About Steampipe
Steampipe is an open-source tool that provides a SQL interface to dynamically query APIs, code, and other data sources. It supports over 150 data sources and requires no database to run.
It is designed for developers and cloud engineers who need to audit resources, gather information, or perform security compliance checks across multiple cloud providers and services.
Key features
- Live query of cloud, code, logs, and more with SQL
- Zero-ETL from 150+ data sources
- No database required
- Open source with a plugin library
- Supports building benchmarks and dashboards for security and insights
Good fit for
- Auditing cloud resources across multiple providers
- Security compliance and operations
- API orchestration and information gathering
Steampipe: questions and answers
- What is Steampipe used for?
- Steampipe lets you query cloud services, code, logs, and other data sources using SQL without a database. It is a good fit for auditing cloud resources across multiple providers, security compliance and operations, and API orchestration and information gathering.
- Is Steampipe open source?
- Yes. Steampipe is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at turbot/steampipe and is written mainly in Go.
- Is Steampipe free?
- Yes. Steampipe is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.
- Can I self-host Steampipe?
- Yes. Steampipe can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
- What is Steampipe an alternative to?
- Steampipe is an open-source alternative to Prisma Cloud. Other open-source alternatives to Prisma Cloud include Checkov, KICS and Kubescape.
- Is Steampipe actively maintained?
- Yes. The most recent commit to Steampipe was on 7 October 2026, and the latest release is v2.4.7, published on 16 September 2026. The project has 8k stars on GitHub.
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