Cybersecurity · pricing
Chainguard pricing
Chainguard publishes 7 tiers. Below is each one, what it adds over the tier beneath it, and where the ladder stops being worth climbing for most people.
- Entry price
- Free, then $19000/year
- Model
- Licensing by artifact type and team size
- Tiers
- 7
- Free tier
- Yes
Chainguard plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | Free | 1 | Entry tier |
| Containers Catalog | $19000/year | 4 | +$19000/year, 4 more features |
| Containers Per-Image | On request | 3 | Priced on request |
| Libraries Licensing | On request | 4 | Priced on request |
| VMs Per-Image | On request | 1 | Priced on request |
| VMs Catalog | On request | 1 | Priced on request |
| Enterprise | On request | 3 | Priced on request |
What each tier adds
The set difference between each tier's feature list and the one beneath it. Where a tier lists nothing new, the vendor has either stopped repeating the inherited list or the tier raises limits rather than adding capability, the record does not distinguish the two, so this page does not either.
Free Tier
FreeThe entry tier. It covers five container images to test and deploy.
Containers Catalog
$19000/yearOver Free Tier, this tier adds:
- For 10-person engineering teams
- 2,000+ container images
- Contractual CVE remediation SLAs
- Console-based management
Containers Per-Image
On requestOver Containers Catalog, this tier adds:
- Licensed by quantity and type
- Base images, application images, AI/ML images, FIPS variants
- Custom pricing per image
Libraries Licensing
On requestOver Containers Per-Image, this tier adds:
- Licensed by ecosystem (Python, Java, JavaScript)
- Licensed by developer count
- Unlimited pulls with no metering
- CVE backports included
VMs Per-Image
On requestOver Libraries Licensing, this tier adds:
- Licensed by VM type and quantity
VMs Catalog
On requestOver VMs Per-Image, this tier adds:
- Pricing based on engineering organization size
Enterprise
On requestOver VMs Catalog, this tier adds:
- Startup/SMB and public sector pricing options
- Volume and multi-product discounts
- Custom SLAs and support
Where Chainguard stops being free
Free Tier, Free
- Five container images to test and deploy
Containers Catalog, $19000/year
The first thing you pay for:
- For 10-person engineering teams
- 2,000+ container images
- Contractual CVE remediation SLAs
- Console-based management
What the product covers
The full Chainguard feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Core
- Hardened container images
Security
- CVE remediation SLA
- Artifact scanning
Infrastructure
- SLSA L2/L3 builds
- VM images
Verification
- Sigstore signatures
Compliance
- SBOM generation
Development
- Language libraries
People bring Chainguard in for deploying hardened container images with minimal attack surface, meeting supply chain security requirements for regulated industries, reducing cve exposure with contractual remediation guarantees, building secure language packages with automatic backports, verifying artifact provenance with sigstore signatures. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to Chainguard are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Cybersecurity
Too few cybersecurity tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chainguard (this page) | Free, then $19000/year | Licensing by artifact type and team size | - | |
| Authelia | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs Chainguard |
| Grype | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs Chainguard |
| Ory Kratos | Free | Open-source self-hosted, with a paid managed network | - | vs Chainguard |
| authentik | Free | Open-source core with a paid enterprise tier | - | vs Chainguard |
| Trivy | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs Chainguard |
| Aikido | Free | Subscription with free tier | - | vs Chainguard |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the Chainguard badges page.
Before you pay for Chainguard
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: 7 tiers between Free and On request, with the jump itemised above. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.
Chainguard runs on cloud, container, vm, and is published by Chainguard. The full record is on the Chainguard review, and the rest of the category is under best cybersecurity tools.
Chainguard pricing questions
- How much does Chainguard cost?
- Chainguard publishes 7 tiers, from Free for Free Tier up to On request for Enterprise. The entry tier costs nothing.
- Does Chainguard have a free plan?
- Yes. The Free Tier tier costs nothing and covers five container images to test and deploy. Paying starts at $19000/year for Containers Catalog.
- What is the difference between Free Tier and Containers Catalog on Chainguard?
- Containers Catalog costs $19000/year against Free, and adds for 10-person engineering teams, 2,000+ container images, contractual cve remediation slas, console-based management.
- Is the Enterprise plan on Chainguard worth it?
- That depends entirely on whether you need what it adds, which on the published record is startup/smb and public sector pricing options, volume and multi-product discounts, custom slas and support. It costs On request against $19000/year for Containers Catalog. Softwr has not used either tier, so this page can tell you what changes, not whether it is worth the difference to you.
- Which cybersecurity tools can I use without paying?
- 7 of the 8 cybersecurity tools listed alongside Chainguard have a free tier: Authelia, Grype, Ory Kratos, authentik, Trivy.
- What am I actually paying for with Chainguard?
- The record lists 8 features across 6 areas: core, security, infrastructure, verification, compliance, development. In practice it is brought in for deploying hardened container images with minimal attack surface, meeting supply chain security requirements for regulated industries, reducing cve exposure with contractual remediation guarantees.
- Does Chainguard charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 7 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these Chainguard prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare Chainguard against before paying?
- The closest cybersecurity tools in this directory are Authelia, Grype, Ory Kratos, authentik. Each has a side-by-side comparison with Chainguard covering price, platforms and features.