Pricore vs Private Packagist
Private Packagist is a managed SaaS for hosting private Composer packages. Pricore gives you the same core features — for free, on your own infrastructure.
TLDR
Private Packagist is a solid product, but it's a paid SaaS you don't control. Pricore is free, open source, and self-hosted — giving you full ownership of your registry, your data, and your uptime. If you want the features without the subscription, Pricore is the alternative.
Feature comparison
| Pricore | Private Packagist | |
|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted | ||
| Free & open source | ||
| Web dashboard | ||
| Composer v2 API | ||
| Token auth | ||
| Webhook auto-sync | ||
| Git-based mirroring | ||
| Full data control | ||
| Built on Laravel | ||
| No vendor lock-in |
Self-hosted vs SaaS
Private Packagist runs entirely on their servers. Your package metadata, access tokens, and download logs live on infrastructure you don't control. Pricore runs on your own server — you decide where your data lives, who has access, and how it's backed up. For teams with compliance requirements or a preference for self-hosting, this is the deciding factor.
Free and open source
Private Packagist charges a monthly subscription based on the number of users and packages. Pricore is free — no limits on packages, users, or downloads. It's Apache 2.0 licensed, so you can run it, modify it, and contribute back. No credit card, no trial period, no surprise invoices.
Same core features
Both tools give you a web dashboard, Composer v2 native API, webhook-driven updates, token-based authentication, and Git-based mirroring from GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket. You're not giving up functionality by choosing Pricore — you're choosing a different deployment model.
Built on Laravel
Pricore is a Laravel application. If your team already works with PHP and Laravel, you'll feel right at home deploying and maintaining it. You can extend it, customize it, and integrate it into your existing infrastructure. Private Packagist is a black box — you use what they give you.
Ready to switch?
Get started with Pricore for free — self-host it or use the hosted version.