KubeArmor vs Sysdig Secure
KubeArmor
kubearmor.ioSysdig Secure
sysdig.comSide by side
| Figure | KubeArmor | Sysdig Secure |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $20/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Kubernetes Security Software | 8.6 (#3) | 8.2 (#6) |
| Spec score · Cloud Workload Protection Platforms | 8.5 (#3) | 8.2 (#5) |
| Spec score · Container Security Software | 8.6 (#4) | 8.2 (#8) |
| Founded | 2020 | 2013 |
| Integrations | Project repositories include OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Kafka, Grafana, ELK dashboards, a GitHub Action, and a Rancher UI extension. | Documented integrations include AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, Jira, Splunk, Elasticsearch, Syslog, Semgrep, and Snyk. |
| Support | Project-level questions can be directed to the maintainer group by email, CNCF Slack, GitHub Discussions, or GitHub Issues. | Support is available through support cases, product UI chat, email, and Slack Connect for premium subscribers. |
| What it does | KubeArmor is a cloud-native runtime security enforcement system that restricts process execution, file access, and networking operations for pods, containers, and nodes. | Sysdig Secure is a cloud-native application protection platform combining threat detection, vulnerability management, posture management, and identity and entitlement management. |
Plans
In their own words
KubeArmor
KubeArmor is an open-source runtime security system for enforcing policies on cloud-native workloads. It uses Linux Security Modules such as AppArmor, SELinux, and BPF-LSM, with eBPF for alerts, telemetry, and container-process tracking. Policies can restrict process execution, file access, networking operations, and resource use. Container policies support Allow, Audit, and Block actions, with Block as the default; system-call monitoring is audit-only. Kubernetes policies can target pods through labels and label expressions, and rules can match paths, network protocols, capabilities, and system calls. The deployment matrix covers Kubernetes, non-Kubernetes containers, virtual machines, and bare-metal hosts. It lists Kubernetes environments including GKE, AKS, OKE, IKS, EKS, OpenShift, Rancher, and DigitalOcean Kubernetes, but support varies by operating system, architecture, and enforcement mode. Some environments are observability-only, and VMware Tanzu entries are under construction. KubeArmor is a community-governed CNCF Sandbox project. The free plan is free; installation guidance uses Helm and kubectl.
Sysdig Secure
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.