Vaikora › Compare › Vaikora vs Zenity

Vaikora vs Zenity

Focused enforcement layer vs the wider AI agent governance plane.

Vaikora is the focused pre-execution enforcement layer: sub-500ms decisions, a SHA-256 audit chain, and an MIT-licensed gateway. Zenity is the wider governance plane: pre-deployment posture, multi-platform discovery, and step-level monitoring. Buyers often run both.

At a glance

Capability	Vaikora	Zenity
Pre-execution enforcement	Yes, sub-500ms p95	Yes
Quantified latency SLA	Sub-500ms p95, documented	Not published
Cryptographic audit chain	SHA-256, append-only	Not specified as cryptographic
Open-source gateway	MIT-licensed, free forever	No public open-source product
Agent coverage	OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, OpenRouter, MCP, A2A	Foundry, Bedrock, Vertex, Copilot, Agentforce, custom
Pre-deployment posture management	Policy-as-code only	Yes, full posture engine
Compliance presets	SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, ISO 27001	Not published
Free tier	Yes, MIT gateway free forever	Free assessment, no free product tier
Marketplace	AWS Marketplace + Azure Sentinel	Microsoft Foundry partner

How they compare

Focused enforcement vs a wide governance plane

Vaikora is a focused pre-execution enforcement proxy: inline, sub-500ms decisions, a SHA-256 audit chain, and a 2-line SDK drop-in. Zenity is a wider governance platform covering pre-deployment posture, multi-platform agent discovery across Foundry, Bedrock, Vertex, Copilot, and Agentforce, and step-level monitoring. Both enforce at runtime; buyers often run both.

Latency, audit, and open source

Vaikora documents a sub-500ms p95 and signs every decision into an append-only SHA-256 chain, with an MIT-licensed reference gateway. Zenity does not publish a latency number or a cryptographic-chain guarantee and has no public open-source product.

Compliance presets and pricing transparency

Vaikora ships named presets for SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, and ISO 27001, with a free open-source tier and a quote-based control plane. Zenity is quote-based only with no public product tier and does not publish its compliance presets.

Coverage breadth

Zenity's strength is breadth: posture management and discovery across many agent platforms. Vaikora's strength is depth on the enforcement decision and the audit guarantee. A team standing up enforcement without a security org gets there faster with Vaikora; a large org wanting a full governance plane will look at Zenity.

Who each is best for

Choose Vaikora when

Enforcement needs to be live the same day without a security team.
Replayable SHA-256 receipts are a hard requirement.
An open-source, self-hostable gateway is preferred.
Named compliance presets and a free tier matter.

Choose Zenity when

Pre-deployment posture management across many agent platforms is needed.
Step-level execution traces are a requirement.
The org runs a broad multi-platform agent estate.
An enterprise governance program with a security team is in place.

See Vaikora enforce policy on your stack

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Frequently asked questions

What is the main difference between Vaikora and Zenity?

Vaikora is a focused pre-execution enforcement layer with a documented sub-500ms p95, a SHA-256 audit chain, and an open-source gateway. Zenity is a wider governance platform covering pre-deployment posture, multi-platform discovery, and step-level monitoring.

Does Zenity have an open-source product?

No public one. Vaikora ships an MIT-licensed reference gateway that is free forever.

Can I run both?

Yes. Teams often run Zenity as the wide governance plane and Vaikora as the focused enforcement and audit layer in front of high-risk agent actions.

Which is faster to deploy?

Vaikora drops in with a 2-line Python or Node.js SDK and most pilots enforce policy the same day. Zenity integrates via platform connectors across the agent estate.