Ortelius review
A free, open-source choice for application-level SBOM inventory and vulnerability mapping.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Ortelius is an open-source SBOM and software supply-chain evidence platform for development, platform engineering, and security teams. It is suited to organizations that need application-level visibility across packages, dependencies, artifacts, releases, deployments, environments, and endpoints. Ortelius consumes SPDX and CycloneDX SBOMs, generates SBOMs through Syft when needed, and can produce aggregated application-level SBOMs. It is available as a free SaaS offering and can also be installed in a self-hosted Kubernetes environment.
Its strongest capability is connecting inventory to operational context. Ortelius continuously correlates SBOM data with OSV.dev vulnerability information, then helps teams search transitive dependencies and identify affected applications. Versioned SBOMs and historical deployment evidence add useful context for understanding where vulnerable software has been released or deployed. Supply-chain evidence can be collected through its CLI and CI/CD pipelines, while integrations with Syft, OSV.dev, Helm, and Kafka support its surrounding workflow. Teams looking beyond a component list toward application and deployment mapping should find this focus relevant.
Ortelius is less suitable for teams that need verified license analysis or policy enforcement as core parts of their SBOM program. Its value is concentrated in inventory ingestion and generation, vulnerability correlation, dependency search, and deployment evidence rather than governance controls. The choice between SaaS and self-hosting also affects operational fit: the self-hosted option requires Kubernetes, while the free SaaS offering avoids that deployment model. Developers and platform teams seeking free, open-source application-level inventory should consider Ortelius; organizations prioritizing license governance or policy enforcement should choose a platform built around those capabilities.
Ortelius pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Consumes and generates SPDX and CycloneDX SBOMs
- Maps dependencies from packages to applications, deployments, and endpoints
- Correlates inventory with OSV.dev and searches affected applications
- Where it doesn't
- Does not provide verified license analysis
- Does not include policy enforcement
- Self-hosting requires a Kubernetes environment
Ortelius fact sheet, pricing and score →
Advertiser disclosure: iTechGuides is reader-supported. Vendors can pay for top positions in our rankings and for a place on other products' pages, and we may earn a commission when you click some links. Bought places stand at the number bought; this page and our disclosure say so. Paying vendors may get a fuller, more detailed review from our editors, and that review can change their score. How we rank.
Last updated · How we research and update