their specific pricing for these features.

Source
Tilt: Who owns Tilt now?

Docker, which acquired it in May 2022. It remains open source and the repository is still actively maintained.

Tilt: Do I need a remote cluster?

No. It works against a local cluster such as kind, minikube or Docker Desktop, and also against a shared remote development cluster if your services are too heavy to run locally.

Tilt: How is it different from Skaffold?

Both automate the build-deploy loop. Tilt puts more weight on the live-update path and a multi-service dashboard; Skaffold is more configuration-driven and closer to Google's tooling.

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