CAIN-42 CAIN StudioHow CAIN-42 compares · AI governance & GRC
CAIN-42 vs ServiceNow AI Control Tower + AI Gateway
An AI control tower that inventories AI across vendors, runs approvals and workflows, and an AI Gateway that intercepts MCP connections, all inside ServiceNow's enterprise workflow platform.
What ServiceNow AI Control Tower + AI Gateway does well
- Enterprise AI inventory across many vendors.
- Approval workflows and governance inside ServiceNow.
- AI Gateway for MCP runtime enforcement.
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 | ServiceNow AI Control Tower + AI Gateway | Source (verified 2026-10-14) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Runtime governance in the execution path | Enterprise AI inventory, workflow and MCP gateway | ServiceNow source page verified 2026-10-14 |
| Blocks the tool call at the boundary | Yes — MCPGate halts before the tool runs | Yes (AI Gateway intercepts 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 | Audit trail in the platform | |
| Authority continuity across change | Yes — a change forces an authority re-check | No* | |
| Public entry price | $19.75/mo self-serve | ServiceNow licensing |
When to pick which
Pick ServiceNow AI Control Tower when governance must live in ServiceNow workflows. Pick CAIN-42 when you want the enforcement and the evidence in your own execution path.
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.