When deciding what approach to use for security tooling, it seems like there are two choices:

1. Sell your left kidney and buy the enterprise solution whose name is on the side of a Formula 1 car
2. Pick the free open-source tool that swipes right on more false positives than a dating app during a lonely Friday night

In light of recent reports revealing over 500,000 new malicious open-source packages tracked since November 2023, the stakes for making the right choice are very, very high.

But like everything in security, there’s more to unpack in reality. Let’s talk about when open-source security tools make sense when commercial solutions are worth the kidney, and if we can trust tools built from an open-source core.

How Many Kidneys Do You Have Available?

If you thought choosing the wrong security tool meant a few missed vulnerabilities, you’ve got it wrong. Earlier this year, over 110,000 websites got compromised because they used Polyfill.io – a free tool developers had trusted for years. What happened: Some sketchy company bought it and turned it into malware central. It was a classic case of ‘if you’re not paying for the product, you might be the product.’ Except this time, it wasn’t just about annoying ads, it was about your entire website getting hijacked to serve gambling sites.

So ignoring security, which seemed to be a legitimate strategy not too long ago, is no longer an option, even for smaller companies. Supply chain risks, automated scanning and an increasing number of cyber criminals mean no company can stick their head in the sand.

Commercial security tools can be expensive as hell, especially when a new “necessary” tool appears seemingly every month. Open-source looks cheaper, especially for smaller companies, but there are hidden costs we need to unpack.

Build vs Buy (The Open-Source Trap)

Here’s the reality check: the choice between open-source and commercial is a choice between building tools or buying them. Open-source provides a great starting point but lacks a lot of the features you need:

• Dashboards that don’t make your eyes bleed
• Integrations that work
• Compliance reporting that auditors will accept
• Remediation workflows that make sense
• False positive filtering that doesn’t waste your life
• Vulnerability prioritization that isn’t just “everything is critical”

So the idea that open-source is free is NOT accurate.

The Fishing Boat Reality Check

Think of it like this: You’ve got two fishing boats – open-source and commercial. Both use the same net and catch just as much stuff. But the commercial boat has a processing plant that throws away the trash, sorts the fish by size and tosses out the fish we can’t eat. Both boats caught the same results, but the open-source tool leaves you sorting through the catch manually at 2 a.m. That’s not money, but it’s time.

Very often, commercial tools are built on open-source projects. The value of the enterprise version isn’t in catching more fish – it’s in all the stuff that makes the fish useful to you.

Powered by Open Source, Built for Reality

So open-source requires too much development time and commercial solutions cost more than your annual revenue. How about a happy medium? Full-featured tools that use open-source tools aren’t a new concept. Some of the most successful security products in the world use open source at their core – Hashicorp Vault, Elastic Security and Metasploit to name a few.

Why do these tools work? A few reasons:

1. They have to compete with both commercial alternatives AND their open-source base – meaning they have to prove their value
2. They get the power of community contribution while still delivering enterprise features
3. They can’t hide a crappy engine under a shiny hood – transparency means you know what you’re getting
4. They solve real problems instead of just adding to your alert fatigue

Making the Call: A No-BS Decision Framework

Open-source security tools aren’t free, they’re just pre-revenue. You’ll pay either way: With money or with engineering time. The key is being honest about which currency you prefer to spend. Here’s how to decide which kidney to sell:

Choose open source when:

• Your developers have time to maintain another codebase (be honest)
• You need deep customization that commercial tools won’t give you
• You have the expertise to validate every component you’re bringing in
• You’re ready to build your own processing plant for all those false positives

Choose commercial when:

• Your engineering time is worth more than the subscription fee
• You need compliance reports that won’t make auditors laugh
• Your team is already drowning in alerts and manual reviews
• You want someone else to be responsible for that 2 a.m. security incident

Choose open core (commercial built on open source) when:

• You want to see under the hood but not maintain the engine
• You need enterprise features but also want community-driven innovation
• You want the ability to contribute fixes rather than just filing support tickets
• You need to verify what you’re running but don’t want to build everything yourself

Most importantly: Never, ever choose based on the sticker price alone. That’s like picking a parachute based on weight – technically relevant but probably not your most important criterion.

Remember: The most expensive security tool isn’t the one you pay for – it’s the one that fails when you need it most. Just ask those 110,000 websites that thought they were saving money.