Falco vs Sysdig Secure

Falco is a free, open source runtime security project for Linux and self-hosted environments. It monitors hosts, containers, Kubernetes, and cloud environments for abnormal behavior, potential threats, and compliance violations in real time. Events are compared with built-in detection rules, and users can create rules for their own environments. Sources include Linux kernel system calls, Kubernetes audit logs, cloud events such as AWS CloudTrail, and events from GitHub and Okta. For kernel event monitoring, Falco uses an eBPF driver by default and offers a kernel module for wider compatibility. Installation options cover Linux hosts, Docker containers, and Kubernetes, including official Helm charts; supported architectures include x86_64 and ARM64. Falcosidekick can forward events to more than 50 systems, including email, chat, message queues, serverless functions, and databases. Falco is hosted by the CNCF as a graduated project. Detection depends on having appropriate rules in place, while resource use varies with server load and workload. The project recommends testing performance in the target environment.

Sysdig Secure is a cloud-native application protection platform for cloud environments, containers, Kubernetes, hosts, and serverless workloads. It uses runtime insights to prioritize risks that are exploitable in a customer’s environment. Threat detection runs in real time using Falco rules, machine learning, and drift control; vulnerability scanning is available with agent-based or agentless approaches and prioritizes vulnerabilities in use. Cloud Attack Graph connects vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and excessive permissions to map potential attack paths. Sysdig Sage is an AI assistant for security search, vulnerability management, threat investigation, and response. The platform connects to AWS, GCP, and Azure, and documents integrations including Git, Jira, Snyk, Docker Scout, Splunk, Elasticsearch, and Syslog. Sysdig describes support for on-premises, air-gapped, and private cloud environments. Deployment is hybrid, with licensing based on hosts or compute instances for CSPM. The documented agent supports Linux distributions and Windows Server 2019 and later; the vulnerability CLI scanner is available for Linux and macOS. Pricing is by quote rather than displayed.