Open Source vs Commercial

Sensu Go may be used as an open-source solution or a commercially licensed product with access to compiled binaries, Sensu support, and other great features.

The OSS version is distributed as MIT-licensed code that can be compiled from source.

The Sensu Go commercial distribution provides significant added-value beyond the core functionality of the open source project. We’re proud to offer all of these great features for FREE for your first 100 nodes. When it comes to larger-scale deployments where the scalability, integration, and security of your observability solution are mission-critical, Sensu Go offers an incredible value for less than 1¢ per node per hour.

Here’s a detailed look at the differences between the Sensu Go OSS project and the commercial distribution.

Licensing & Distribution Open Source Commercial Distribution
Licensing & distribution Open Source Commercial Distribution
License MIT Sensu License
Free usage limits No limit 100 nodes free
Pricing for additional nodes Free $3-$5/mo per node
Distribution Source code only Signed binaries & packages
Licensing & distribution Open Source Commercial Distribution
License MIT Sensu License
Free usage limits No limit 100 nodes free
Pricing for additional nodes Free $3-$5/mo per node
Distribution Source code only Signed binaries & packages
Monitoring features Open Source Commercial Distribution
Server monitoring
Container monitoring
Real-time inventory
Health checks & custom metrics
Alerts & incident management
Automated remediation & custom workflows
200+ community plugins
50+ commercially supported plugins & integrations (ServiceNow, JIRA, ElasticSearch, Splunk, Ansible, Moogsoft, etc.)
Server monitoring
Container monitoring
Real-time inventory
Health checks & custom metrics
Alerts & incident management
Automated remediation & custom workflows
200+ community plugins
50+ commercially supported plugins & integrations (ServiceNow, JIRA, ElasticSearch, Splunk, Ansible, Moogsoft, etc.)
Dashboard features Open Source Commercial Distribution
Real-time incident dashboard
Real-time inventory dashboard
Multi-tenant dashboard (single-site)
Multi-site dashboard (federation)
Resource management dashboard (real-time config mgmt.)
Grafana UI datasource
Real-time incident dashboard
Real-time inventory dashboard
Multi-tenant dashboard (single-site)
Multi-site dashboard (federation)
Resource management dashboard (real-time config mgmt.)
Grafana UI datasource
Extensibility features Open Source Commercial Distribution
Custom plugins/scripts language support (e.g. C, C++, Golang, Ruby, Javascript/NodeJS, Rust, C#, Perl, Bash, etc) Any language Any language
Discovery, Inventory, Config Management APIs
Token-based API authentication (JWTs)
Persistent API token authentication (service accounts)
API Response Filtering (Field Selectors)
API Response Filtering (Label Selectors)
High Performance Streaming data handlers
Custom plugins/scripts language support (e.g. C, C++, Golang, Ruby, Javascript/NodeJS, Rust, C#, Perl, Bash, etc) Any language Any language
Discovery, Inventory, Config Management APIs
Token-based API authentication (JWTs)
Persistent API token authentication (service accounts)
API Response Filtering (Field Selectors)
API Response Filtering (Label Selectors)
High Performance Streaming data handlers
Architecture, scalability, and security Open Source Commercial Distribution
Namespaces and RBAC
Built-in configuration management database (embedded etcd)
Built-in transport (TLS-encrypted websockets w/ support for self-signed certificates)
Built-in user management (basic auth)
Agent authentication via username and password (basic auth)
Agent authentication via mTLS (certificate auth)
Secrets management (Basic)
Secrets management (HashiCorp Vault)
Single sign-on (SSO) (LDAP, AD, OIDC)
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) integration for mTLS agent auth
Certificate Revocation List (CRL) integration for mTLS agent auth
High Performance Event Processing backend
Multi-site federation (Auth provider & RBAC resource replication)
Namespaces and RBAC
Built-in configuration management database (embedded etcd)
Built-in transport (TLS-encrypted websockets w/ support for self-signed certificates)
Built-in user management (basic auth)
Agent authentication via username and password (basic auth)
Agent authentication via mTLS (certificate auth)
Secrets management (Basic)
Secrets management (HashiCorp Vault)
Single sign-on (SSO) (LDAP, AD, OIDC)
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) integration for mTLS agent auth
Certificate Revocation List (CRL) integration for mTLS agent auth
High Performance Event Processing backend
Multi-site federation (Auth provider & RBAC resource replication)
Services & support Open Source Commercial Distribution
Bonsai (hosted Sensu Asset Index & CDN)
Community support (Discourse, Slack)
Commercial support with SLA
Training and professional services
Bonsai (hosted Sensu Asset Index & CDN)
Community support (Discourse, Slack)
Commercial support with SLA
Training and professional services

Supercharge your Ops & SRE teams for less than 1¢ per node per hour.

Want to learn more about our pricing? Or do you still have questions about the differences between the commercial product and open source project?