Steampipe vs Kloudle: SQL-Based Cloud Security

Two Approaches to Cloud Security

Steampipe and Kloudle solve cloud security visibility from opposite directions:

• Steampipe gives you a SQL interface to cloud APIs. You write queries to find what you’re looking for.
• Kloudle runs 1,890 pre-built checks and surfaces findings. You review what it found.

Both are valid. The right choice depends on your workflow and team composition.

How Steampipe Works

Steampipe turns cloud APIs into PostgreSQL tables. Install a plugin, and every AWS resource becomes queryable with SQL:

-- Find S3 buckets without encryption
select name, region
from aws_s3_bucket
where server_side_encryption_configuration is null;

-- Find security groups open to the world
select group_id, ip_permission
from aws_vpc_security_group_rule
where cidr_ipv4 = '0.0.0.0/0'
and from_port = 22;

This is powerful for investigation. You can ask any question about your infrastructure that the cloud API can answer. There’s no predefined check list — the SQL surface area is the full cloud API.

Steampipe Mods

Steampipe Mods are pre-built SQL query collections that implement compliance frameworks (CIS, SOC 2, etc.). They provide a starting point so you don’t have to write every check from scratch.

With mods, Steampipe can approximate CSPM functionality. But the experience is CLI-driven: run a mod, get a terminal report.

How Kloudle Works

Kloudle is a purpose-built CSPM. You connect cloud accounts, schedule scans, and review findings in a dashboard:

1. Connect cloud accounts (IAM role for AWS, service account for GCP, etc.)
2. Scans run automatically on schedule
3. Findings appear in a dashboard with severity, remediation, and compliance mapping
4. Generate compliance reports for auditors
5. Track remediation progress over time

No SQL writing. No query debugging. No manual execution.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Steampipe	Kloudle
Cloud providers	140+ plugins	AWS, GCP, Azure, DO, K8s
Query language	SQL	No queries needed
Pre-built checks	Mods (~300 CIS checks)	1,890 built-in
Custom checks	Write SQL	Configuration-based
UI dashboard	No (CLI + third-party)	Yes
Scheduled scans	Manual/cron	Built-in scheduler
Compliance reports	CLI output from mods	PDF/dashboard reports
Team management	No	Role-based access
Historical trending	Write your own storage	Built-in
Alerting	Integrate yourself	Built-in
Self-hosted	Yes (CLI tool)	Yes (Sovereign option)
Pricing	Free (OSS)	$5K/year fixed
AI agent integration	No	MCP server

When Steampipe Wins

Ad-Hoc Investigation

”Which IAM users haven’t rotated credentials in 90 days and have console access?”

select user_name, password_last_used, access_key_1_last_rotated
from aws_iam_credential_report
where password_enabled = true
and access_key_1_last_rotated < now() - interval '90 days';

This kind of one-off investigative query is Steampipe’s strength. You don’t need a pre-built check — you need to ask a specific question and get an immediate answer.

Custom Organizational Policies

”All EC2 instances in the production account must have a ‘team’ tag with value matching one of our team slugs.”

This is too organization-specific for any CSPM to have pre-built. In Steampipe, it’s a SQL query. In Kloudle, you’d rely on the tagging checks that exist but can’t encode your specific tag taxonomy.

Multi-Cloud Correlation

”Show me all resources across AWS, GCP, and Azure that are in the same geographic region and have public endpoints.”

Steampipe’s SQL interface makes cross-cloud JOINs trivial because everything is in the same PostgreSQL query context.

When Kloudle Wins

Production Security Operations

Your security team needs:

• Scheduled scans without manual execution
• A dashboard to review findings
• Compliance reports for auditors
• Historical trending to show improvement
• Team roles so developers see their own findings

These are table-stakes CSPM features that Steampipe doesn’t provide without significant DIY work.

Teams Without SQL Expertise

Not every security team writes SQL. Not every engineering team wants to maintain a query library. Kloudle’s pre-built checks eliminate the “who writes and maintains the queries” problem.

Compliance Automation

An auditor asking for CIS benchmark compliance status doesn’t want a SQL query result. They want a report showing: which controls pass, which fail, evidence for each, and remediation recommendations. Kloudle generates this. Steampipe gives you raw data.

Consistent Coverage

With Steampipe, your security coverage is only as good as the queries you’ve written. If nobody wrote a check for publicly accessible RDS instances, you won’t catch them.

Kloudle’s 1,890 checks are maintained by the vendor. New checks are added regularly as cloud services evolve and new attack patterns emerge.

Using Both Together

Many teams use Steampipe and a CSPM together:

• Kloudle for continuous, automated security posture monitoring
• Steampipe for ad-hoc investigation when a finding needs deeper context

Example workflow: Kloudle alerts on a misconfigured security group. You open Steampipe to investigate: which instances are behind that security group? What other security groups are they in? What IAM roles can modify them?

Verdict

Choose Steampipe if:

• You’re an engineer comfortable with SQL
• You need ad-hoc investigation capability
• You have custom organizational policies to encode
• You’re building your own security data pipeline
• Budget is zero and you’ll invest engineering time instead

Choose Kloudle if:

• You need production CSPM (scheduling, UI, reports, teams)
• Your security team doesn’t write SQL
• You want compliance reports without DIY
• You need sovereign deployment with fixed pricing
• You want AI agent integration for security automation

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