Cerbos

Name: Cerbos
Brand: Cerbos
Rating: 4.9 (6 reviews)

AI Native

Authorization for enterprise software and AI

Est 2021|Valuation $31.9M|Raised $15.3M|24 Ref Customers

LinkedIn 3K|Web traffic 17K|FTEs 12|HQ London, England, GB

01Competitive Landscape

Narrative analysis

Differentiators where Cerbos may be favored: - Developer workflow emphasis (YAML policies, testing toolchain, SDKs, Hub-managed distribution). - Runtime architecture that runs PDPs close to applications (sidecar patterns) to manage latency and availability. - Hub provides audit log aggregation with policy and version context (vendor capability). Where alternatives may be preferable: - OpenFGA/Authzed/SpiceDB: often more natural for large-scale, relationship-based access patterns (nested groups, document sharing) following Zanzibar principles. - OPA: preferred when policy needs extend beyond application authorization into platform governance, admission control, and wider policy-as-code use cases. - Commercial platforms (Permit.io, Aserto, Oso): may offer turnkey admin UIs, connectors, and enterprise integrations, potentially accelerating adoption at the cost of vendor lock-in. Market adoption signals (imperfect proxies): - The Cerbos open source project has a few thousand GitHub stars (community reports of activity; procurement teams should verify current counts on GitHub during evaluation). - Cerbos is offered through public cloud marketplaces, which some buyers use to align spend with cloud commitments. Competitive commentary from third parties should be read with awareness of each source's potential commercial positions.

	Cerbos	OpenFGA	OPA (Open Policy Agent)
Starting Price	Core PDP (OSS): available under an open-source license; Hub PoC: limited no-cost proof-of-concept tier; Development and production tiers: published commercial pricing available from the vendor	Open-source (pricing depends on hosting/support)	Open-source (pricing depends on hosting/support)
Suited For	Teams requiring policy-based authorization with developer-oriented tooling and centralized policy operations/audit	Relationship-based (Zanzibar-style) permissions at scale	Broader policy use cases (Kubernetes admission, infra policy, compliance rules)
Key Strength	Externalized authorization with YAML policies and a Hub for policy lifecycle and audit aggregation	Relationship graph model for complex sharing/entitlements	Flexible policy language (Rego) across many domains
Key Weakness	Limited independent review volume; may not match Zanzibar mental model for relationship-heavy domains; coordination plane considerations	Requires designing an operational store for relationships; mental model differs from policy-based approaches	Rego learning curve; may be heavier than needed for application-only authorization

01Competitive Landscape

Narrative analysis

Differentiators where Cerbos may be favored:

Developer workflow emphasis (YAML policies, testing toolchain, SDKs, Hub-managed distribution).
Runtime architecture that runs PDPs close to applications (sidecar patterns) to manage latency and availability.
Hub provides audit log aggregation with policy and version context (vendor capability).

Where alternatives may be preferable:

OpenFGA/Authzed/SpiceDB: often more natural for large-scale, relationship-based access patterns (nested groups, document sharing) following Zanzibar principles.
OPA: preferred when policy needs extend beyond application authorization into platform governance, admission control, and wider policy-as-code use cases.
Commercial platforms (Permit.io, Aserto, Oso): may offer turnkey admin UIs, connectors, and enterprise integrations, potentially accelerating adoption at the cost of vendor lock-in.

Market adoption signals (imperfect proxies):

The Cerbos open source project has a few thousand GitHub stars (community reports of activity; procurement teams should verify current counts on GitHub during evaluation).
Cerbos is offered through public cloud marketplaces, which some buyers use to align spend with cloud commitments.

Competitive commentary from third parties should be read with awareness of each source's potential commercial positions.

	Cerbos	OpenFGA	OPA (Open Policy Agent)
Starting Price	Core PDP (OSS): available under an open-source license; Hub PoC: limited no-cost proof-of-concept tier; Development and production tiers: published commercial pricing available from the vendor	Open-source (pricing depends on hosting/support)	Open-source (pricing depends on hosting/support)
Suited For	Teams requiring policy-based authorization with developer-oriented tooling and centralized policy operations/audit	Relationship-based (Zanzibar-style) permissions at scale	Broader policy use cases (Kubernetes admission, infra policy, compliance rules)
Key Strength	Externalized authorization with YAML policies and a Hub for policy lifecycle and audit aggregation	Relationship graph model for complex sharing/entitlements	Flexible policy language (Rego) across many domains
Key Weakness	Limited independent review volume; may not match Zanzibar mental model for relationship-heavy domains; coordination plane considerations	Requires designing an operational store for relationships; mental model differs from policy-based approaches	Rego learning curve; may be heavier than needed for application-only authorization

Cerbos

01Competitive Landscape

Narrative analysis

02Market Map

01Competitive Landscape

Narrative analysis

02Market Map