Seven questions usually decide it: how many repositories, how many ecosystems, who owns upkeep, what evidence others demand, how fast you must answer new advisories, how much noise you can absorb, and how easily you could leave. Answer them in writing before you look at any quote.
The seven questions
- How many repositories and teams? More teams mean more routing and reporting.
- How many ecosystems? Each adds a scanner, data source and quirks.
- Who owns upkeep, and who covers them? Name two people.
- What do customers and auditors ask for? Questionnaires, SBOMs, exception records, history.
- How quickly must you answer are we affected? Hours, or days?
- How much noise can developers tolerate? Noise kills trust in gates.
- How would you leave? Look for standard export formats and an exit plan.
Decision table
| Answer pattern | Leans toward |
|---|---|
| Few repositories, one ecosystem, spare engineer time | Open source scanners |
| Many teams, evidence demands, answer needed in hours | A platform |
| Unusual internal rules no product covers | Custom checks, on top of either |
| Mixed | Hybrid: keep engines you trust, add inventory and policy |
Trade-offs, stated plainly
DIY gives control, no licence cost and a deep understanding of the tools, at the price of upkeep and key person risk. A platform gives managed data, central policy and reporting, at the price of licence cost, tuning and some dependence on the vendor.
Test, do not guess
Run a one week trial on two real repositories. Measure setup time, findings needing a human decision, time to answer a past advisory, and what evidence you can export. Compare against your current setup using the same measures.
Write the decision down
Record answers, scores, date and a review point. Revisit when any answer changes materially.
Safeguard covers this ground with SBOM and dependency scanning, reachability analysis, policies and gates, and compliance evidence automation. Autonomous fix PRs are off by default, with every category set to Manual. You can try a free scan at gold.safeguard.sh/scan.
Who should be in the room
Include an engineer who would maintain the DIY option, a developer who would live with the gates, and whoever answers customer questionnaires. Each sees a different cost. Ten minutes of their answers to the seven questions is worth more than a long vendor presentation, and it keeps the decision tied to your real constraints.
Try it yourself
Click through it at your own pace, or open it full screen. Use it to judge how much of question five and six a platform changes for you.
Quick check
Which question matters most?
Usually who owns upkeep, because abandoned tooling silently stops protecting you.
Is a hybrid approach legitimate?
Yes. Many teams keep trusted engines and add a layer for inventory, policy and reporting.
Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.
