Amazon Inspector vs Grype
Amazon Inspector
aws.amazon.comGrype
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Amazon Inspector | Grype |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 2 |
| Spec score · Container Image Scanning Tools | 7.7 (#9) | 8.6 (#2) |
| Spec score · Cloud Vulnerability Scanners | 7.7 (#14) | 8.7 (#3) |
| Integrations | Findings are aggregated in the Inspector console, routed to AWS Security Hub, and pushed through Amazon EventBridge; container findings are also sent to Amazon ECR. | The installation documentation provides a Docker image and lists community installation options including Homebrew, MacPorts, Winget, Scoop, and Snapcraft. |
| Purpose | Amazon Inspector automatically discovers workloads and code repositories and scans them for software vulnerabilities and unintended network exposure. | Grype scans container images, filesystems, and SBOMs for known vulnerabilities. |
| Risk prioritization | It calculates contextualized risk scores by correlating CVE information with factors such as network access and exploitability. | Results can be sorted by severity, EPSS, KEV and risk scoring. |
Plans
Amazon Inspector
- 15-day free trialFree
- Azure scanning free trialFree
- Amazon Inspector pay-as-you-goPrice not published
In their own words
Amazon Inspector
Amazon Inspector has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Grype
Grype is a free, Apache-2.0-licensed scanner for known vulnerabilities in container images, filesystems, and software bills of materials (SBOMs). It can also scan directories, individual files, archives, and packages identified by PURL or CPE. Coverage includes major operating-system package ecosystems and language packages such as Ruby, Java, JavaScript, Python, .NET, Go, PHP, and Rust; supported image formats include Docker, OCI, and Singularity. Grype uses EPSS, KEV, and risk scoring to help prioritize findings. OpenVEX can filter results or add context. Reports can be emitted as a table, JSON, SARIF, or a custom Go template. The project supports SBOM generation and runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, or in a self-hosted setup. Installation options include a Docker image and community packages such as Homebrew, MacPorts, Winget, Scoop, and Snapcraft. Individual package scanning is described as useful for lightweight vulnerability checks and compliance scanning of specific dependencies. Security updates are applied only to the most recent release, and vulnerability-report support is described as best effort.