OpenBao Pricing

open sourceopen source · MPL-2.0last verified September 6, 2026official site ↗

At a glance

Free and 100% open source under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL-2.0). Governed by the Linux Foundation as a vendor-neutral community fork of HashiCorp Vault with zero licensing fees, secret limits, or commercial restrictions.

Self-hosting cost

OpenBao is open source under the MPL-2.0 license. Self-hosting does not add a software license fee, but you still pay for infrastructure, operations, and any external model or API usage.

Free & cheaper AI Security & DevSecOps

same category, free plan or open-source license

OpenLITopen source100% free and open source under the Apache-2.0 license ($0 self-hosted on Docker and Kubernetes). Features OpenTelemetry-native LLM tracing, GPU hardware metrics (NVIDIA/AMD/Intel), Prompt Hub, and security guardrails. Managed OpenLIT Cloud edition is available for hosted enterprise deployments.Ciliumopen sourceFree and 100% open source under the Apache-2.0 license (with dual GPL-2.0/BSD-2-Clause BPF datapath templates) as a CNCF Graduated project. Cilium has no software licensing fees for self-hosted or cloud Kubernetes deployments (including GKE Dataplane V2 and Azure CNI Powered by Cilium); organizations pay only for their compute infrastructure. For mission-critical enterprise environments, Isovalent Enterprise for Cilium (by Cisco) provides quote-based annual subscriptions (per-node/environment) with 24/7 SLA support, hardened LTS builds, Customer Testing Environments (CuTEs), enterprise BGP/EVPN, and advanced multi-cluster security and observability retention.MCP-Scanopen source100% free and open-source Model Context Protocol (MCP) security auditing and vulnerability scanner developed by Invariant Labs (Apache-2.0 License). Analyzes MCP client configurations, tool schemas, and server definitions to detect prompt injection vectors, malicious tool poisoning, cross-server shadowing, and unintended permission escalation at zero software cost.PangolinFree Community Edition under AGPL-3.0; Enterprise Edition (FCL) is free for homelabbers/individuals and orgs with <$100K gross annual revenue, paid license required for >=$100K revenue.

OpenBao overview →alternatives →

FAQ

How much does OpenBao cost?

Does OpenBao have a free plan?

Yes — OpenBao is open source and free to use.

Can you self-host OpenBao for free?

OpenBao is open source under the MPL-2.0 license. Self-hosting does not add a software license fee, but you still pay for infrastructure, operations, and any external model or API usage.

What are free or cheaper OpenBao alternatives?

OpenLIT, Cilium, MCP-Scan are in the same category with a free plan or open-source license.

pricing is editorial catalog data (last verified September 6, 2026) — vendors change plans; confirm on the official site before you buy. Reuse this data under CC-BY 4.0 via /data.