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Linux Identity vs Teleport
An honest comparison. We note where Teleport is ahead because the engineers reading this will find out anyway.
TL;DR
Pick Teleport if…
You need protocol-level access control for Kubernetes clusters or databases today, want session recording in GA, or are a >200-engineer org with a dedicated platform team to run the proxy fleet.
Pick Linux Identity if…
Your audit story for SSH and sudo on Linux is what’s blocking your SOC 2, you don’t need DB or K8s proxying yet, and you want to be running in 5 minutes without a Teleport-sized bill.
Feature comparison
Teleport features sourced from goteleport.com as of May 2026. Corrections welcome — email saheed@linuxidentity.com.
| Feature | Linux Identity | Teleport |
|---|---|---|
SSH certificate authority Both use SSH CAs. Teleport runs its own CA on a proxy node; Linux Identity keys live in a managed KMS. | Yes | Yes |
Time to first cert issued Teleport SaaS is faster than self-hosted, but still involves role setup and proxy fleet. | 5 minutes | Hours–days (SaaS), weeks (self-hosted) |
SSO integration | Yes | Yes |
SAML support | Enterprise tier only | Yes |
Sudo audit capture Teleport captures SSH session streams, not sudo-level events specifically. | First-class (PAM module) | No native sudo capture |
SOC 2 evidence export Linux Identity maps audit rows to CC6.x controls. Teleport requires third-party tooling. | First-class, built-in | Manual export / DIY |
Audit log tamper evidence | sha256 hash chain + WORM object storage | Database-backed, no hash chain |
SSH session recording GA Teleport has mature session recording. We ship sudo audit now; full session replay comes later. | In progress | GA |
Kubernetes access If you need kubectl to go through an access proxy, Teleport is the right call. | Not in scope | GA (kube exec proxy) |
Database access (Postgres, MySQL, etc.) Teleport proxies database connections at the protocol level. We don’t do this. | Not in scope | GA |
Application access (web apps, internal tools) | Not in scope | GA |
Open-source tier | Yes — up to 5 hosts, self-hosted | Yes — community edition, limited |
Pricing model Teleport doesn’t publish a price sheet below enterprise deals. Our pricing is on /pricing/. | $25/host/mo (Team, annual) with volume discounts | Quote-based, mid-market floor |
Self-serve setup | Yes | SaaS yes; self-hosted involves their sales team |
Agent in SSH critical path Teleport routes SSH through its proxy. Our agent captures events but is not in the path. | No — agent crash degrades logging only | Yes — Teleport proxy in critical path |
SSH CA key custody | Managed KMS (never on disk) | On proxy node disk (self-hosted) or Teleport-managed (SaaS) |
Dashboard polish Teleport has years of dashboard iteration. Ours is built for audit workflows, not general UX. | Functional, early | Mature, well-designed |
Ecosystem / integrations | Focused (SSH + sudo) | Large (SSH + K8s + DB + apps + machine ID) |
Non-human identity (NHI) roadmap | M4 (planned) | Machine ID (GA) |
On-prem control plane option | Enterprise tier | Yes (self-hosted is the default) |
When to pick Teleport
Teleport is a mature, well-funded product with a large ecosystem. Here are three situations where it’s the better fit:
- 01
You need Kubernetes exec or database session proxying today
Teleport’s kube exec proxy and database access are GA, battle-tested, and well-documented. We don’t do protocol-level proxying for K8s or DB connections. If those are blocking requirements, use Teleport.
- 02
You have >200 engineers and a platform team to own the tooling
Teleport is optimised for organisations with a dedicated platform engineering team who can operate proxy fleets, manage node labels, and tune role policies at scale. That overhead is worth it above a certain complexity threshold.
- 03
Session recording is a hard requirement right now
Full SSH session recording (terminal replay) is GA in Teleport. We ship sudo event capture now and session replay later this year. If you need replay for an audit in the next 90 days, Teleport has it today.
When to pick Linux Identity
Three situations where our focus is the advantage:
- 01
SSH + sudo audit is what’s blocking your SOC 2
We built the audit log and evidence export first — not as an afterthought. Every sudo invocation is captured at the PAM level with a tamper-evident hash chain. The export maps rows to CC6.x controls so your auditor can verify directly.
- 02
You want to be running today, not after a 3-week deployment project
Five minutes from curl to first cert. No proxy fleet, no load-balanced auth service, no per-region node setup. Your sshd trusts the CA public key; the rest happens in the control plane.
- 03
You’re a 20–150 engineer team and Teleport’s pricing doesn’t fit
Teleport is priced for mid-market and enterprise. At $4/host/mo with a $99/mo minimum, Linux Identity is designed for teams that are past “hack it with shared keys” but not yet ready to negotiate an enterprise contract.
Migrating from Teleport
If you have an existing Teleport CA, we can import your OpenSSH CA private key into our managed KMS and rotate without re-trusting every host. The migration path keeps existing SSH sessions valid through the cutover window.
The CLI will ship a linuxid migrate teleport subcommand later this year. Until then, migration is a guided process we walk you through on a call.
Interested in migrating?
Email saheed@linuxidentity.com with your host count and Teleport version. We’ll send a migration checklist and schedule a 30-minute call if needed.
Still deciding?
Request access and we’ll help you figure out which tool fits. If Teleport is genuinely the better fit, we’ll say so.