---
title: "Different authoring and operating models"
description: "PingAuthorize is a commercial, self-managed ABAC platform with visual authoring and several runtime integration patterns. Cerbos combines an Apache 2.0 stateless Cerbos PDP with optional Cerbos Hub and Cerbos Synapse components for lifecycle management, distribution, audit aggregation, enrichment, and protocol integrations."
competitor: "PingAuthorize"
canonical: "https://www.cerbos.dev/cerbos-vs-ping-authorize"
source: "https://www.cerbos.dev/cerbos-vs-ping-authorize"
---

# Different authoring and operating models

PingAuthorize is a commercial, self-managed ABAC platform with visual authoring and several runtime integration patterns. Cerbos combines an Apache 2.0 stateless Cerbos PDP with optional Cerbos Hub and Cerbos Synapse components for lifecycle management, distribution, audit aggregation, enrichment, and protocol integrations.

## Verdict

**Choose Cerbos when**

- Services need local authorization decisions through sidecar or DaemonSet PDPs, with shared-service deployment retained where appropriate.
- The authorization layer must remain independent of the identity provider and accept identity context from Ping or another IdP.
- Teams want Git or source-agnostic policy workflows around an Apache 2.0 PDP with published platform tiers.

**Consider PingAuthorize when**

- Ping-native identity and gateway integration removes material implementation work.
- Its visual authoring, packaged gateway topology, and ordered attribute resolvers are firm requirements.

## Compare the proposed topology, not a centralized-distributed binary

PingAuthorize uses a visual Policy Editor and self-managed PingAuthorize Servers. Each Server embeds its PDP and can be deployed in reverse-proxy, sideband, SCIM, or PDP API architectures. Stateless Server instances can scale behind a load balancer, so PingAuthorize is not limited to one centralized runtime instance.

Cerbos provides an Apache 2.0 stateless Cerbos PDP that can run as a shared service, sidecar, DaemonSet, or selected serverless deployment. Cerbos Hub manages policy build, testing, signing, distribution, and audit aggregation across Git and source-agnostic policy stores. Cerbos Synapse adds decision-time context, transformations, caching, and integration protocols. Compare PEP placement, runtime hops, policy promotion, attribute retrieval, and licence packaging in the proposed topology.

**PingAuthorize** — Fits organizations that want a commercial, self-managed authorization platform with a visual Policy Editor, branches, commits, snapshots, deployment packages, approvals, and rollback. Ping-native integrations are a strength, while JWT, third-party SDK-based identity, external-gateway validators, PDP APIs, sideband, SCIM, and gateway patterns broaden the supported estate.

**Cerbos** — Fits engineering teams that want to select deployment topology per workload while keeping the policy engine independent of the identity provider. The Cerbos PDP is self-hosted and consumes request context from any provider. Cerbos Hub supports Git, API, SDK, CLI, CI/CD, and browser-upload policy workflows, with an enterprise on-premise option for restricted and air-gapped environments. Cerbos Synapse runs in customer-controlled infrastructure.

- **Latency and availability** — Cerbos sidecar or DaemonSet deployments support local decisions, while shared-service deployment remains available. For supported JavaScript environments where embedded evaluation is appropriate, Cerbos Hub's commercial ePDP evaluates downloaded Cerbos Hub-managed bundles in-process through WebAssembly, with no per-decision service call. PingAuthorize supports multiple stateless Servers across gateway, sideband, SCIM, and PDP API patterns. Measure hops, throughput, failover, and policy-update behavior in each proposed topology.
- **Identity coupling** — Cerbos consumes claims and attributes independently of the identity provider. PingAuthorize supports Ping-native integration plus JWT, third-party, and external-gateway identity validators. Identify which proposed capabilities require other Ping products and which accept third-party identity context.
- **Agent and service traffic** — An architecture that authorizes each agent tool call and service hop creates more checks than perimeter-only authorization. Cerbos supports local or shared checks, and PingAuthorize exposes PDP APIs for application and service authorization in addition to gateway integration.

