Dependabot Pricing 2026
Plans, hidden costs, and alternatives compared
Cite this data: Toolradar, Dependabot pricing verified Oct 2026, toolradar.com/tools/dependabot/pricing
Dependabot is free.
Verified Oct 2026 from the official pricing page.
Is Dependabot worth the price?
Dependabot itself is completely free on every GitHub plan, alerts, security updates, and version updates cost nothing for both public and private repositories.
The catch is that Dependabot is part of a broader GitHub security ecosystem where the premium features carry steep per-committer pricing. For most teams, free Dependabot covers 80% of dependency security needs.
The paid tiers matter when you need proactive secret leak prevention or AI-powered vulnerability fixing at scale.
Pricing Plans
Free
Included with GitHub
- Automated dependency updates
- Security vulnerability alerts
- Pull request automation
- Multi-language support
- Grouping updates
Hidden Costs & Gotchas
Dependabot alerts and updates are free, but acting on them at scale requires developer time. A large monorepo can generate 50+ PRs per week, without auto-merge rules or triage automation (paid), each one requires manual review
Without them, you get the same priority for a critical RCE and a low-severity regex DoS
GitHub Code Security pricing is per active committer, not per user. Anyone who pushes a commit to a protected repo in the past 90 days counts, including contractors, bots, and one-time contributors
Dependabot version updates can create noisy PRs for fast-moving ecosystems (npm, PyPI). Without grouped updates (available on all plans) or auto-triage (paid), your PR queue gets flooded
Dependabot only covers dependencies declared in supported package manifests. Vendored dependencies, Git submodules, or pinned Docker base images require separate tooling
Private vulnerability reporting and security advisories are free, but security campaigns (coordinated org-wide fix drives) require the Enterprise plan plus Code Security add-on
Which Plan Do You Need?
Dependabot alerts, security updates, and version updates are free for all repositories, public and private. No setup beyond a dependabot.yml file. This alone catches known CVEs in your dependency tree and opens automated PRs to fix them
How Dependabot compares
3 of 6 direct competitors offer a free plan.
| Tool | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|---|---|
| Dependabot | Free | Yes |
| Renovate | Free | Yes |
| semantic-release | Free | Yes |
| changesets | Free | Yes |
| Orchestrated Beer | No public price | No |
| EZLynx | No public price | No |
| OneVision | No public price | No |
Dependabot Pricing FAQ
How much does Dependabot cost?
Dependabot is free to use. No subscription or one-time fee is required for the core product.
Does Dependabot have a free plan?
Yes. Dependabot offers a free plan called "Free". It includes: Automated dependency updates, Security vulnerability alerts, Pull request automation.
What are alternatives to Dependabot?
Alternatives to Dependabot include Renovate, semantic-release, changesets, Orchestrated Beer. Renovate, semantic-release, changesets are fully free.
Dependabot alternatives
Direct competitors. Starting prices match the table above.
Sources
- Official Dependabot pricing: github.com/dependabot (verified Oct 2026)
- Cite this data: Toolradar, Dependabot pricing verified Oct 2026, toolradar.com/tools/dependabot/pricing
Review Dependabot, get a free AI guide
Share your experience and we will send you Improve Your Thinking Patterns Using ChatGPT, free.