Aserto (Topaz) vs Cerbos
Side-by-side comparison of identity tools. Sponsored placement is disclosed where applicable.
Quick answer
Aserto (Topaz) vs Cerbos: which should you choose?
Short answer
Aserto (Topaz) vs Cerbos have overlapping use cases in identity and access management. The right pick depends on your company size, deployment model, integrations, and pricing tolerance — compare those attributes side-by-side below.
- Best for
- Aserto (Topaz): Platform or backend teams that want a self-hosted, OPA-compatible authorizer with a Zanzibar-style relationship store and are comfortable operating it without a vendor behind it. · Cerbos: Engineering teams that need fine-grained authorization (RBAC, ABAC, PBAC, or ReBAC) in their applications and want to manage access-control policy separately from application code — particularly in microservices architectures, or where the same policies must consistently govern applications, API gateways, data platforms, and AI agents.
- When to choose
- Pick the option whose company-size fit, deployment model, and integrations most closely match your stack.
- When not to choose
- Skip a head-to-head if you haven't shortlisted a category yet — start with the IAM Stack Finder instead.
- Related tools & categories
- Aserto (Topaz)CerbosIAM Stack FinderBuyer resources
| Attribute | ||
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Platform or backend teams that want a self-hosted, OPA-compatible authorizer with a Zanzibar-style relationship store and are comfortable operating it without a vendor behind it. | Engineering teams that need fine-grained authorization (RBAC, ABAC, PBAC, or ReBAC) in their applications and want to manage access-control policy separately from application code — particularly in microservices architectures, or where the same policies must consistently govern applications, API gateways, data platforms, and AI agents. |
| Short description | Aserto built a fine-grained authorization platform around Topaz, an Apache 2.0 authorizer that pairs Open Policy Agent (Rego) with a Zanzibar-style relationship directory. The hosted Aserto Control Plane shut down on 31 May 2025; Topaz continues as a self-hosted open-source project. | Cerbos is an authorization management platform built around an open source policy decision point (PDP). It enforces fine-grained RBAC, ABAC, PBAC, and ReBAC policies for applications, APIs, workloads, and AI agents. |
| Company size | startup, smb, mid_market | Startup, Mid-market, Enterprise |
| Deployment | self_hosted | Self-hosted, SaaS / Cloud-hosted (Cerbos Hub) |
| Source | open source | Open source (Apache 2.0) |
| Pricing model | free (open source); hosted plans discontinued | Free (open source PDP, self-hosted); Cerbos Hub (control plane) commercial pricing available |
| Integrations | Go, Node.js, JavaScript, Python, Java, .NET, Ruby, gRPC | gRPC, REST, JavaScript, Go, Python, Java, .NET, Rust |
| Categories | Authorization | Authorization, Non-Human Identity, AI Agent Identity |
| Claimed profile |
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