Bearer vs Start Left® IaC Security: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

Bearer

Developer teams shipping code fast will find Bearer CLI's free engine and cloud scanning most valuable; it catches privacy and security flaws before code review without slowing your pipeline. The hybrid deployment model means you can start with the open-source CLI locally and scale to Bearer Cloud as you grow, avoiding the vendor lock-in of pure SaaS SAST tools. Skip Bearer if you need deep integration with legacy enterprise workflows or extensive policy customization; it's built for modern languages and frameworks, not COBOL systems running on mainframes.

Start Left® IaC Security

Teams deploying infrastructure at scale across multiple clouds need Start Left® IaC Security to catch configuration drift before it becomes a production incident; it shifts security left by embedding compliance checks directly into the pipeline rather than letting misconfigs slip through to runtime. The tool covers NIST CSF 2.0 PR.PS and ID.AM rigorously, meaning you're validating both platform hardening and asset inventory at template time, which eliminates the expensive discovery-and-remediation cycle most teams endure. Skip this if your infrastructure is primarily on-premises or your IaC adoption is still nascent; Start Left® assumes you're already template-driven and need enforcement, not education.