## Selected product dimensions

Verified against public documentation on 24 July 2026. The links beside each row point to Cerbos or neutral standards sources; competitor sources informed the research but are not linked here.

| Requirement | Cerbos | PingAuthorize |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Distributed enforcement with a sidecar PDP | NATIVE — Supports shared-service, sidecar, DaemonSet, and selected serverless deployments. In sidecar or DaemonSet topologies, the service PDP evaluates locally without a per-decision Cerbos Hub round trip. | MULTIPLE TOPOLOGIES — Each self-managed Server embeds a PDP. PingAuthorize documents reverse-proxy, sideband, SCIM, and PDP API architectures, with stateless instances scaled behind a load balancer. |
| Works with any identity provider | VENDOR NEUTRAL — Consumes identity context from any provider, including Ping-issued JWTs or mapped principal data. Cerbos Synapse can query identity provider APIs through configured or custom extensions. | PING-NATIVE + THIRD-PARTY — Supports PingFederate, JWT, third-party SDK-based, and external-gateway identity validators. Confirm which proposed features require other Ping products. |
| SDK language coverage | 8 LANGUAGES + LARAVEL — Provides REST and gRPC APIs with official clients for Go, Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Rust, .NET, and PHP, plus Laravel. | API-LED — Provides JSON PDP APIs, a subset XACML-JSON PDP API, gateway, sideband, and SCIM integrations, Policy Editor APIs, and a Java Server SDK for extensions. Verify licence requirements and application client coverage. |
| Multi team policy management | HUB + GIT WORKFLOWS — Cerbos Hub supports Git and source-agnostic policy stores, then compiles, tests, signs, and distributes policy bundles. Repository pull-request review is one supported workflow. | UI FIRST — Uses a Policy Editor for technical and business users, with branches, commits, snapshots, deployment packages, approvals, workflows, and revert capabilities. |
| Decision time data and connectors | VIA SYNAPSE — The stateless Cerbos PDP evaluates request-supplied context. Licensed Cerbos Synapse supports SQL, external APIs, IdPs, graph stores, custom sources, and in-memory or Redis caching. | BUILT IN — Retrieves and combines request, constant, service, attribute, system, and configuration-key sources with ordered and conditional processing. This is a documented PingAuthorize strength. |
| Decision logging and audit | BUILT IN — When enabled, emits structured decision logs to file, Kafka, local storage, or Cerbos Hub. Cerbos Hub adds managed collection and search. | BUILT IN — Provides a policy-decision log and Decision Visualizer for recent or pasted responses. Verify retention, forwarding, and licensed operational requirements. |
| AuthZEN compatibility | INTEROP READY — The Cerbos PDP partially implements AuthZEN Authorization API 1.0. Alex Olivier is one of the current AuthZEN Working Group cochairs. | VERIFY — Documents XACML 3.0 JSON Profile, SCIM 2.0, and OAuth-based integrations. No current first-party PingAuthorize AuthZEN support was found as of 24 July 2026; confirm with Ping. |
| Open source and pricing transparency | APACHE 2.0 — The Cerbos PDP is Apache 2.0. Cerbos publishes pricing for the combined Cerbos Hub and Cerbos Synapse platform, including a $0 proof of concept tier. | COMMERCIAL — Requires a commercial licence key, and some features are licence-tier dependent. No public PingAuthorize unit price was found; Ping routes prospects through sales. |

### Sources

- [Cerbos deployment](https://docs.cerbos.dev/cerbos/latest/deployment/)
- [Cerbos Hub decision points](https://docs.cerbos.dev/cerbos-hub/decision-points.html)
- [Cerbos JWT claims](https://docs.cerbos.dev/cerbos/latest/recipes/jwt-claims.html)
- [Cerbos Synapse](https://docs.cerbos.dev/synapse/latest/)
- [Cerbos APIs and SDKs](https://docs.cerbos.dev/cerbos/latest/api/index.html)
- [Cerbos Hub](https://docs.cerbos.dev/cerbos-hub/index.html)
- [Cerbos Hub policy stores](https://docs.cerbos.dev/cerbos-hub/policy-stores.html)
- [Cerbos Synapse data sources](https://docs.cerbos.dev/synapse/latest/extensions/data-sources.html)
- [Cerbos audit configuration](https://docs.cerbos.dev/cerbos/latest/configuration/audit.html)
- [Cerbos Hub audit collection](https://docs.cerbos.dev/cerbos-hub/audit-log-collection.html)
- [Cerbos AuthZEN API](https://docs.cerbos.dev/cerbos/latest/api/index.html)
- [AuthZEN Working Group](https://openid.net/wg/authzen/)
- [Cerbos licence](https://github.com/cerbos/cerbos/blob/main/LICENSE)
- [Cerbos pricing](https://www.cerbos.dev/pricing)

Compiled from public vendor documentation in July 2026. Details change, so verify current capabilities with both vendors before you decide.

