Kyverno vs Sysdig Secure
Kyverno
kyverno.ioSysdig Secure
sysdig.comSide by side
| Figure | Kyverno | Sysdig Secure |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $20/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 2 |
| Spec score · Container Security Software | 8.7 (#3) | 8.2 (#8) |
| Spec score · Kubernetes Security Software | 8.6 (#4) | 8.2 (#6) |
| Founded | 2019 | 2013 |
| Integrations | CNCF lists common integrations with Argo CD, Backstage, Flux and Kubernetes for GitOps and platform governance. | Documented integrations include AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, Jira, Splunk, Elasticsearch, Syslog, Semgrep, and Snyk. |
| Licence | The project is open source under the Apache License 2.0. | Sysdig Secure is a commercial host-licensed service; the separate open-source Sysdig project is licensed Apache 2.0 and Secure uses the open-source Falco engine. |
| Notable release | Kyverno 1.18, announced May 5, 2026, added HTTP policy-execution safeguards, CVE mitigations, CLI support for more policy types and performance improvements. | The October 14, 2026 SaaS release added SIEM forwarding filters by severity, policy, and event type to reduce forwarded noise. |
| Rating on TrustRadius | No overall score because there are not enough ratings, from 1 review | 7 out of 10 from 3 reviews |
| Self-hosting | Kyverno runs as admission and background controllers inside a Kubernetes cluster that the operator manages. | Sysdig offers an on-premises deployment with Kubernetes/OpenShift installers, including air-gapped installation modes. |
| Support | The project directs users to its Kubernetes Slack channels, GitHub, and mailing list for questions and discussion. | Support is available through support cases, product UI chat, email, and Slack Connect for premium subscribers. |
| What it does | Kyverno is a cloud-native policy engine for automating Kubernetes security, compliance, governance and best-practice checks. | 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
Kyverno
Kyverno is a free, open-source policy engine for defining and enforcing policy as code in Kubernetes. Its stable policy types can validate, mutate, generate or delete resources, and verify container image signatures and attestations. The Kyverno CLI can test policies against Kubernetes resource manifests in CI before they are applied to a live cluster. Documentation describes use with Helm, YAML manifests, GitHub Actions and GitOps tools such as ArgoCD. Kyverno is installed in a Kubernetes cluster; Helm is recommended for production, and YAML manifests are also available. A standard installation requires an admission controller, while background, reports and cleanup controllers are optional. Production installations should use high availability mode. The project supports CEL-based policy types and describes applying Kubernetes-style policies outside Kubernetes as part of its mission. Its webhooks default to fail-closed, so matching requests can fail if the API server cannot reach Kyverno. The project documents Cosign signatures for images and manifests, and lists CLI binaries for Linux, macOS and Windows.
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.