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Cybersecurity · head to head

Syft vs Tyler Brazos

Syft logo

Syft

Cybersecurity

Generates a software bill of materials from images, filesystems and archives

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Tyler Brazos logo

Tyler Brazos

Government

Mobile Law Enforcement Technology

From
$800/month
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Syft has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Syft lockfile parsing can drop packages silently. An open issue filed in August 2026 reports the yarn v1 cataloguer returning 118 of 745 packages with no error raised, which means a complete bill of materials and an 84 percent incomplete one look identical to the caller.; Tyler Brazos brazos is now sold as Tyler Enforcement Mobile and tylertech.com/products/brazos redirects to the Enforcement Mobile page
  • They diverge on capability: Syft covers Multi-format output, Tyler Brazos covers Mobile Citations.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Syft and Tyler Brazos actually diverge.

Attributes where Syft and Tyler Brazos differ
AttributeSyftTyler Brazos
Starting priceFree$800/month
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feesubscription
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsmacOS, Linux, Windows, DockerIos, Android, Windows
CategoryCybersecurityGovernment
FoundedUnknown1966

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 Syft

  • Multi-format output
  • Broad ecosystem coverage
  • Binary classifiers
  • In-toto attestations
  • Library and CLI
  • Pairs with Grype

Only in Tyler Brazos

  • Mobile Citations
  • Field Reporting
  • License Scanning
  • Database Queries
  • Crash Reporting
  • Tyler CAD/RMS
  • NCIC
  • State DMV

What people use each for

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

Syft

  • Producing a bill of materials for a customer or regulator that requires onenot Tyler Brazos
  • Feeding an inventory into a vulnerability scanner rather than scanning images directlynot Tyler Brazos
  • Recording what shipped in a build so a future disclosure can be answered quicklynot Tyler Brazos
  • Public sector work where an SBOM is a contractual deliverablenot Tyler Brazos

Tyler Brazos

  • Electronic citation issuance from a patrol vehicle or handheld devicenot Syft
  • Field reporting and crash reports for law enforcementnot Syft
  • Feeding citation data into court case managementnot Syft

Where each one falls short

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

Syft

  • Lockfile parsing can drop packages silently. An open issue filed in August 2026 reports the yarn v1 cataloguer returning 118 of 745 packages with no error raised, which means a complete bill of materials and an 84 percent incomplete one look identical to the caller.
  • Fidelity varies sharply by ecosystem. Conan for C and C++, Haskell and Terraform get cataloguer support with no licence data, no dependency relationships and no file ownership, so a C and C++ shop gets the least from it.
  • Binary classification yields no licence or dependency metadata, and vendored or statically linked code is exactly where supply chain risk hides, so the blind spot and the risk overlap.
  • Incorrect CPE values and CPE collisions are recorded as open issues, and since Grype matches on CPE and PURL, an inventory error becomes a false negative in the security report downstream.
  • An inventory is not a risk assessment. Even a perfect bill of materials says a vulnerable version is present, never that the vulnerable function is called, and the triage burden lands entirely on the reader.

Tyler Brazos

  • Brazos is now sold as Tyler Enforcement Mobile and tylertech.com/products/brazos redirects to the Enforcement Mobile page
  • No pricing is published; Tyler routes all enquiries through contact and demo requests with no published rate, minimum or cost driver
  • The product is sold only to public sector agencies

Pricing, plan by plan

Syft

Free
  • SyftFree
    • Apache-2.0
    • No usage limits
    • Community support
  • Anchore Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Policy enforcement and reporting
    • Federal and commercial tiers
    • Pricing not published, quoted on request

Tyler Brazos

$800/month
  • Mobile Suite$800/month
    • Mobile Citations
    • Field Reporting
    • Database Queries

Which should you pick?

Choose Syft if

  • You need multi-format output.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker.
  • You also want broad ecosystem coverage.
Syft review

Choose Tyler Brazos if

  • You need mobile citations.
  • You work on Ios, Android, Windows.
  • You also want field reporting.
Tyler Brazos review

Questions people ask

Is Syft or Tyler Brazos better?
Neither clearly leads. Syft starts at Free and Tyler Brazos at $800/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Syft or Tyler Brazos?
Syft has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Syft and $800/month for Tyler Brazos.
Does Syft or Tyler Brazos run on more platforms?
Syft runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker. Tyler Brazos runs on Ios, Android, Windows.
Can I use Syft for free?
Yes. Syft has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Tyler Brazos starts at $800/month.
What is Syft best used for?
Syft is most often used for producing a bill of materials for a customer or regulator that requires one, feeding an inventory into a vulnerability scanner rather than scanning images directly, recording what shipped in a build so a future disclosure can be answered quickly, public sector work where an sbom is a contractual deliverable. Of those, producing a bill of materials for a customer or regulator that requires one and feeding an inventory into a vulnerability scanner rather than scanning images directly are not what Tyler Brazos is typically brought in for.
What can Syft do that Tyler Brazos cannot?
Syft covers Multi-format output, Broad ecosystem coverage, Binary classifiers, In-toto attestations. Tyler Brazos covers Mobile Citations, Field Reporting, License Scanning, Database Queries.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Syft: Does Syft find vulnerabilities?

No. It produces an inventory. Grype, from the same company, matches that inventory against vulnerability feeds. They are separate tools and the distinction is frequently lost.

Syft: Does anything in the Anchore stack do reachability analysis?

No. Neither Syft, Grype nor the commercial Anchore platform performs call graph or reachability analysis, so none of them tells you whether a vulnerable code path is actually invoked.

Syft: Is it a CNCF or OpenSSF project?

No. It is single-vendor open source owned by Anchore, with no foundation governance. That is a different licence risk profile from Sigstore.

Syft: What does Anchore Enterprise cost?

Not published. The pricing page is contact-sales only, with named but unpriced commercial and federal tiers.

Syft: How do I know my SBOM is complete?

You largely cannot, which is the honest answer. Silent partial parsing is a known open defect, so a bill of materials used for compliance should be spot-checked against a known dependency list.

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