## The request path determines the comparison

Compare the exact enforcement and decision topology, not generic claims about centralized or distributed authorization.

PingAuthorize documents gateway, sideband, SCIM, application, and service PDP API patterns. A gateway deployment concentrates enforcement at the gateway, while application and service integrations can place checks deeper in the request path.

Cerbos PDPs can run as a shared service, sidecar, or DaemonSet. Sidecar evaluation shares a workload failure boundary and can avoid a remote service hop. A shared service reduces instance count but adds a network dependency to each check. For supported JavaScript environments, Cerbos Hub's commercial ePDP downloads Cerbos Hub-managed bundles and evaluates them in-process through WebAssembly, without a per-decision service call.

Cerbos Hub distributes signed policy bundles and aggregates audit data; it is not called for each decision. Cerbos Hub Enterprise can run on-premise in restricted and air-gapped environments. Cerbos Synapse joins the request path only where enrichment or protocol transformation is required and runs in customer-controlled infrastructure.

## Identity integration does not require identity lock-in

Ping identity can remain authoritative while Cerbos evaluates application authorization.

Applications or gateways authenticate the principal and pass verified identity claims and application context into the authorization request. The Cerbos PDP can verify configured JWTs, but authoritative authentication remains an identity or application concern.

This permits a split in which Ping handles authentication and identity lifecycle while Cerbos handles application and service authorization. It also permits multiple identity providers to feed the same authorization model.

PingAuthorize remains a reasonable choice when its native Ping integrations, Policy Editor, attribute resolvers, and gateway deployment reduce more work than a vendor-neutral authorization layer would.

## Attribute retrieval changes latency and failure behavior

Resolver breadth matters, but so do cache policy, timeouts, and the location of each lookup.

PingAuthorize documents ordered and conditional attribute resolvers. This can centralize decision-time retrieval inside the authorization system.

The Cerbos PDP is stateless and evaluates supplied context. Licensed Cerbos Synapse retrieves, transforms, and caches context from configured or custom sources before a Cerbos PDP decision.

For either product, test fresh and stale cache entries, partial source failure, timeout behavior, and the handling of absent attributes. A connector list does not establish production behavior.

## Map topology before translating policy

Start with the current request path. Identify where identity is verified, where authorization is enforced, where attributes are retrieved, and which component remains available during each failure.

| PingAuthorize concept | Cerbos | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Policy Editor and deployment package | Policy repository or Cerbos Hub policy store and signed bundle | Map review, approval, promotion, rollback, and emergency-change controls. |
| Gateway or sideband enforcement | Gateway integration, application call, sidecar, or shared Cerbos PDP | Select the topology per workload instead of forcing one network path across the estate. |
| Application or service PDP API | CheckResources over gRPC, REST, or an SDK | Normalize principal, resource, action, and contextual attributes at the enforcement boundary. |
| Attribute resolver | Caller-supplied context or Cerbos Synapse data source | Preserve ordering, cache, timeout, and missing-attribute semantics where they affect decisions. |

### A local decision path behind Ping identity

1. **Authenticate** — The gateway or application validates the Ping-issued token and derives the application principal.
2. **Assemble context** — The application supplies resource attributes directly or calls customer-controlled Cerbos Synapse where external enrichment is required.
3. **Evaluate locally** — The service calls its sidecar or node-local Cerbos PDP with principal, resource, action, and context.
4. **Enforce** — The service applies the allow or deny result and any structured policy output at the operation boundary.
5. **Operate** — Cerbos Hub distributes signed policies and aggregates configured audit records without joining the per-decision request path.

A shared-service Cerbos PDP is also valid. Benchmark both topologies with the required check volume and dependency failures.

## Where Cerbos requires a different integration

Cerbos can coexist with Ping identity, but it does not reproduce every PingAuthorize integration or authoring surface.

| Capability | Cerbos approach | Guidance |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Ping-native platform integration | Cerbos consumes verified identity context through standard application, gateway, API, and SDK boundaries. | If a native Ping integration removes material custom work, include that work explicitly in the Cerbos proof of concept. |
| Visual Policy Editor | Cerbos policies use YAML or JSON with CEL conditions and repository or Cerbos Hub lifecycle workflows. | Test the intended policy authors and approval process rather than assuming a code-first workflow will fit. |
| Ordered built-in attribute resolvers | The Cerbos PDP evaluates supplied attributes. Cerbos Synapse provides commercial enrichment and transformation from customer-controlled infrastructure. | Map each resolver to the caller or Cerbos Synapse and verify ordering, caching, timeout, and licence requirements. |

## The pattern analysts recommend

Gartner's October 2025 Runtime Authorization reference-architecture abstract recommends centralized runtime-authorization management with decentralized enforcement and a multitiered architecture. Decentralized enforcement does not require a sidecar for every workload, but a local decision component can avoid a remote PDP hop.

