Filigran OpenAEV vs MITRE Caldera™: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
Filigran OpenAEV is a commercial threat simulation tool by Filigran. MITRE Caldera™ is a free threat simulation tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best threat simulation fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, integrations, company size fit, here is our conclusion:
Mid-market and enterprise teams with mature EDR deployments will get the most from Filigran OpenAEV because it validates whether your existing detection stack actually catches real attacks instead of just assuming coverage. The platform's MITRE ATT&CK-aligned simulation library and AI-assisted scenario creation mean you're testing threats your environment actually faces, not generic templates, and the agentless architecture lets you start validating immediately without EDR replacement costs. Skip this if you need a turnkey solution that works without an EDR already in place; OpenAEV assumes you own the detection layer and want to stress-test it.
Red teams and incident response operators who need to validate defenses against realistic ATT&CK-mapped adversary behavior will find MITRE Caldera™ invaluable; it's free, which removes budget friction, and the modular plugin architecture lets you build custom emulation scenarios without vendor lock-in. The 6,816 GitHub stars reflect active community contribution and transparent development that enterprise security teams increasingly demand. Skip this if your organization lacks the technical depth to operationalize red team findings; Caldera assumes you know how to interpret and act on the gaps it exposes rather than handing you a prioritized remediation list.
