Cerbos
User provisioning and governance tools
Identity management software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
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$25 per month
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What is Cerbos
Cerbos is a policy-based access control (authorization) service used by engineering teams to define and enforce permissions in applications and APIs. It centralizes authorization logic using externalized policies and evaluates access decisions at runtime, typically alongside an existing authentication/identity provider. Common use cases include role- and attribute-based access control for multi-tenant SaaS applications, internal tools, and microservices. Cerbos differentiates through a decoupled “authorization as code” approach with a dedicated policy engine rather than bundling identity lifecycle or provisioning features.
Decoupled authorization policy engine
Cerbos separates authorization from application code and from authentication systems, which helps teams standardize access decisions across services. This design supports consistent enforcement in microservices and API-first architectures. It also reduces the need to duplicate permission logic across multiple applications.
Policy-as-code workflow support
Cerbos uses externalized policies that can be versioned and reviewed like other code artifacts. This fits common engineering workflows such as pull requests, CI checks, and environment promotion. It can improve auditability of permission changes compared with ad-hoc, hard-coded checks.
Fine-grained access control
Cerbos is designed for granular authorization decisions using roles and attributes (e.g., tenant, resource ownership, environment). This is useful for SaaS products that require per-resource permissions and multi-tenant isolation. It can complement identity platforms that focus primarily on authentication and directory functions.
Operational overhead for runtime checks
Because authorization decisions are evaluated at runtime, deployments must account for latency, availability, and scaling of the policy decision point. High-throughput systems may need caching strategies and careful architecture to avoid bottlenecks. This adds operational considerations beyond simpler in-app permission checks.
Not a full IAM suite
Cerbos focuses on authorization and does not replace identity directories, SSO, MFA, or user lifecycle management. Organizations still need separate systems for provisioning, governance, and identity proofing. Buyers expecting an end-to-end identity management platform may find the scope narrower.
Engineering-led implementation required
Adopting Cerbos typically requires developer effort to model resources, attributes, and policy structure, and to integrate decision checks into services. Teams without mature DevOps practices may struggle to operationalize policy testing and rollout. Non-technical administrators generally have fewer out-of-the-box tools compared with admin-centric IAM products.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| Open Source (Cerbos PDP) | Free forever | YAML-based policy definition; audit logs; CI/CD & IDE tooling; Git, disk, cloud or DB-based storage; community support; run anywhere (on-premise or cloud). |
| Proof of Concept (Cerbos Hub) | $0/month | Up to 100 Monthly Active Principals (MAPs); 1 workspace, 2 developers; 2 Playgrounds; 2 simultaneous PDPs; up to 5 custom tenants; 5 policy builds/week; 1 week unified audit logs; in-browser/serverless authorization; managed CI/CD pipeline; community support. |
| Development (Cerbos Hub) | From $25/month | First 100 MAPs included; 3 months free trial; 3 workspaces, 5 developers; up to 5 Playgrounds; up to 10 simultaneous PDPs; up to 20 custom tenants; 100 policy builds/week; 3 months unified audit logs; uptime SLA; Live Chat support. |
| Production (Cerbos Hub) | From $933/month | First 5000 MAPs included; unlimited workspaces & developers; unlimited Playgrounds; unlimited simultaneous PDPs; unlimited custom tenants; unlimited policy builds/week (fair usage policy applies)†; 1 year unified audit logs; uptime SLA; Live Chat support. |
| Enterprise (Cerbos Hub) | Custom pricing | Enterprise support, training, SLA; SSO support; self-hosted Cerbos Hub option; custom audit log retention; phone support; quarterly training; contact sales for custom plan. |
