Aqua Security is an enterprise cloud native application protection platform (CNAPP) vendor that provides full-lifecycle security from code to cloud to runtime. The company is headquartered in Burlington, MA and Ramat Gan, Israel, and develops both commercial products and open-source tools that protect over 500 enterprise customers.
Most people know Aqua as the company behind Trivy, the most-starred open-source security scanner on GitHub (32.2k stars). The commercial platform adds runtime protection, policy enforcement, and centralized management on top of what Trivy offers.
What does Aqua Security do?
Aqua Security provides container image scanning, runtime protection, Kubernetes security posture management, and compliance reporting in a single CNAPP platform. It supports containers, Kubernetes, serverless functions, and cloud infrastructure across AWS, Azure, and GCP. The platform protects workloads from build through production with both pre-deployment scanning and real-time runtime enforcement.
There are two deployment modes. Agentless scanning covers cloud workloads and images without installing anything on hosts. Agent-based deployment adds runtime protection with real-time enforcement, drift prevention, and behavioral monitoring using eBPF technology through the Tracee engine.
What open-source tools does Aqua Security maintain?
Aqua runs a dedicated open-source team separate from commercial engineering. Four projects have significant community adoption, making Aqua one of the largest contributors to open-source cloud native security:
| Project | GitHub Stars | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Trivy | 32.2k | Vulnerability scanner for containers, IaC, code, and Kubernetes |
| kube-bench | 7.9k | CIS Kubernetes Benchmark compliance checks |
| kube-hunter | 5k | Kubernetes cluster penetration testing |
| Tracee | 4.4k | eBPF-based Linux runtime security and forensics |
Trivy is the default scanner in Harbor (CNCF container registry) and integrates with GitLab, GitHub Actions, and AWS Security Hub. The commercial Aqua platform builds on these open-source projects.
Who should use Aqua Security?
Aqua Security is designed for enterprises running containerized workloads at scale, particularly organizations with Kubernetes clusters spread across multiple clouds. The FedRAMP High authorization (granted April 2025) makes it one of few CNAPP vendors available to U.S. federal agencies. The platform also holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications.
If your team already uses Trivy in CI/CD, the Aqua platform is the natural next step when you need centralized policy management, runtime enforcement, and compliance reporting across hundreds of clusters.
Considerations
Aqua is enterprise-priced with no self-serve pricing page. Deployment typically involves working with the Aqua sales team. If you want free or open-source only, use Trivy, Falco, or kube-bench directly.
The platform covers containers, serverless, VMs, and cloud posture, which means it overlaps with point solutions you likely already have. Figure out which capabilities you actually need before committing to a full CNAPP deployment.
For other container security options, browse our container security tools category.
