Lacework vs GitGuardian
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Lacework and GitGuardian.
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Verdict: GitGuardian wins
GitGuardian scores 4.2/5, edging out Lacework at 3.6/5. Engineering and security teams of any size that want secrets detection before code merges — starting free for teams up to 25 developers and scaling to governed, self-hostable remediation on Enterprise.
Lacework AI cloud security platform | GitGuardian Detect and remediate secrets leaked in your git repositories | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 3.6 (1 review) | 4.2 (1 review) |
| Pricing Model | paid | freemium |
| Starting Price | From $500/mo | Free tier available |
| Best For | Enterprise cloud security teams already invested in, or open to, the Fortinet ecosystem who want behavioural anomaly detection on top of standard CNAPP coverage. | Engineering and security teams of any size that want secrets detection before code merges — starting free for teams up to 25 developers and scaling to governed, self-hostable remediation on Enterprise. |
| Free Tier | ||
| API Access | ||
| Team Features | ||
| Open Source | ||
| Tags | ssoteam features | free tierteam featuresopen source |
| Visit Lacework → | Visit GitGuardian → |
Lacework
Pros
- + Polygraph behavioural baselining groups noisy multi-account events into a small number of narrative incidents with attack paths, rather than per-rule alert spam
- + Hybrid agent plus agentless data collection gives broad day-one coverage without committing to agent deployment everywhere
- + Actively maintained under Fortinet — versioned FortiCNAPP release notes continue through 2025-2026 on Fortinet's documentation site
- + Homegrown data lake correlates events across accounts and long retention windows without a separate SIEM
Cons
- - Acquired by Fortinet (completed August 1, 2024); the standalone Lacework buying motion is gone and roadmap now sits inside Fortinet's portfolio strategy
- - No published list price, no free tier and no self-serve signup — quote-based enterprise sales only
- - Cloud-only: no coverage for on-premises or legacy estates
- - Behavioural baselining needs a learning period that produces an initially confusing stream of low-confidence anomalies
GitGuardian
Pros
- + The free tier is genuinely operational: 25 developers, unlimited real-time scanning, and 500 historical scan detections — I found committed test credentials in a small repo within minutes of setup
- + ggshield is open source and installs as pre-commit hook, GitHub Action, or CLI — wiring prevention into a pipeline took me under half an hour
- + Detection honesty: the docs openly describe the precision/recall trade-off instead of promising zero false positives
- + API quota is request-based and documented (10K/month free, 1M on business plans), so CI usage costs are calculable before you automate
- + AI IDE hooks (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot CLI, VS Code, Codex and others) push prevention to where agents now write code
Cons
- - It does not rotate or revoke credentials — remediation playbooks route incidents to humans; the catalog's 'automated rotation' claim is wrong
- - On the free tier, alert triage is manual: AI risk scoring and false-positive filtering are Growth-only
- - Custom regex detectors are Enterprise-only, so proprietary credential formats need the top tier
- - Pricing for Growth and Enterprise is quote-only with no published rates — hard to budget without a sales call
- - Historical scan caps on free (500 detections, 1 GB repo capacity) mean large legacy repos must pay before seeing their full backlog
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Lacework or GitGuardian?▼
GitGuardian scores higher at 4.2/5 vs 3.6/5 for Lacework, making it the better-rated option in our comparison.
What is the difference between Lacework and GitGuardian?▼
Lacework: Cloud-native application protection platform using AI to detect threats, vulnerabilities, and misconfigurations across cloud infrastructure. GitGuardian: GitGuardian scans code, repositories and developer tooling for leaked credentials and helps teams revoke and fix them. It also covers non-human identity governance, and runs as SaaS or self-hosted.
Is Lacework or GitGuardian more affordable?▼
Lacework starts at €500/mo, GitGuardian starts at €0/mo. Check the comparison table above for current pricing.
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