Capability by capability
33 capabilities, scored against JFrog, Sonatype and Cloudsmith. Each of them is scored on the best thing they sell, in any tier, because that is the fair fight. What it costs to get there is a row of its own. 16 rows go against us, and every one says why.
#1
137
JFrog
Artifactory, Xray and Curation
#2
134
Sonatype
Nexus Repository and Firewall
#3
127
ForgeRepo™
this project, free, MIT
#4
100
Cloudsmith
managed SaaS
33 rows, 165 stars available. 6 ahead of all three, 16 behind at least one, 11 level.
The total hides the shape. ForgeRepo™ loses on the product around it and on breadth of formats, and leads where a package firewall earns its keep: the bad day, and the work between developers and approvers.
| Section | ForgeRepo™ | JFrog | Sonatype | Cloudsmith | ForgeRepo™ places |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The product around it (6 rows) | 18 / 30 | 23 / 30 | 22 / 30 | 15 / 30 | Third |
| Keeping bad packages out (10 rows) | 41 / 50 | 41 / 50 | 44 / 50 | 28 / 50 | Second, shared |
| When something goes wrong (4 rows) | 18 / 20 | 15 / 20 | 14 / 20 | 12 / 20 | First |
| Developers and approvals (5 rows) | 21 / 25 | 19 / 25 | 20 / 25 | 12 / 25 | First |
| Formats and running it (8 rows) | 29 / 40 | 39 / 40 | 34 / 40 | 33 / 40 | Fourth |
Treat every number as our opinion
We are scoring ourselves against three competitors, which is not a neutral position, and pretending otherwise would be worse than saying so. What we can offer is the reasoning. Every row says why it scored what it did, so you can disagree with the argument rather than the star.
Where we could not confirm something, we leaned their way
The three were scored on 18 September 2026 from their own documentation and pricing pages. Where we could not find a feature, the row says so, and where we have not tested theirs side by side, we gave them the benefit of the doubt. If we got one wrong, tell us and it changes.
Better said here than found out later.
npm (with pnpm, Yarn and Bun), PyPI, container images, NuGet, Maven, RubyGems, Composer, CocoaPods, Swift packages, and RPM and APT mirrors. No Go, Cargo, Helm or Hugging Face. If your estate needs those behind the same policy, you need something else too.
You can publish npm and PyPI packages, push images and push NuGet packages, under
names you reserve. You cannot mvn deploy or gem push to it, nothing
published is ever deleted, and there is no retention, replication or image signing.
Signature scanning catches what signatures know, and the OpenSSF malicious packages feed only knows what somebody has already reported. The commercial firewalls employ people who read new packages all day. ForgeRepo™ leans on layers instead: cooling off, rules, lookalike checks, advisories and the kill switch.
It is an MIT licensed project with good documentation and readable source. There is no support contract and no SLA. For some teams that settles it, and that is fine.
The scores above are for the best tier of each. This is the price of that tier, or the nearest published one.
| Free tier | Where blocking before download starts | Self hosted | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ForgeRepo™ | Everything. There is no other tier. | $0, in the one version | Yes, one container |
| JFrog | OSS edition, no npm, PyPI or Xray | Curation add-on on Enterprise X (cloud from $950 a month) or Enterprise+ | Yes, from $27,000 a year |
| Sonatype | Community Edition, capped, no blocking | Firewall Pro $4,800 a year (SaaS, four formats), or Firewall on request with Nexus Pro from $7,500 a year | Yes |
| Cloudsmith | Core, 500 MB, no policies | Ultra or Enterprise, on request, plus an add-on for cooldown | No |
Sources and the detail for each are on the JFrog, Sonatype and Cloudsmith pages.
