Prowler vs CloudQuery
Both are alternatives to Vanta. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as CloudQuery vs Prowler — same comparison, one verdict.
Prowler
TOP PICKOpen-source cloud security posture scanning with framework check packs.
Scans AWS, Azure, GCP and Kubernetes against hundreds of checks and maps them to compliance frameworks including CIS, SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR and NIST. Runs as a CLI in CI or as a self-hosted app, and produces the technical-control evidence a compliance platform would otherwise gather for you.
CloudQuery
Sync cloud infrastructure into your own database, then ask compliance questions of it.
An ELT framework that pulls cloud, SaaS and identity configuration into Postgres or a warehouse you own. Compliance becomes a query against your own data rather than a feature of somebody's platform, which also makes the evidence yours to keep.
Side by side
| Prowler | CloudQuery | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 92 | 80 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first | Yes | Yes |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MPL-2.0 (core) |
| Pricing | Free / self-host; optional paid hosted Prowler Cloud | Free / self-host core; paid cloud and premium plugins |
Prowler is Macrostack's recommended Vanta alternative, so it's our pick here.
Prowler
Strengths
- +Framework mappings are built in — SOC 2, CIS, HIPAA, GDPR, NIST and more, not just raw findings
- +Runs in CI, so posture is checked on every change rather than the week before an audit
- +Covers the part of compliance that is genuinely automatable: technical control state
Trade-offs
- −Produces evidence, not an audit — no auditor relationship, no report
- −No policy management, security training tracking or vendor review workflow
- −Someone has to own the findings; the tool will not chase them
CloudQuery
Strengths
- +The evidence lands in a database you control and can retain for years
- +Broad source coverage beyond cloud — identity, SaaS, code hosting
- +Fits teams that already have a warehouse and BI layer
Trade-offs
- −You build the compliance logic; it ships the data, not the verdict
- −Several plugins and features sit behind the commercial tier
- −Furthest of these from anything an auditor would recognise unaided
Related alternative guides
Facts verified 2026-09-01. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.