Cerbos
by Cerbos · Externalised policy-based authorization for applications, services and AI agents
BenchRank score
Screenshots of Cerbos
Homepage
Overview
Cerbos is an authorization platform that separates access-control logic from application code. Its open-source Policy Decision Point evaluates YAML policies at runtime and returns allow/deny decisions to applications through language SDKs. Cerbos Hub adds central policy authoring, testing, versioning and audit logs; Cerbos Synapse enriches requests with data from external systems.
- Best for
- Engineering teams moving fine-grained permissions out of application code and into central policy
- Pricing
- The open-source PDP is free; Cerbos Hub offers a $0 proof-of-concept tier, then from $25/month (Development) and from $933/month (Production), with custom Enterprise pricing on request.
- Runs on
- Self-hosted
Strengths and trade-offs
Strengths
- Open-source PDP runs on-prem, in cloud or air-gapped
- SDKs for JS, Python, Go, Rust, Java and .NET
- RBAC, ABAC, ReBAC and PBAC without application code changes
- Audit logs record the policy and version behind each decision
Trade-offs
- Production plan starts at $933/month and scales with active principals
- SSO, self-hosted Hub and custom log retention are Enterprise-only
- Free and proof-of-concept tiers get community support only, with no SLA
- Proof-of-concept tier caps use at 1 workspace, 2 developers and 2 PDPs
Pricing
Published plans and prices from Cerbos’s own pricing page.
How this score is made up
Each dimension is scored out of 100 and combined into the headline score using fixed weights.
MCP support
Whether an agent can drive the product through the Model Context Protocol, and how much setup that takes.
API quality
Public API surface: machine-readable spec, official SDKs, documented auth, errors, rate limits and versioning.
Documentation
Publicly reachable docs — coverage, freshness, code samples and machine readability.
Agent friendliness
How readable the site is to an automated client: llms.txt, structured data, server-rendered content, crawler access.
Pricing transparency
Whether real prices are published, self-serve signup exists, and usage costs are knowable without a sales call.
Changelog
A public, dated record of what shipped and when — the clearest signal that a product is still alive.
Marketing site structure
Whether the site answers a buyer's questions: clear positioning, the pages that matter, and accessibility.
Page speed
How fast the site loads for real visitors: Chrome UX Report 75th-percentile LCP, INP and CLS, with a Lighthouse mobile run standing in where a site has too little traffic for field data.
Operational trust
Status page and incident history, security disclosure, compliance and data-processing documentation.
Measured, but not part of the score
Useful to know, but not a mark for or against the product — so these do not affect the ranking.
Openness
Source availability, self-hosting, data export and open standards. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — paid SaaS is not worse for being paid SaaS.
Maintenance
Release cadence and repository activity. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — it is only measurable for open repositories.
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Where this comes from
The Cerbos pages BenchRank reads when it scores the product — its documentation, release notes, status and security pages, and its repository where there is one.
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