The best Renovate alternatives for dependency updates

Renovate alternatives at a glance

Prices and hosts as each vendor lists them on its own site or docs, in the currency shown there, checked on 8 October 2026. Confirm current terms before you switch.

What Renovate includes, and what it charges

Renovate is licensed AGPL-3.0 and runs as an npm package, a Docker image, or the Mend Renovate app hosted by Mend. Its docs list Azure DevOps, AWS CodeCommit, Bitbucket Cloud and Server, Forgejo, Gerrit, Gitea, GitHub and GitLab, and Mend lists more than 90 package managers.

• Mend Renovate CLI is free and self hosted, with merge confidence ratings, but no automatic job scheduling, webhooks, APIs or support.
• Mend Renovate Community is free and hosted for GitHub.com, Bitbucket.org and Azure DevOps cloud, schedules jobs itself and responds to repository activity.
• Mend Renovate Enterprise adds APIs, reporting and support, at up to $250 per contributing developer per year on Mend's pricing page.
• Pull requests embed the release notes for the versions being updated, and automerge waits for your required tests to pass before it merges.

Sources: Renovate docs · Mend Renovate editions · Mend pricing · Changelogs, Renovate docs · Automerge, Renovate docs

Why you might look for a Renovate alternative

Renovate is free, widely used and more configurable than any option below, so the honest reasons to compare are about fit, not price.

• You only use GitHub and want nothing to install: Dependabot is part of every GitHub plan, including Free.
• You want fewer pull requests: Depfu waits for each new version to mature before opening one, and can batch updates weekly or monthly.
• Security leads your backlog: Snyk opens fix pull requests when a vulnerability gets a fix, from its own vulnerability data.
• The hard part is the major upgrade, not the patch bumps: Infield's team fixes the breaking changes for you.
• You want the work done before the pull request exists: an upgrade tested in a scratch checkout, a red suite reported instead of opened, and the release notes read against how your code uses the package.
• Your legal team has a policy on AGPL licensed software you run yourself; the hosted Community app or another tool avoids the question.

Sources: GitHub pricing · Depfu home page · Automatic fix and upgrade PRs, Snyk docs · Infield home page · Renovate docs

Update bots that work the same way

If you want a bot that opens a pull request per update, these two are the closest to Renovate.

• Dependabot: GitHub lists Dependabot security and version updates on its Free plan. A dependabot.yml file sets the schedule (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly or cron) and groups several updates into one pull request. Version updates wait 3 days after a release by default, and each pull request carries the changelog and release notes.
• Depfu: automated dependency updates for GitHub and GitLab. Its scheduler matures new versions based on each library's release history instead of opening a pull request right away, and can send weekly or monthly grouped updates. It is free for open source and personal repositories, Starter is $29 a month for 5 private repositories, Team $59 for 25 and Business $99 for 100, with a 21 day trial and 12 months for the price of 10 billed annually.

Sources: GitHub pricing · About Dependabot version updates, GitHub docs · Optimizing PR creation, GitHub docs · Depfu home page · Depfu pricing

Security platforms and upgrade services

If dependency updates are one part of a security or modernization budget, these three come at the job from a different side.

• Snyk: automatic fix pull requests when a fix appears for a known vulnerability, and automatic upgrade pull requests whenever a scan finds an upgrade available, on GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab and Azure Repos. Its free plan includes Snyk Open Source, and Team is listed as starting at $25 a month.
• Mend AppSec: Mend's SAST and SCA platform with AI fix suggestions and automated dependency updates, priced at up to $1,000 per contributing developer per year on its pricing page.
• Infield: a living upgrade plan that weighs risk, effort and the links between direct and indirect dependencies, offered as a self serve platform or a managed service where its team fixes breaking changes. It supports Ruby, JavaScript, TypeScript and Python, offers a one month free trial, and does not publish prices.

Sources: Automatic fix and upgrade PRs, Snyk docs · Snyk plans · Mend pricing · Infield home page

Where Qoren fits, and where it does not

Qoren is not an update bot. It runs agents, and one of its templates is a dependency upgrader: every Monday at 06:00 it ranks the outdated and vulnerable direct dependencies in each repository you list, security first, then applies the top few on a branch, installs, and runs that repository's own test command in a scratch checkout. Only a green suite becomes a draft pull request, with the diff, the test result, and the changelog between the versions summarized with breaking changes first and mapped onto how your code actually uses the package.

• What it does well: no red pull requests, since a failing suite is reported as the specific break instead; related bumps batched and risky ones isolated; an hourly check of new GitHub advisories, or a Dependabot alert webhook, judged for exploitability in your usage so only a critical, reachable one interrupts you; and a monthly report of how far behind each repository is, with end of life and unmaintained packages first.
• What Renovate does better: it is free, it covers far more Git hosts and more than 90 package managers, it runs on a schedule you set, it automerges once your required tests pass, and it shares configuration through presets.
• What Qoren does not offer: automerge, support beyond GitHub, or a pull request for every update. Major versions get migration notes only, never a drafted pull request unless you ask, and by default it opens at most 3 upgrade pull requests per repository each week. It opens drafts you merge; it never merges itself.
• Setup is real work: you list the repositories and each one's exact test command with the agent in its first conversation, and set the upgrade policy and the packages never to touch. It needs a GitHub token that can push a branch and open a draft pull request; Snyk and Linear are optional, and model usage is billed on top of the plan.

Sources: Renovate docs · Mend Renovate editions · Automerge, Renovate docs

• Dependency upgrader template
• Wake an agent from GitHub webhooks
• Connect GitHub to Qoren

How to choose

Start from what you want to stop doing, not from a feature list, and check each project's docs and pricing on the day you decide.

• Every host, every package manager, full control, at no cost: Renovate itself.
• GitHub only, nothing to install: Dependabot.
• Fewer, better timed pull requests at a flat price: Depfu.
• Upgrades driven by a vulnerability database: Snyk.
• Dependency updates inside a commercial SAST and SCA platform: Mend AppSec.
• Major framework upgrades done by people: Infield.
• Upgrades tested before the pull request exists, with the changelog read against your code, run alongside your other agents: Qoren. It can sit next to Renovate or Dependabot rather than replace them.

Sources: Mend Renovate editions · GitHub pricing · Depfu pricing · Snyk plans · Mend pricing · Infield home page