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bearhug vs Wiz: an alternative for teams without a security team
Wiz is an excellent cloud security platform for large, multi-cloud organisations with dedicated security staff. If you are a start-up or SMB running on AWS, you may be paying for far more platform than you need. Here is an honest comparison.
At a glance
| bearhug | Wiz | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Small teams on AWS without a security engineer | Large, multi-cloud organisations with security teams |
| Clouds | AWS | AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, OCI (supported environments) |
| Scope | CSPM for AWS, built on Security Hub and GuardDuty | CNAPP: posture, code, containers, runtime |
| Pricing model | Flat price per AWS account | Modular units by workload, developer, logs or sensor (Wiz pricing) |
| Published starting price | $100 per AWS account per month (AWS Marketplace) | $24,000 per 12 months for 100 workloads, Wiz Essential (Wiz on AWS Marketplace) |
| Deployment | Agentless; CloudFormation stack | Agentless, with optional runtime sensor |
| Buying route | AWS Marketplace | AWS Marketplace or direct |
Prices were checked on the vendor’s own pricing page or AWS Marketplace listing on 24 September 2026. List prices change, and your own quote may differ.
Where Wiz is stronger
- Multi-cloud coverage. Wiz covers AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and OCI from one platform. bearhug covers AWS only.
- CNAPP breadth. Wiz adds code and infrastructure-as-code scanning, container and serverless coverage, and runtime protection through its sensor.
- Enterprise scale. Wiz is built for large security teams and complex estates, and Google completed its acquisition of Wiz in March 2026.
Where bearhug is a better fit
- Flat, small-team pricing. $100 per AWS account per month with every feature included, rather than an entry block priced for 100 workloads.
- Set-up in under five minutes. Deploy one CloudFormation stack per account, and findings follow as Security Hub completes its first checks, usually within a couple of hours.
- Plain English by default. Every finding explains what is wrong, why it matters and how to fix it, for people without a security background.
- One-click fixes. Common misconfigurations, such as public S3 buckets, open ports and missing CloudTrail logging, can be fixed from the dashboard with rollback.
- Billed through AWS Marketplace. The charge appears on your existing AWS bill, with no long-term commitment.
Switching from Wiz to bearhug
- Start a free trial and connect one AWS account with the bearhug CloudFormation stack.
- Compare the findings side by side with Wiz for the same account.
- Connect your other AWS accounts once you are happy with the coverage.
- Keep both running until your Wiz renewal date, then decide whether you still need the wider platform.
What it costs for a small team
Take a start-up with three AWS accounts for production, staging and development. With bearhug, that costs $300 a month, or $3,600 a year, with every feature included and no long-term commitment.
Wiz lists Wiz Essential on AWS Marketplace at $24,000 per 12 months for a block of 100 cloud workloads, which works out at $2,000 a month. Wiz Advanced is listed at $38,000 per 12 months for the same block, and add-ons such as Wiz Code, Wiz Sensor and Wiz Defend are priced separately.
For a large, multi-cloud estate those blocks can be good value. For a small AWS estate, the entry block alone costs more than six times the bearhug example above. The units are different, so this is not a like-for-like comparison: bearhug counts AWS accounts, however many resources each one holds. bearhug also enables Security Hub and GuardDuty, and AWS bills their usage separately, depending on how much you use them.
bearhug vs Wiz questions
No. bearhug replaces the AWS posture management part of what Wiz does. It does not cover other clouds, container or code scanning, or runtime protection.
Yes. bearhug only needs a CloudFormation stack in each AWS account, so you can run both side by side while you compare them.
bearhug costs $100 per AWS account per month. Wiz lists Wiz Essential on AWS Marketplace at $24,000 per 12 months for a block of 100 workloads. Your own Wiz quote may differ.
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