Styra / Open Policy Agent
Capability scores
Methodology →- Authentication
- 1.5
- SSO & Federation
- 2.0
- Authorization
- 4.6
- Lifecycle & Provisioning
- 3.5
- MFA & Passwordless
- 1.0
- Governance & Audit
- 4.3
- Developer Experience
- 3.8
- Deployment Flexibility
- 4.7
- Pricing Transparency
- 3.0
- Support & Ecosystem
- 4.0
Scored 0–5 against a published rubric. Independent analysis, no vendor sponsorship.
Overview
Open Policy Agent (OPA) is a CNCF graduated, Apache 2.0 general-purpose policy engine using the Rego language, and Styra is the company that created it and sells Styra DAS, a management control plane. Together they are the standard for policy-as-code across cloud-native infrastructure.
Capability deep-dive
OPA's reach is the strength: one engine and language to enforce policy across Kubernetes admission control, microservice authorization, API gateways, Terraform, and CI/CD. It is battle-tested, widely adopted, and deployable anywhere as a sidecar or library, which is why deployment flexibility scores high. Styra DAS adds policy distribution, impact analysis, audit, and a UI for teams that need governance at scale. The trade-offs are real: Rego has a learning curve and is not purpose-built for application object permissions the way ReBAC engines are, so app-centric authorization can feel low-level. Styra DAS pricing is enterprise and quote based, not transparent.
Pricing
OPA is free and open source under Apache 2.0. Styra DAS has a free tier and paid enterprise plans with quote-based pricing for the commercial control plane and support.
Bottom line
Pick OPA when you need policy-as-code spanning infrastructure and services, and add Styra DAS when you need governance and management at enterprise scale.