Is 5bats a free, self-hosted alternative to Snyk?
Search for a “free self-hosted Snyk alternative” and you will mostly find listicles written for engineering teams. Here is the honest version for an individual developer: it depends entirely on which part of Snyk you actually need.
Snyk is a broad application-security platform. 5bats is a handful of small, free, local tools. They overlap on exactly one thing — checking your dependencies for known problems — and the straight answer to “can 5bats replace Snyk?” is for that one slice, yes; for everything else, no, and it does not try to.
The two approaches
What Snyk is
Snyk is an AI-era security platform sold as a single managed product: code scanning (SAST), open-source dependency scanning, container and infrastructure-as-code checks, a dashboard, policies, reporting and developer training. It has a free tier and paid plans aimed at teams and enterprises. The whole idea is breadth — one place to cover many kinds of security across an organisation.
What 5bats is
5bats is a small set of free, open-source command-line gates that check dependencies for known vulnerabilities and malware before they install. They run entirely on your own machine, keep no account, and send no data anywhere. There is no code scanner, no container analysis, no dashboard — by design. The idea is the opposite of breadth: one job, done locally, for free.
Side-by-side
| Snyk | 5bats | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Full AppSec platform (SAST, SCA, container, IaC) | Pre-install dependency gate only |
| Deployment | SaaS / cloud | Local CLI on your machine |
| Cost | Free tier + paid team/enterprise plans | Free, open-source |
| Account & data | Account; data in the cloud | No account; zero data egress |
| Code / container / IaC scanning | Yes | No |
| Pre-install dependency gate | Part of a larger workflow | The core thing it does |
| Coverage | Many ecosystems + more | pip · Composer · Homebrew · AI-assistant installs |
Which should you choose?
If you need a platform — code scanning, container and IaC checks, a team dashboard, policy and reporting — choose Snyk. That is exactly what it is built for, and 5bats does not pretend to cover it. If you are a solo developer or a small team who wants a free, local check that stops a vulnerable or malicious dependency before it installs, with nothing to sign up for and no data leaving your machine, 5bats is the lighter fit. The two are not mutually exclusive — a Snyk user can still want a local pre-install gate, and a 5bats user may graduate to a platform later.
FAQ
Is there a free alternative to Snyk?
For the dependency-checking part of Snyk, yes — the 5bats gates check your dependencies for known vulnerabilities and malware before they install, free and on your own machine. For Snyk’s code scanning, container and infrastructure checks, there is no 5bats equivalent; that is platform territory.
Can I scan dependencies without sending data to a SaaS?
Yes. The 5bats gates run entirely locally, keep no account, and send no telemetry. They query public vulnerability feeds to check a package — that is the job — but your dependency list never goes to a third-party service.
Does 5bats do SAST like Snyk Code?
No. 5bats does not scan your own source code for bugs or analyse containers or infrastructure-as-code. It does one thing — gate risky dependencies before they install. If you need SAST or a full platform, Snyk is built for that.
The 5bats dependency gates live under supply-chain gates — there is one for Python, PHP, Homebrew, and the packages an AI assistant installs. All free, all local.