| ★★★★★ | Not offered at all. |
| ★★★★★ | Possible, but you are building it yourself, or we could not confirm it. |
| ★★★★★ | There, and you will feel the gap. |
| ★★★★★ | Does the job. |
| ★★★★★ | Does the job well. |
| ★★★★★ | As good as this gets. |
| Capability | ForgeRepo™ | JFrog | Sonatype | Cloudsmith | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Somebody to call | ★★★★★ behind |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | First row, and the one we lose worst. All three sell support with an SLA: a number to ring at three in the morning and somebody obliged to answer. ForgeRepo™ is an open source project. When it breaks, the person fixing it is you, with the source and the docs. If that matters where you work, it matters more than every other row on this page. |
| How many package formats | ★★★★★ behind |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ does eleven: npm (with pnpm, Yarn and Bun), PyPI, container images, NuGet, Maven (with Gradle and sbt), RubyGems, Composer, CocoaPods, Swift packages, and RPM and APT mirrors. JFrog lists about fifty repository types, Sonatype about thirty and Cloudsmith thirty three, including Go, Cargo, Helm and Hugging Face, which ForgeRepo™ does not have. Several of ours are pull only: you can publish npm, PyPI, NuGet and images to it, but not Maven, gems or the rest. If you need Go or Cargo behind the same policy, ForgeRepo™ is not your answer today. |
| A managed cloud service | ★★★★★ behind |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ is self hosted only. There is nobody to run it for you. JFrog and Cloudsmith are strong SaaS products with CDNs and many regions, and Sonatype sells Nexus Repository and Firewall in the cloud too. |
| Run it yourself, including air gapped | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | One container on your own Linux box, with the database and cache inside it, and nothing calling home. JFrog and Sonatype both have mature self hosted editions, air gapped included. Cloudsmith is SaaS only: it has an agent that runs on your network, but the registry itself is theirs. |
| Every format and the security, for free | ★★★★★ ahead |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | Everything on this page that ForgeRepo™ does is in the one free version. None of the three has a free tier that gives you npm, PyPI and Docker together with blocking before download. JFrog's open source Artifactory has no npm or PyPI, and Xray and Curation are paid. Nexus Community Edition is free with a cap of 40,000 components or 100,000 requests a day, and blocking needs the paid Firewall. Cloudsmith's free Core plan is 500 MB with no security policies. |
| Open source you can read and change | ★★★★★ ahead |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ is MIT licensed, all of it. JFrog publishes Artifactory OSS under the AGPL, but that edition has none of the formats or security features compared here. Sonatype still publishes the Nexus core source under the EPL, but since early 2025 the free binaries are Community Edition under a Sonatype EULA. Cloudsmith is closed. |
| Capability | ForgeRepo™ | JFrog | Sonatype | Cloudsmith | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allow and block rules by name and version | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ takes exact names, scopes, wildcards and npm or pip version ranges, scoped to an application or environment, and strips blocked versions from metadata so clients resolve around them. JFrog Curation and Sonatype Firewall both have rich policy engines that do this and more. Cloudsmith has deny policies built in and does allow lists as policy as code in Rego, on its Ultra and Enterprise plans. |
| Malware blocked before download | ★★★★★ behind |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ scans every file with ClamAV, a hash blocklist or a scanner of your own, and holds any version the OpenSSF malicious packages feed names before anybody gets it. A package reported malicious after it was cached goes on the kill switch by itself. It also looks at how a release behaves: a new version that suddenly runs code at install time is flagged or held, an npm listing that disagrees with the package.json in its tarball is held, and a version with less provenance than the ones before it is held. JFrog and Sonatype both run research teams and machine learning that read new packages as they are published, and block on that intelligence. That is still a real difference, which is why we score one below them. Cloudsmith uses ClamAV and the OpenSSF malicious packages feed, with block until scan in early access. |
| Its own malicious package research | ★★★★★ behind |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ has no research of its own. There is no team behind it reading npm all day. What it has is the public OpenSSF malicious packages feed, read through osv.dev, which only knows what somebody has already reported. JFrog publishes its research and Sonatype rates every release with its Release Integrity service. Cloudsmith draws on the same public data we do, which is why we both get one star. |
