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6 Best Pangea AI Guard Alternatives for AI Security in 2026

By Declan Paul·Last updated: March 2026·10 min read

AI agent security shouldn't require buying a full security platform. Here are the best standalone alternatives.

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Why Teams Look for Pangea AI Guard Alternatives

Bundled pricing — you pay for the full security suite

Pangea's AI Guard is one module within their broader security platform (SecureAudit, AuthN, Embargo, Redact, etc.). Pricing is suite-level, not à la carte. You typically buy the full platform to get AI scanning — paying for capabilities you don't need to get the one you do.

Shallow prompt injection detection

Pangea's AI Guard focuses on content safety (toxicity, PII redaction, malicious URLs) more than adversarial prompt attacks. Its injection detection is basic pattern matching — it doesn't use multi-layer detection with semantic analysis or LLM-based judgment. Purpose-built injection tools catch significantly more attack variants.

No agent framework awareness or tool call scanning

Pangea treats AI scanning like any other API content check. It doesn't understand agent frameworks, tool call arguments, inter-agent delegation, or multi-step workflows. When an attacker injects through a tool's return value or exploits inter-agent communication, Pangea can't see the context.

Cloud API adds latency and data residency complexity

Every scan requires sending text to Pangea's cloud API. This adds latency per call and means your prompts traverse external infrastructure. For teams with GDPR, HIPAA, or data residency requirements, this creates a data processing relationship requiring DPAs and compliance review.

Strong at redaction, weaker at detection

Pangea's real strength is PII redaction — actually removing or masking sensitive data before it reaches the model. That's valuable. But detection of adversarial attacks (injection, exfiltration, escalation) is a different problem, and Pangea's approach treats it as a content safety problem rather than a security problem.

How We Evaluated Alternatives

Agent-specific design

critical

Purpose-built for AI agent threats vs. general security with AI bolted on.

Standalone pricing

high

Available independently without requiring a broader platform purchase.

Detection depth

high

Sophisticated injection detection and broad threat coverage beyond basic scanning.

Framework integration

high

Native support for agent frameworks and tool call scanning.

The Best Pangea AI Guard Alternatives

1. RuneOur Pick

Purpose-built agent security platform with local-first scanning, native framework support, and comprehensive threat detection.

Strengths

  • Purpose-built for agent threats
  • Native framework support (5 frameworks)
  • Local-first — data stays in your infrastructure
  • Standalone pricing with free tier
  • Multi-layer detection with sub-10ms overhead

Weaknesses

  • No malware scanning (agent-focused, not file-focused)
  • No PII redaction (detection only — pair with Pangea for redaction if needed)
Best for: Teams that need focused, standalone AI agent security without platform lock-in.

2. Lakera Guard

Enterprise prompt injection API with battle-tested detection, now part of Check Point Software.

Strengths

  • Proven injection detection
  • Enterprise compliance
  • Standalone product

Weaknesses

  • Enterprise-only pricing
  • Cloud API latency
  • Injection-focused
Best for: Enterprise teams needing compliance-certified injection detection.
See detailed comparison

3. LLM Guard

Self-hosted toolkit for LLM scanning with PII detection — the open-source alternative.

Strengths

  • Self-hosted and free
  • Good PII detection
  • No platform lock-in

Weaknesses

  • Limited maintenance
  • No monitoring
  • No agent support
Best for: Teams wanting self-hosted PII scanning without any vendor dependency.
See detailed comparison

4. Guardrails AI

Open-source LLM output validation with a large library of validators.

Strengths

  • Large validator library
  • Open source
  • Output correction

Weaknesses

  • Output-focused, not security
  • No agent support
  • No monitoring
Best for: Teams focused on output quality validation.
See detailed comparison

5. Prompt Armor

Standalone cloud API for prompt injection detection with fine-tuned models.

Strengths

  • Standalone product
  • Focused injection detection
  • Simple API

Weaknesses

  • Injection-only
  • Cloud API latency
  • No agent support
Best for: Teams needing targeted injection detection as a standalone service.
See detailed comparison

6. Arthur Shield

Enterprise AI firewall with hallucination detection and content safety from Arthur AI.

Strengths

  • Hallucination detection
  • Enterprise compliance
  • Content safety scoring

Weaknesses

  • Enterprise-only (similar bundling issue)
  • Heavy integration
  • No agent support
Best for: Enterprise teams needing hallucination detection with compliance.
See detailed comparison

Side-by-Side Comparison

FeatureRuneLakera GuardLLM GuardGuardrails AIPrompt ArmorArthur Shield
Standalone productYes (agent-focused)Yes (enterprise)Yes (open source)Yes (open source)YesNo (enterprise platform)
Agent framework support5 frameworksNoneNoneNoneNoneNone
Free tier / open source10K events/month freeEnterprise onlyOpen sourceOpen sourceLimited trialEnterprise only
PII handlingDetection + alertingDetectionDetectionValidator availableNoDetection

Considering Switching to Rune?