Cerbos Hub centralizes policy administration and distributes signed bundles. Sidecar or DaemonSet PDPs evaluate locally, while a shared-service topology remains available. Cerbos Synapse sits in the request path when context enrichment or protocol transformation is required. This range lets teams choose the failure boundary and network path per workload.

A gateway concentrates enforcement at that gateway; a shared PDP cluster centralizes decision-service calls. PingAuthorize also supports application and service PDP APIs and multiple stateless Servers. Ask both vendors to diagram the exact request path and test latency, availability, capacity, and policy rollout under failure.

## Keep Ping identity and use Cerbos for application authorization

Cerbos is the stronger overall choice when the authorization layer must stay identity provider neutral, evaluate close to services, and use an open PDP with testable policy workflows. Prove that topology with one request that passes through Ping authentication, needs an external attribute, and triggers multiple downstream checks. Compare shared-service and local PDP variants, using Cerbos Synapse only for required enrichment. Select PingAuthorize instead only if its native gateway or resolver integration removes enough verified work to justify coupling authorization to that platform.

## Questions you are probably asking

### We already run Ping for identity. Is PingAuthorize not the obvious choice?

It is a reasonable product to evaluate, and Ping documents native platform and gateway integrations. Ask which proposed features require Ping products, which accept JWT or gateway-provided identity, and whether the proposed gateway, sideband, SCIM, or PDP API topology meets latency and availability requirements. Cerbos consumes Ping-issued JWTs or mapped identity context and offers a public $0 proof of concept tier; implementation effort still depends on scope.

### Is a distributed PDP not more infrastructure to run?

A sidecar topology runs more PDP instances. Each Cerbos PDP is stateless; in sidecar mode it scales and shares a failure boundary with the application pod. It can consume prebuilt or local bundles without a runtime database. Cerbos also supports shared-service and database-backed policy-store configurations. Compare capacity, failover, rollout, and incident runbooks for the selected topology.

### Can Cerbos match the attribute retrieval PingAuthorize does?

Both products can retrieve and transform decision-time attributes, but the mechanisms differ. The open source Cerbos PDP evaluates request-supplied context. Licensed Cerbos Synapse enriches from SQL, APIs, IdPs, graph stores, and custom sources with in-memory or Redis caching. PingAuthorize documents ordered conditional resolvers. Test connectors, orchestration, failure handling, caching, and licensing against one attribute-heavy policy.

### How does each handle AI agent traffic?

An architecture that authorizes each tool call and downstream hop creates more checks than perimeter-only authorization. Cerbos supports sidecar or DaemonSet checks, where a Unix socket can avoid a network hop, and also supports shared service deployment. PingAuthorize exposes PDP APIs for application and service checks in addition to gateway patterns. Test a concrete multihop agent flow in both proposed topologies.

## The short version

**Cerbos strengths**

- Supports local sidecar and DaemonSet decisions as well as shared-service deployment
- Stays vendor neutral across identity providers, including Ping
- Combines Git and source-agnostic Cerbos Hub workflows with compile checks, tests, signed distribution, and audit aggregation
- Provides REST and gRPC APIs with official clients for Go, Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Rust, .NET, and PHP, plus Laravel
- Publishes the Apache 2.0 Cerbos PDP and platform pricing, including a $0 proof of concept tier
- Partially implements AuthZEN Authorization API 1.0; Alex Olivier is a current Working Group cochair

**Weigh with PingAuthorize**

- Ping-native integration plus documented third-party identity-validator options
- A Policy Editor for technical and nontechnical authors with built-in lifecycle controls
- Decision-time attribute resolution with ordered and conditional processing
- Gateway, sideband, SCIM, and PDP API integration patterns
- Central policy management with branches, commits, snapshots, deployment packages, approvals, and rollback
- Commercial licensing with feature-tier dependencies and a sales-led public evaluation path

Send us one of your real authorization scenarios, however messy. We will model it in Cerbos policies and run it with you.