What is Teleport used for?

Teleport is an infrastructure access platform that secures access to servers, databases, clusters and AI workloads with cryptographic identity. It is a good fit for replacing SSH keys and shared database credentials, auditing engineer access to production, and controlling AI agent access to infrastructure.

Is Teleport open source?

No. Teleport is proprietary (closed-source) software. Open-source alternatives to Teleport include Pomerium, Octelium and OpenZiti.

Can I self-host Teleport?

Yes. Although Teleport is closed source, it can be self-hosted on your own servers, and the vendor also offers a hosted version.

What are some alternatives to Teleport?

Teleport competes with StrongDM, BeyondTrust and CyberArk. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Teleport alternatives.

Teleport: features, pricing and alternatives

About Teleport

Teleport is an infrastructure access and identity platform that gives engineers, machines and AI agents short-lived, identity-based access to servers, databases, Kubernetes clusters and other internal resources. Its stated aim is to remove shared secrets and standing privileges, replacing them with cryptographic identities and ephemeral access.

The vendor describes a unified identity layer that covers humans, machine workloads and AI agents, backed by hardware roots of trust such as HSMs, TPMs and biometrics. It emphasizes a single audit trail and a smaller set of access paths, addressing credential sprawl, lateral movement risk and blind spots around AI identities in production infrastructure.

Teleport can be run by an organization in its own environment or used as a managed cloud service, and the website offers both a free trial and a contact-sales route. The product has its roots in an open-source project, but the supplied listing treats it as a commercial product, so licensing terms should be checked with the vendor.

Key features

Short-lived credentials with no standing privilege
Access to servers, databases and Kubernetes clusters
Unified identity for humans, machines and AI agents
Hardware-backed cryptographic identity
Unified audit trail of infrastructure access
Access governance controls

Good fit for

→Replacing SSH keys and shared database credentials
→Auditing engineer access to production
→Controlling AI agent access to infrastructure

Tags: infrastructure-access; zero-trust; identity; ssh; kubernetes; audit; privileged-access

Teleport: questions and answers

What is Teleport used for?: Teleport is an infrastructure access platform that secures access to servers, databases, clusters and AI workloads with cryptographic identity. It is a good fit for replacing SSH keys and shared database credentials, auditing engineer access to production, and controlling AI agent access to infrastructure.
Is Teleport free?: Yes. Teleport has a free plan.
Is Teleport open source?: No. Teleport is proprietary (closed-source) software. Open-source alternatives to Teleport include Pomerium, Octelium and OpenZiti.
Can I self-host Teleport?: Yes. Although Teleport is closed source, it can be self-hosted on your own servers, and the vendor also offers a hosted version.
What are some alternatives to Teleport?: Teleport competes with StrongDM, BeyondTrust and CyberArk. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Teleport alternatives.