How Rune solves the Pangea AI Guard problems

Purpose-built for agent security threats

Every feature in Rune targets the specific attack patterns agents face: prompt injection (multi-layer detection), data exfiltration (encoded data in URLs, tool args), PII detection (SSN, credit cards, emails in outputs), secret exposure (API keys, JWTs), and privilege escalation through tool abuse. Not a content safety filter — a security platform.

Native framework integration for 6 agent frameworks

Drop-in middleware for LangChain, OpenAI, Anthropic, CrewAI, MCP, and OpenClaw. Scans tool arguments before execution, tool return values for exfiltration, and inter-agent messages for injection — attack surfaces that Pangea's content scanning API can't see.

Standalone pricing — no platform bundle required

Free tier with 10K events/month, usage-based pricing at $0.05/1K scans after that. No bundled security suite, no feature gating behind higher tiers. You pay for agent security, not a dozen other security modules you don't need.

Local-first — raw content never leaves your infrastructure

All scanning runs in your application process using local pattern databases and embeddings. Only structured metadata (event type, threat category, scan result) reaches the dashboard. No DPA required, no data residency concerns — compare to Pangea where all text is sent to their cloud API.

4-8ms median overhead vs. cloud API round-trips

Layer 1 (regex): <3ms. Layer 2 (vector similarity): 5-10ms. Layer 3 (LLM judge): only for ambiguous cases (~5% of traffic). Median total: 4-8ms — no network round-trip, no cloud dependency, no latency variance by region.

You should switch if...

  • You want agent-specific security without buying a full security platform
  • You need deeper prompt injection detection than basic pattern matching
  • You're building with agent frameworks and need native tool call scanning
  • You want standalone pricing with a free tier
  • You need local-first scanning for data privacy compliance

How to switch from Pangea AI Guard to Rune

  1. 1Install the Rune SDK: pip install runesec
  2. 2Initialize Shield as middleware on your agent client
  3. 3Configure security policies in YAML (default policies cover common threats)
  4. 4If using Pangea for PII redaction only, you can keep it alongside Rune
  5. 5Remove Pangea AI Guard scanning calls from your LLM pipeline
  6. 6Verify detection with test attack payloads

Our Recommendation by Use Case

Standalone agent security

Rune

Purpose-built for agents, standalone pricing, native framework support — no platform lock-in.

PII redaction (not just detection)

Pangea AI Guard (keep for redaction) + Rune (for security)

If you need PII redaction specifically, Pangea does that well. Pair with Rune for agent security threats.

Open-source, self-hosted

LLM Guard

Fully self-hosted with PII detection, no vendor dependency.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use Rune and Pangea AI Guard together?

Yes — and this is a common pattern. Pangea excels at PII redaction (actually removing/masking sensitive data before it reaches the model) and malware scanning on file uploads. Rune excels at agent security: prompt injection detection, data exfiltration through tool calls, secret exposure, and real-time threat monitoring. Use Pangea Redact in your data pipeline, Rune Shield in your agent pipeline.

Does Rune do PII redaction like Pangea?

No — Rune detects PII in model outputs and tool arguments and alerts you, but doesn't actively redact/mask data. If you need active PII redaction (replacing SSNs with [REDACTED] before the model sees them), Pangea Redact is genuinely the better tool for that specific job. Rune catches PII that leaks through despite your redaction layer.

Why not just use Pangea for everything?

Pangea approaches AI security as a content safety problem — scanning text for bad patterns. That works for toxicity and PII, but agent threats like indirect injection through tool returns, data exfiltration via encoded URL parameters, and privilege escalation through multi-step tool abuse require agent-level awareness that content scanning can't provide. Rune sees the agent context (tool calls, framework state, inter-agent messages), not just the text.

What's the honest case for staying with Pangea?

If your primary concern is PII redaction and content safety (toxicity, malicious URLs), and you're already on the Pangea platform for other security modules (AuthN, SecureAudit, Embargo), AI Guard is a natural add-on with zero additional vendor relationships. The case for adding or switching to Rune: you have tool-calling agents, need deeper injection detection, want agent-level visibility, or don't want to buy the full platform for one feature.

Other Alternatives

Related Resources

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6 Best Pangea AI Guard Alternatives for AI Security in 2026 | Rune