| Typosquat detection | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ compares every name against well known npm and PyPI names and catches swaps, homoglyphs, moved separators, added words and flattened scopes, then warns or refuses. JFrog and Sonatype catch typosquats through their research data, which knows about ones a name comparison would miss. Cloudsmith relies on the OpenSSF feed. |
| Dependency confusion protection | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ reserves names so they are never fetched from outside, and routes every scope to exactly one upstream with no silent fallback. Sonatype's Namespace Confusion Protection in Firewall does the same job well. JFrog has priority resolution and exclude patterns. Cloudsmith's upstream trust is in early access. |
| Cooling off period for new releases | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | Everybody has this now and we are not going to pretend otherwise. ForgeRepo™ measures from the registry's publish time, trims young versions from metadata, has exemptions and waivers, and is free. JFrog Curation measures from publish time, as an add-on, and not for Docker. Sonatype measures from when it first cataloged the version and adds Release Integrity. Cloudsmith measures from publish time, as a policy as code add-on, with no exemptions. |
| Resolve around vulnerable versions | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | With safe version resolution on, ForgeRepo™ leaves versions with serious advisories out of the metadata, so a range settles on the newest safe version and nothing outside the range is swapped in. Sonatype does the same thing in Firewall and calls it Policy Compliant Component Selection. JFrog Curation blocks the version. We have not tested any of theirs side by side, so we have given them the benefit of the doubt. |
| License policy | ★★★★★ behind |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ reads npm, PyPI, NuGet, Maven, RubyGems, Composer, CocoaPods and RPM licenses into SPDX expressions and enforces allowed, review and blocked lists. Xray and Sonatype's policy engine have years of license data and obligations behind them, and handle more formats. Cloudsmith has an SPDX deny list, with no license detection for Docker. |
| Verifies Sigstore provenance on proxied packages | ★★★★★ ahead |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ checks npm SLSA provenance and PyPI PEP 740 attestations against a pinned Sigstore root on the server, holds a file whose provenance is invalid, and holds a new version built with less provenance than the ones before it, or built somewhere else. For images, a trust policy can require a cosign signature from your keys or from a keyless signer, checked against Fulcio and Rekor, and refuse unsigned pulls. JFrog passes npm attestations through so npm audit signatures works, and has an Evidence service. We could not find server side verification of proxied packages for Sonatype or Cloudsmith. If it is there, tell us and this row changes. |
| Quarantine and integrity | ★★★★★ behind |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ holds files for malware, licenses, provenance, fresh publishes and upstream bytes that changed, in permissive or strict mode. Sonatype Firewall quarantine is the benchmark, and it fails safe if the service is down. Cloudsmith quarantines from the UI, API or a policy. JFrog's model blocks at request time rather than holding files in a quarantine state. |
| Capability | ForgeRepo™ | JFrog | Sonatype | Cloudsmith | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kill switch for a compromised package | ★★★★★ ahead |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ has a page for exactly this: kill a package, a range, one file hash, everything an advisory covers, or a CSV of hundreds, with your reason in every developer's error and an email listing who pulled it. The others can all do it with a policy, and Cloudsmith's deny policies act immediately. We found no single dedicated feature for it in JFrog or Sonatype. |
| Stop fetching from upstream | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ has degraded and lockdown modes and an upstream switch, with ranges resolved among what is cached. Artifactory has had offline remote repositories and a global offline mode for years. Nexus can block outbound connections per proxy repository. We could not find an equivalent for Cloudsmith. |
| Who pulled it | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ stamps every download with the token's application and environment and searches it by name, hash or CVE. JFrog does this through build info and Xray impact analysis, Sonatype through its application inventory. Cloudsmith has download logs. |
| Audit trail | ★★★★★ ahead |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | All four keep one. ForgeRepo™ records before and after for every change, in the free version. JFrog's audit log is Enterprise X and up in the cloud, Sonatype lists it with Pro, and Cloudsmith keeps a year, searchable for 30 to 365 days by plan. |
