The most common objection to Gatebridge is: “Why not just buy a YubiKey?”
It’s a fair question. Physical security keys are excellent. They work offline, they’re trusted at enterprise scale, and they’re phishing-resistant. But they’re not always the right tool.
Where YubiKeys win
- Offline sign-in. A YubiKey works with no network. Gatebridge needs your phone online and reachable through a relay.
- Compliance. Many regulated environments require certified hardware tokens.
- Shared workstations. A physical key can be handed to a contractor or used on a kiosk.
- No phone dependency. If the phone is lost, dead, or out of battery, the key still works.
Where Gatebridge wins
- Headless and remote Linux. You can’t plug a YubiKey into a server in a datacenter. USB forwarding is fragile. A phone-backed bridge works wherever the server has network access.
- No per-seat hardware buying. A YubiKey costs $25 to $55 per person. That adds up at 50 seats. Gatebridge costs less than one key per year.
- No extra hardware to manage. The phone is already in every employee’s pocket. No lost keys to reissue, no inventory to track.
- Instant revocation. Lose a phone? Revoke it in the admin console. Lose a YubiKey? Order a replacement and re-enroll.
The honest answer
If your team needs offline sign-in or is in a compliance regime that requires physical tokens, buy YubiKeys.
If your team signs in to remote Linux servers and can’t justify per-seat hardware, or can’t physically plug in a key, Gatebridge is the pragmatic stronger-than-password option.
They’re not mutually exclusive. Many organizations use both: YubiKeys for laptops, Gatebridge for servers.