KICS

KICS is ranked #10 of 27 in infrastructure testing tools on The Geeks Club. It runs on Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Windows. There is a free plan.

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KICS Free Open-source project; the project site describes it as free docs.kics.io · 4 Oct 2026

Compared on infrastructure testing tools

Free plan: Yes
Policy language: OPA Rego
IaC formats: Terraform, Kubernetes, Docker, AWS CloudFormation, Ansible, Helm, Google Deployment Manager, AWS SAM, Microsoft ARM, Azure Blueprints, OpenAPI, Pulumi, Crossplane, Knative, Serverless Framework
Policy testing: Yes
CI/CD integration: Yes
Policy reporting: Yes

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KICS

Purpose: KICS is an open-source static code analysis solution that finds security vulnerabilities, compliance issues, and infrastructure misconfigurations in Infrastructure as Code.
Supported technologies: The site lists Terraform, Kubernetes, Docker, AWS CloudFormation, Ansible, Helm, Google Deployment Manager, AWS SAM, Microsoft ARM, Azure Blueprints, OpenAPI, Pulumi, Crossplane, Knative, and Serverless Framework.
Queries: KICS provides customizable and adjustable security queries that users can edit, extend, and add.
CI integrations: Documented integrations include Azure Pipelines, Bamboo, Bitbucket Pipelines, CircleCI, Codefresh, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, TeamCity, Travis, Terraform Cloud, AWS CodeBuild, pre-commit hooks, and AWS CDK.
Editor integration: KICS provides an auto-scanning extension for Visual Studio Code.
Installation: KICS can be run as a Docker image or built from source; its documentation also provides downloadable releases for Linux, Windows, and macOS.
Reports: KICS can export scan results in multiple formats, including JSON, SARIF, GitLab SAST, JUnit, HTML, PDF, CycloneDX, ASFF, and CSV.
Terraform limitation: KICS documents that Terraform functions and environment variables are not supported.
Terraform modules limitation: KICS supports some listed official AWS Terraform modules but does not support unofficial or custom modules.
Certifications: The documentation lists previous CIS certifications for AWS Foundations and Kubernetes benchmarks.
Support: The KICS core team can be contacted at [email protected], and the site points users to GitHub Discussions.
Project owner: The project is powered by Checkmarx.
Founded: 2006
Headquarters: Ramat Gan, Israel
Price from: Free

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Where it ranks on The Geeks Club

Best Infrastructure Testing Tools in 2026#10 of 27
Best Infrastructure Policy as Code Tools in 2026#12 of 24

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Sources

kics.io· checked 4 Oct 2026
docs.kics.io/latest/integrations/· checked 4 Oct 2026
docs.kics.io/latest/getting-started/· checked 4 Oct 2026
docs.kics.io/latest/results/· checked 4 Oct 2026
docs.kics.io/latest/platforms/· checked 4 Oct 2026
docs.kics.io/latest/certifications/· checked 4 Oct 2026
docs.kics.io/latest/· checked 4 Oct 2026