| Capability | ForgeRepo™ | JFrog | Sonatype | Cloudsmith | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Request and approve, built in | ★★★★★ ahead |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | In ForgeRepo™ a blocked install opens a request, the request is scanned on arrival, and an approver clicks approve, or auto approve does it for clean ones. JFrog Curation and Sonatype Firewall have waiver requests with decision owners, which are close. Cloudsmith suggests a GitOps flow and says it is not a built in feature. |
| Waivers that expire | ★★★★★ behind |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ waivers are scoped, time boxed and name the advisory ids. JFrog Curation waivers run 1 to 365 days with automatic approval options, and Sonatype has had time based waivers and central waiver management for years. Both are more mature. Cloudsmith does exemptions in Rego. |
| Test a policy before enforcing it | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ replays up to 90 days of real downloads against a proposed rule and counts who it would break, and has an audit only learning mode. JFrog Curation policies can run in dry run, and Cloudsmith has a simulate endpoint for its Rego policies. Sonatype has warn actions rather than a replay. |
| Review a lockfile or SBOM against policy | ★★★★★ behind |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ reviews npm, Python and Composer lockfiles, requirements, and CycloneDX and SPDX SBOMs covering every format it serves, in memory and lets you act on the result. JFrog does this with the jf CLI and Xray, and Sonatype has built its whole Lifecycle product around evaluating applications and SBOMs. |
| npm audit answered locally | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ answers npm audit from its own findings, so nothing about your project leaves the box, and adds a warning to the install output. Nexus answers it when Firewall or Lifecycle is licensed. JFrog supports it but stopped enriching it from Xray and points people at jf audit. Cloudsmith passes it through. |
| Capability | ForgeRepo™ | JFrog | Sonatype | Cloudsmith | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| npm registry and publishing | ★★★★★ behind |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ proxies, caches and publishes npm under reserved names, with immutable versions, deprecations and dist-tags. The other three are mature npm registries with virtual repositories, replication and years of edge cases behind them. |
| PyPI index and uploads | ★★★★★ behind |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ speaks PEP 503, 691, 658 and 700 and takes twine uploads for reserved projects. Same story as npm: the others have done it longer. |
| Docker and OCI images | ★★★★★ behind |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ mirrors and scans images, checks everything by digest, reads the packages inside every layer for advisories, can require cosign signatures before a pull, and takes pushes under reserved names, holding every layer until it scans clean. Pushed tags never move and nothing pushed is ever deleted. All three are full container registries with deletion, retention policies and replication, which ForgeRepo™ does not have. If that is what you need from a registry, theirs is more complete. |
| SBOM export | ★★★★★ behind |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ writes CycloneDX 1.5 and SPDX 2.3 per file and per application from what was actually downloaded. Xray exports SPDX 2.3, 3.0 and CycloneDX across its formats. Sonatype exports through Lifecycle, now part of Sonatype Guide. Cloudsmith generates SBOMs for container images. |
| Single sign on | ★★★★★ behind |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ does OpenID Connect with PKCE, and nothing else: no SAML, no SCIM. JFrog has SAML, OIDC and SCIM on its higher tiers. Sonatype has SAML and OIDC on Pro. Cloudsmith has SAML with group sync and SCIM on Ultra. |
| SIEM and webhooks | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ sends signed webhooks, Splunk HEC and syslog in JSON or CEF, with retries, in the free version. JFrog has webhooks and log streaming on Enterprise+. Nexus has webhooks. Cloudsmith has webhooks and a Datadog integration. |
| High availability and scale | ★★★★★ behind |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ runs more than one node against a shared MariaDB with the cache in S3 or Azure, and recommends active and passive. That is honest HA, not a cluster. JFrog sells multi site federation and very high uptime, Sonatype sells a resilient Pro deployment, and Cloudsmith runs it for you on a global CDN. |
| Cloud object storage | ★★★★★ behind |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ForgeRepo™ keeps its cache in S3 compatible storage or Azure Blob, hash checked both ways. Artifactory does S3, Azure and Google Cloud Storage with sharding. Nexus does S3 in every edition and Azure and Google on Pro. Cloudsmith manages storage for you, with custom regions, and we could not confirm bring your own bucket. |
One on one
Prices with sources, where they are better, where we are, and when to pick which.
Every row on this page that says ForgeRepo™ can do something, you can check in about two minutes on a spare server. It is free, and it is yours to keep.