KICS vs audytx

KICS9.4Visit audytx8.7Visit

Higher score KICS #1 in Infrastructure as Code Security Software 9.4/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 7 of 7 features Visit KICS

vs

audytx #7 in Infrastructure as Code Security Software 8.7/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 5 of 7 features Visit audytx

• KICS fits best

  Broad, free IaC security coverage

• audytx fits best

  Terraform-focused engineering teams

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Side by side

Feature	KICS 9.4/10 Visit ↗	audytx 8.7/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	9.4	8.7
Ranking	#1 in Infrastructure as Code Security Software	#7 in Infrastructure as Code Security Software
Best for	Broad, free IaC security coverage	Terraform-focused engineering teams
Pricing model	Free	Free plan + paid
Starting price	Free plan	$20/mo
Free plan	✓	✓
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Self-hosted	Cloud
Platforms	Windows, macOS, Linux	Web
Support	Email, Community, Docs	Email, Docs
Integrations	16 integrations	9 integrations
Built for	Solo, Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features KICS 7/7 · audytx 5/7
Terraform analysis	✓	✓
Kubernetes analysis	✓ (best)	—
CloudFormation analysis	✓	✓
Custom policies	✓ (best)	Not checked yet
Secrets detection	✓	✓
Pull request scanning	✓	✓
IDE integration	✓	✓
Our review
Pros	Scans Terraform, Kubernetes, and CloudFormation Detects security issues, compliance gaps, misconfigurations, and secrets Connects with CI/CD tools, GitHub Actions, and Visual Studio Code	Cross-resource reasoning and IAM attack-path analysis GitHub pull requests, SARIF, Actions, and IDE integrations Free plan with unlimited repositories, files, and users
Cons	Primarily focuses on infrastructure-as-code configuration files Custom queries may require security and policy knowledge Workflow coverage depends on configuring its listed integrations	Focused primarily on AWS Terraform workflows CloudFormation access is tied to hosted MCP and GitHub App workflows Platform coverage is limited to web and API
Our verdict	KICS is a free, open-source static analysis tool for infrastructure-as-code projects. It is designed for teams that need security, compliance, misconfiguration, and secrets checks across Terraform, Kubernetes, and CloudFormation. The… Read the review →	audytx is a hosted infrastructure-as-code security scanner for engineering teams working with AWS Terraform. It combines deterministic security checks with cross-resource context, so findings can account for relationships across… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• KICS — where it wins

  • Scans Terraform, Kubernetes, and CloudFormation
  • Detects security issues, compliance gaps, misconfigurations, and secrets
  • Connects with CI/CD tools, GitHub Actions, and Visual Studio Code

  Where it doesn't

  • Primarily focuses on infrastructure-as-code configuration files
  • Custom queries may require security and policy knowledge
  • Workflow coverage depends on configuring its listed integrations

• audytx — where it wins

  • Cross-resource reasoning and IAM attack-path analysis
  • GitHub pull requests, SARIF, Actions, and IDE integrations
  • Free plan with unlimited repositories, files, and users

  Where it doesn't

  • Focused primarily on AWS Terraform workflows
  • CloudFormation access is tied to hosted MCP and GitHub App workflows
  • Platform coverage is limited to web and API

• KICS9.4/10 · Free plan

  A broad, free IaC scanner for security, compliance, secrets, and misconfigurations.

  Visit KICSFull verdict →
• audytx8.7/10 · Free plan

  A Terraform-focused scanner with attack-path analysis, GitHub workflows, and tiered scan limits.

  Visit audytxFull verdict →