Side by side

Checkov vs Open Policy Agent

Both stand on infrastructure policy as code tools. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.

Checkov

Free plan LinuxMac

Checkov offers broad infrastructure-as-code scanning, policy customization, and CI and IDE integrations at no cost. Alpine users should note the project’s stated testing and Python requirements.

Visit Checkov

OPA provides a flexible policy engine with multiple evaluation interfaces and integrations for software infrastructure. Teams securing its API need to configure authentication, authorization, and TLS rather than assume those protections are enabled by default.

Visit Open Policy Agent

The facts

	Checkov	Open Policy Agent
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Open source	Not published	Not published
Runs on	Linux, Mac	API, Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Web, Windows
Lowest paid plan	Free or on request	Free or on request
Plans published	1	1
Maker	Not published	Not published
Website	checkov.io	openpolicyagent.org
On infrastructure policy as code tools	#8 of 25	#12 of 25

Checkov: what it does well

Scans seven documented IaC formats.
Includes more than 750 predefined policies.
Supports custom policies in Python or YAML.
Integrates with four documented CI systems.
Apache-2.0 licensed open-source CLI.

What to know first

Alpine requires Python 3.11 or later.
Alpine is not officially tested or supported.
Runtime scanning is an extension of Prisma Cloud.

Open Policy Agent: what it does well

Free and open source under Apache License 2.0.
Evaluates policies over structured input and returns structured output.
Supports REST, Go, WebAssembly, and custom evaluators.
Management interfaces include health checks and decision logs.
Installation options include macOS, Linux/Unix, Windows, and Docker.

What to know first

API authentication and authorization are off by default.
Kubernetes admission control documentation recommends OPA Gatekeeper.
Commercial support listings are not vetted endorsements.

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