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Best KICS Alternatives in 2026

Updated

20 apps from infrastructure testing tools ranked against KICS on the same published basis.

  1. 1
    AWS CloudFormation Free plan apiLinuxMacWebWin Free6.6
    KICS vs AWS CloudFormation
  2. 2
    Conftest Free plan LinuxMacWin Free6.6
    KICS vs Conftest
  3. 3
    cfn-lint Free plan LinuxMacself-hostedWin Free6.5
    KICS vs cfn-lint
  4. 4
    Chef InSpec Free plan apiLinuxMacself-hostedWin Free6.5
    KICS vs Chef InSpec
  5. 5
    Cinc Auditor Free plan LinuxMacWin Free6.5
    KICS vs Cinc Auditor
  6. 7
    kubeconform Free plan LinuxMacself-hostedWin Free6.5
    KICS vs kubeconform
  7. 8
    OpenSCAP Free plan LinuxMacself-hostedWin Free6.5
    KICS vs OpenSCAP
  8. 9
    Serverspec Free plan LinuxMacself-hostedWin Free6.5
    KICS vs Serverspec
  9. 10
    Test Kitchen Free plan LinuxMacWin Free6.5
    KICS vs Test Kitchen
  10. 11
    TFLint Free plan LinuxMacself-hostedWin Free6.5
    KICS vs TFLint
  11. 12
    cfn-nag Free plan LinuxMacself-hosted Free6.4
    KICS vs cfn-nag
  12. 13
    Checkov Free plan LinuxMac Free6.4
    KICS vs Checkov
  13. 14
    CloudSploit Free plan Linuxself-hostedWeb Free6.4
    KICS vs CloudSploit
  14. 15
    KubeLinter Free plan LinuxMacself-hosted Free6.4
    KICS vs KubeLinter
  15. 16
    terraform-plugin-testing Free plan LinuxMac Free6.4
    KICS vs terraform-plugin-testing
  16. 17
    Terratest Free plan Linux Free6.4
    KICS vs Terratest
  17. 18
    terraform-compliance Free plan Linuxself-hosted Free6.3
    KICS vs terraform-compliance
  18. 19
    Sonobuoy LinuxMacself-hostedWin 5.6
    KICS vs Sonobuoy
  19. 20
    kube-score LinuxMacself-hostedWebWin 5.5
    KICS vs kube-score
  20. 21
    Cloud-Radar 5.4
    KICS vs Cloud-Radar

KICS alternatives compared

#AppScoreFree planFromRuns on
1AWS CloudFormation6.6Free planFreeAPI, Linux, Mac, Web, Windows
2Conftest6.6Free planFreeLinux, Mac, Windows
3cfn-lint6.5Free planFreeLinux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows
4Chef InSpec6.5Free planFreeAPI, Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows
5Cinc Auditor6.5Free planFreeLinux, Mac, Windows
7kubeconform6.5Free planFreeLinux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows
8OpenSCAP6.5Free planFreeLinux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows
9Serverspec6.5Free planFreeLinux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows
10Test Kitchen6.5Free planFreeLinux, Mac, Windows
11TFLint6.5Free planFreeLinux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows
12cfn-nag6.4Free planFreeLinux, Mac, self-hosted
13Checkov6.4Free planFreeLinux, Mac
14CloudSploit6.4Free planFreeLinux, self-hosted, Web
15KubeLinter6.4Free planFreeLinux, Mac, self-hosted
16terraform-plugin-testing6.4Free planFreeLinux, Mac
17Terratest6.4Free planFreeLinux
18terraform-compliance6.3Free planFreeLinux, self-hosted
19Sonobuoy5.6No—Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows
20kube-score5.5No—Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Web, Windows
21Cloud-Radar5.4No——
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Questions about KICS alternatives

What is the best alternative to KICS?

AWS CloudFormation, number 1 in infrastructure testing tools with a score of 6.6 out of 10. The others here: Conftest, cfn-lint, Chef InSpec and 16 more.

What is the best free alternative to KICS?

AWS CloudFormation is the best-ranked alternative with a free plan. 17 of the 20 alternatives here publish a free plan on their own pricing pages.

How are these alternatives ranked?

Ranked free-and-open first: a usable free tier and open-source code, then the platforms it runs on and its documentation.