FREEDOM251

Freedom251 › IT & Infrastructure

Free and open first

Best Cloud Governance Software in 2026

Cloud governance software helps teams manage policies and controls across cloud environments. Compare cloud coverage and compliance frameworks with policy as code, approval workflows, drift detection, and automated remediation to understand the governance capabilities represented. Free-plan availability and paid-from pricing provide additional context. Cloud Custodian, Kyverno, and AWS Control Tower are among the entries, along with Kubewarden and AWS Config. Consider which environments and compliance frameworks matter to your work, and whether you need to detect configuration drift or define approval and remediation processes. The listed criteria offer practical points for comparing those needs across the available options.

  1. 1

    Kyverno

    Free plan Open source APILinuxMac+3

    Kyverno combines in-cluster policy enforcement with CLI testing and several policy actions.

    8.8 Open source Visit site
  2. 2

    Open Policy Agent Gatekeeper

    Free plan Open source APILinuxSelf-hosted

    Gatekeeper combines admission policy controls with recurring audits and customizable policy examples. Installation permissions and audit reporting limits are important operational considerations.

    8.5 Free plan Visit site
  3. 3

    Cloud Custodian

    Free plan LinuxMacSelf-hosted+1

    Cloud Custodian offers policy-driven resource management across three major cloud providers, with preview and reporting options.

    7.5 Free plan Visit site
  4. 4

    AWS Control Tower

    Free plan APIWeb

    AWS Control Tower centralizes account setup and policy controls for multi-account AWS environments.

    7.4 Free plan Visit site
  5. 5

    CloudBolt

    Free plan APISelf-hostedWeb

    CloudBolt combines hybrid cloud provisioning and governance with cloud cost tools and Kubernetes rightsizing. Its free CMP offer has a stated 100-resource limit, while paid billing is custom.

    7.4 Free plan Visit site
  6. 6

    Google Cloud Organization Policy

    Free plan APILinuxMac+2

    Organization Policy provides hierarchical controls, dry-run review, and policy analysis for Google Cloud resources.

    7.4 Free plan Visit site
  7. 7

    CGPulse

    Free plan APIWeb

    CGPulse offers cloud posture assessment, policy coverage, and reviewed remediation options for Azure and AWS.

    7.3 Free plan · paid from €99/mo · 7-day trial Visit site
  8. 8

    Kubewarden

    Free plan LinuxMacSelf-hosted+1

    Kubewarden provides Kubernetes policy controls alongside components for image vulnerabilities, runtime behavior, and network activity.

    7.0 Free plan Visit site
  9. 9

    OmniGCloud

    Free plan APISelf-hostedWeb

    OmniGCloud brings cloud governance, cost views and deployment workflows into one control plane, with access and deployment choices varying by edition.

    7.0 Free plan · paid from $39/user/mo (annual) Visit site
  10. 10

    Powerpipe

    Free plan LinuxMacSelf-hosted+2

    Powerpipe brings dashboards, benchmarks, and CLI exports together in an open-source, code-oriented tool.

    7.0 Open source Visit site
  11. 11

    Open Cluster Management

    Free plan APIExtensionLinux+1

    Choose OCM if you need to coordinate Kubernetes resources, policies, or applications across multiple clusters. Its hub and spoke architecture and integrations support that work.

    6.8 Open source Visit site
  12. 12

    Firefly

    Free trial APISelf-hostedWeb

    Firefly brings IaC automation, cloud visibility and recovery features together for cloud teams.

    6.2 From $2,499/mo (annual) · 14-day trial Visit site
  13. 13

    Azure Policy

    Free plan Web

    Choose Azure Policy if you need a free web service to define, test, enforce, and report on policies across the listed infrastructure-as-code formats.

    6.1 Free plan Visit site
  14. 14

    emma Governance

    Free trial APIWeb

    emma Governance brings policy checks, access controls, residency rules, and audit records into deployment workflows across multiple environments.

    6.1 Pricing on request Visit site
  15. 15
    6.1 Free plan · paid from $0.03 · 90-day trial Visit site
  16. 16
    5.9 Free plan · 60-day trial Visit site
  17. 17

    AWS Config

    Paid APIWeb

    AWS Config combines configuration history, policy evaluation, querying, and multi-account views.

  18. 18

    Turbot Guardrails

    Free trial APISelf-hostedWeb

    Guardrails offers automated remediation and policy governance with both hosted and self-hosted options.

    5.7 From $0.05/mo · 14-day trial Visit site
  19. 19

    CoreStack Cloud Governance

    Paid APIWeb

    CoreStack Cloud Governance combines policy enforcement, compliance monitoring, risk visibility, and identity controls for multi-cloud and hybrid environments.

    5.6 Pricing on request Visit site
  20. 20

    Jamcracker

    Paid APISelf-hostedWeb

    Choose Jamcracker CMP if your organization needs a single console for managing services across hybrid or multi-cloud environments, with catalog, automation, governance and cost tools.

    5.6 Pricing on request Visit site
  21. 21

    Kion

    Paid APISelf-hostedWeb

    Kion combines spending visibility with policy governance and continuous compliance across supported cloud environments.

  22. 22

    ServiceNow Event Management

    by ServiceNow Event Management
    Paid APILinuxWeb+1

    Choose ServiceNow Event Management if its four alert-handling capabilities match your requirements.

    5.4 Pricing on request Visit site
  23. 23

    MacroCloud Governance Center

    Paid Web

    Governance Center combines multi-cloud policy enforcement, compliance monitoring, drift remediation, and pipeline scanning.

    5.1 Pricing on request Visit site
  24. 24

    PolicyCortex

    Paid Web

    PolicyCortex links controls, remediation, and evidence preparation across multi-cloud compliance work.

    5.0 Pricing on request Visit site
  25. 25

    TMC Governance

    Paid APIWeb

    Choose TMC Governance if your team needs centralized policy controls, compliance checks, and drift response across multiple cloud environments.

    4.7 Pricing on request Visit site

#1Places #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 on this list can be bought by the makers of the software on it. See the price

More in IT & Infrastructure