CAIN-42 CAIN StudioHow CAIN-42 compares · AI security & scanners
CAIN-42 vs Cloudflare AI Gateway + AI security
Edge infrastructure for AI traffic: an AI Gateway for routing, caching and rate control, and AI security controls for prompts and MCP, at Cloudflare's global edge.
What Cloudflare AI Gateway + AI security does well
- Global edge performance and DDoS-grade protection.
- AI Gateway for routing, caching and observability.
- Easy to adopt for teams already on Cloudflare.
What CAIN-42 does differently
- Enforces at the tool-call boundary, before anything runs.
- Orders authorization through a Byzantine quorum (3-of-4): one "yes" is never enough.
- Leaves a per-action signed receipt you can verify offline with a clean-room verifier.
- Authority continuity: a change to the model, tool, memory, skill or delegation forces a re-check.
- Self-serve from $19.75/mo; runs hosted, self-hosted or air-gapped.
Capability difference
| Capability | CAIN-42 | Cloudflare AI Gateway + AI security | Source (verified 2026-10-14) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Runtime governance in the execution path | Edge delivery and protection of AI traffic | Cloudflare source page verified 2026-10-14 |
| Blocks the tool call at the boundary | Yes — MCPGate halts before the tool runs | Partial (edge controls + MCP) | |
| Byzantine-ordered authorization (quorum cert) | Yes — 3-of-4 PBFT quorum certificate | No* | |
| Per-action signed receipt, offline-verifiable | Yes — Ed25519, hash-chained, offline-verifiable | No* | |
| Runs inside your network / air-gapped | Hosted, self-hosted or air-gapped | Edge / cloud-hosted | |
| Public entry price | $19.75/mo self-serve | Usage-based tiers |
When to pick which
Pick Cloudflare at the edge for delivery and protection. Pick CAIN-42 when the action happens inside your own infrastructure and must be governed and proven there.
Based on each vendor's public homepage and product pages, last reviewed 2026-10-14. No affiliation and no claim about their internals. "No*" means we found no public documentation of that capability, not that the vendor cannot do it.