Empire Audit vs AWS CloudTrail: Hash-chained audit logs for the multi-cloud SaaS that CloudTrail can't follow
The TL;DR
If you're shopping for AWS CloudTrail alternatives, here's the one-line: Hash-chained audit logs for the multi-cloud SaaS that CloudTrail can't follow. The rest of this post explains why that matters — and where AWS CloudTrail is still the right call.
Why we built Empire Audit
SOC2 needs immutable audit logs. Datadog Cloud SIEM is $$$$.
The AWS CloudTrail approach works, but it carries assumptions we couldn't make for our own 49 apps. We needed:
- A real free tier — so we could dogfood our own product at $0 across dev environments.
- Multi-tenancy from day one — every app we ship is multi-tenant and so is everything we put under it.
- OpenAI-compatible interfaces where possible — so swapping providers is a config change not a refactor.
- Audit-log integration — every action chain-hashed, exportable for SOC2 review.
- Cross-cloud probing — what happens when CF routing breaks for your zone? Local checks miss this.
Where AWS CloudTrail wins
Be honest: AWS CloudTrail has the brand on procurement forms, the integrations marketplace, the years of marketing budget. If you need a logo your CFO recognizes, pick AWS CloudTrail. If you need to ship something that works under a budget you control — keep reading.
Where Empire Audit wins
Pre-hardened SOC2-ready audit trail. eas-audit-lite shipped + battle-tested via Lumen.
Concretely, the moat shows up in three places:
- Cost. Per-MAU pricing turns into surprise bills the moment you grow. Empire Audit prices on usage-tier not on user-count.
- Lock-in. We open-source the engine where possible. The SaaS is the convenience, not the only path.
- Self-hostable. Enterprise tier ships the same binary you can run in your own VPC. No proprietary fork.
The migration in 30 minutes
For most teams, swapping from AWS CloudTrail to Empire Audit is a single integration point:
- Sign up at empireaudit.eliteaiempire.com/contact/ and get your API key (or just enable the free tier — no card required).
- Point your existing client at our gateway. Most APIs are drop-in compatible.
- Run side-by-side for a week. If your dashboards stay green, switch.
Honest residuals
We're not pretending Empire Audit is feature-parity with AWS CloudTrail on day one. AWS CloudTrail has years of polish. What Empire Audit has is:
- Real internal usage across 49 apps — every feature we ship lives in our own production first.
- A roadmap driven by what we actually need, not what wins enterprise demos.
- A team that uses the same product you're buying.
Get started
The free tier is real. Sign up at empireaudit.eliteaiempire.com/contact/ and try it for a week. If you've still got AWS CloudTrail-only requirements after that, we'll tell you that too.