Commercial scanner
HarborGuard vs Snyk Container
Snyk Container is feature-rich but locks key capabilities behind enterprise tiers and ties you to Snyk's vulnerability data. HarborGuard is open source under AGPL-3.0, bundles six scanners (so you're not betting on one feed), and prices transparently per user.
Snyk is the most polished commercial container security product; the trade-off is platform lock-in, opaque tiering, and a vulnerability database you can't audit or self-host. HarborGuard is built around six open-source scanners — you can verify every CVE against the upstream feed, run it on your own infrastructure, and read the source.
When Snyk Container wins
- You already use Snyk Code, IaC, and Open Source — the Container product slots into that suite.
- You need integrated SCA across non-container artifacts in the same dashboard.
When HarborGuard wins
- You don't want a single-vendor moat for your security data.
- You want six deduplicated scanners, not one proprietary one.
- You need self-hosted under AGPL, not a SaaS-only contract.
- Pricing transparency matters to procurement.
Capability matrix
| Capability | HarborGuard | Snyk Container |
|---|---|---|
| Source available | AGPL-3.0 | No |
| Bundled scanners | Trivy, Grype, Syft, Dockle, OSV, Dive | Snyk-proprietary engine |
| Self-hosted | Yes (Docker, K8s, Fly.io) | On-prem broker only |
| SBOM export | CycloneDX, SPDX, Syft-native | CycloneDX, SPDX |
| Patching | Buildah / Copa | Snyk Fix PRs |
| Compliance frameworks | 10+ (SOC 2, FedRAMP, ISO, NIST 800-53, HIPAA, CMMC) | Reports module — limited frameworks |
| SLA tracking | Yes — built-in | Via Jira sync |
| Pricing model | Per user, public | Per project / contributing developer, sales-led |
Frequently asked questions
Can HarborGuard ingest Snyk data?
Not directly today. Most teams migrate by running both in parallel for two weeks, then cutting over once HarborGuard's deduplicated findings match or exceed Snyk's coverage on their image set.
What about Snyk's Vulnerability Database?
HarborGuard pulls from NVD, OSV, GHSA, CISA KEV, and Alpine secdb. Coverage is comparable for OS packages and most language ecosystems; we don't (yet) have proprietary vulnerability research, which is one of Snyk's investments.