ZipLoom vs building it yourself
The free tools are good. The assembly, the wiring, and the remembering are the cost.
The most common alternative isn't a competitor at all — it's wiring together Semgrep for static analysis, Gitleaks for secrets, Dependabot or Trivy for dependencies, and a deploy platform's own pipeline. These tools are good, widely used, and mostly free.
Where A DIY stack (Semgrep + Gitleaks + Dependabot) is stronger
Every tool on this page is here because it's good at something. These are the reasons to pick A DIY stack (Semgrep + Gitleaks + Dependabot) over us, written by us:
- Cost. The open-source tiers cover a great deal and Dependabot is free on GitHub.
- Control and portability — you own the configuration and can run it anywhere, with no vendor to depend on.
- Best-of-breed per layer: Semgrep's rule engine and Gitleaks' detection are strong and widely trusted.
- No per-seat pricing as the team grows.
Who each one suits
- You have the time and the knowledge to assemble and maintain it, and you enjoy owning that layer.
- Budget matters more than setup time.
- You have unusual requirements that a packaged product won't meet.
- The honest answer is that this stack has been on your list for two months and isn't built.
- You want the database, live app, and DNS checks too — the DIY stack is code-focused and mostly stops at the repo.
- You want the gate, the deploy, and the rollback to be one thing rather than four you maintain.
Side by side
| Outcome | ZipLoom | A DIY stack (Semgrep + Gitleaks + Dependabot) |
|---|---|---|
| Licence cost | $20/mo flat | Mostly free (Semgrep Team $35/contributor/mo if you want the hosted platform) |
| Setup effort | Connect a repo | Configure each tool, wire into CI, tune the rules |
| Maintenance | Ours | Yours — rules, versions, false positives, CI breakage |
| Static analysis quality | Good | Very good — Semgrep is strong |
| Database RLS check | Yes | Not covered by these tools |
| Live app posture, TLS, DNS | Yes | Needs yet more tools |
| Deploy, rollback, monitoring | Included | Separate platform and separate configuration |
| Findings tracked across scans | Yes — dispositions remembered | Whatever you build |
What it costs
The verdict
For a team with a platform engineer, the DIY stack is a legitimate and cheaper answer, and plenty of good teams run exactly that. For a solo builder or a small team shipping AI-generated code, the deciding factor isn't capability — it's whether the pipeline gets built at all, and whether anyone reads the output when it does.
Assessed against published pricing and documentation as of 22 September 2026, plus hands-on use where noted. Prices change — follow the source links before relying on a number.
- Consider adding a measured setup-time figure once we can source one honestly