Head-to-head · updated 13 September 2026

DataShield vs Enkrypt AI: if the gateway unredacts the data, who watched it happen?

Enkrypt AI built the loudest secure-MCP story in the market. A lot of it is real. Their gateway sits in the request path. It strips PII out of tool calls. Before the MCP server sees them. It screens for injection and jailbreaks too. Their red-team work has a public board behind it. Since the Anaconda deal, they've also started posting prices. That's more than most of this field does.

We answer a new question. We tokenize data sets at ingest. Agents query tokenized data over MCP. Turning a token back into real data is a locked step. It's checked every time. We check each checked tool call against the agent's live access. That happens before it fires. We then seal each call into a hash chain. Anyone with the public verifier can check it. Below is where the two truly differ. It includes the spots where Enkrypt just does it better.

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The short version

Pick DataShield when

You'll one day have to prove an agent's access log wasn't edited. To a checker, or under EU AI Act Article 12. A built report is a claim. A hash chain is a check anyone can run. Run the verifier.
You need an agent's access pulled mid-session. The very next checked tool call should fail closed. Not a gateway key riding until someone rotates it.
Re-ID has to be a deliberate, logged event. Not an auto step at the end of every response.
Erasing a person can't be allowed to break your audit trail. You need the consent receipt to go with it.

Pick Enkrypt AI when

You want an inline watcher today. Their proxy edits, blocks, and OKs tool calls in flight. We don't sit inline, on purpose. We'd rather say so than fudge it.
You need content-attack detection: prompt injection, jailbreak, toxic text, NSFW, multi-mode. We do none of that.
Red teaming is part of the buy. They run attack tests as a product. They post a 200-plus model safety board. We have nothing like it.
You want SOC 2 Type 2 in hand. Also a free Apache-2.0 gateway your team can install this afternoon.

Bottom line: Enkrypt guards the pipe and screens the traffic. We decide what an agent was let to do with the data. We also keep proof of it. Pairing them is a sound setup. If you can fund just one, and your auditor is who you fear most, start here.

Feature by feature

Competitor cells state what Enkrypt AI's site, docs, and OSS repo say. We use the date above. Did we get something wrong? Email support@myorg.ai. We'll fix it, and credit you.

What matters	DataShield	Enkrypt AI	Edge
Audit evidence	A SHA-256 hash chain, with Ed25519-signed checkpoints. Those checkpoints are chained too. A check names the exact fault: tampering, insertion, deletion, or a cut. Try the verifier.	The open-source gateway writes requests to local log files. Enterprise adds reports and audit-ready export packs. No public signed tamper-proof design.	◆
Agent authorization	Each checked tool call passes a scope ceiling. Also a set access tier, and a pull check. That's all before dispatch. Per-call logs tie back to the agent.	Gateway and API keys, plus tool allowlists. We found no access tiers, delegation model, or mid-session revoke. Not in their public docs.	◆
Break-glass	Scoped, time-boxed access, just for a crisis, just for agents. It auto-revokes on its own. It can't be quietly wiped from the log. Shipped in Auth, live and in use.	Not offered, as far as we can find.	◆
GDPR erasure	Crypto-shred of per-person key parts. Plus ISO 27560 consent receipts. Actor names carry HMAC locks. Nothing has to leave the chain.	Redaction is short-lived and per-request. No public erasure method for the token maps. Or the request and response logs.	◆
PII handling	Fixed, join-safe, vault-reversible tokens, set at ingest. Plus broad bands for quasi-IDs. Dates become year, decade or age band. ZIPs become 3 or 4 digits. Phones, SSNs and emails get part masked. Each column gets a risk score. Detokenization is a locked, logged step.	Inline detect, redact, then auto-unredact. The MCP server never sees raw values. The gateway holds the name-to-token map, and puts plain text back into the response.	◈
Content-attack detection	No content-attack detection, by design. Pair us with a detection layer, theirs included. What we do run is the other way round. A fail-closed gate sits on every value. One leaving a checked data set for a prompt. A PHI data set blocks an AI endpoint with no BAA.	Injection, jailbreak, toxic text, NSFW, topic and PII detection, multi-mode.	◇
Red teaming	None.	Attack tests as a product. Plus a public LLM safety board, covering 200-plus models.	◇
MCP and agents	Native MCP endpoints on Auth, Ontology, and Lighthouse. MCP tool tokens with scope ceilings, set by the identity plane.	Two-way MCP proxy, with tool allowlists, sandbox isolation, and checks before and after each run. Plus an MCP scanner, for server and tool risk finds.	◇
Deployment	Self-hosted, or single-tenant. End to end. Your keys.	OSS gateway self-hosts via pip, Docker, or Kubernetes. Guardrails mostly run as their hosted API. Unlimited VPC use appears at the Enterprise tier.	◈
Compliance reporting	Built to map to EU AI Act Article 12 and 26, and HIPAA §164.312(b). With proof you can check yourself. No packaged report tool.	Compliance Management maps model behavior to the EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF. Also HIPAA and ECOA. With audit-ready trace notes.	◇
Maturity signals	Auth, Guardian and Lighthouse are live and in use. Guardian and Lighthouse have run since April 2026. SOC 2 not yet in place, and we say so.	Founded 2022, SOC 2 Type 2, Gartner Cool Vendor in AI Security 2025. Now owned by Anaconda. The OSS gateway itself is a young repo. Buyers are mostly unnamed.	◇
Pricing	Published price, a quick quote, no sales wall.	Published self-serve tiers: free Explore, $149/mo Launch, $1,499/mo Scale on credit use, then custom Enterprise. One of the few peers here who post a number.	◈

◆ DataShield leads◇ Enkrypt AI leads◈ comparable

We draw Enkrypt AI claims from enkryptai.com. Also their price page, their newsroom, and the enkryptai/secure-mcp-gateway repository. Last checked 13 September 2026. Links below, so you can read the original, not our take.

Three things you get here that you won't get from an MCP gateway

A log the vendor can't quietly fix

Anyone who can edit files can edit a local log file too. On most hosts that's a longer list than the security team thinks. Ours is a hash chain, with signed checkpoints. The verifier says what broke: tampering, insertion, deletion, or a cut. That's the trait a reviewer is testing. Think EU AI Act Article 12, HIPAA §164.312(b). Run it against a broken chain.

Revocation that beats key rotation

Someone quits on a Tuesday. Their agent keeps grinding through an overnight job. Here, we check the next checked tool call against live access. It fails closed. With a gateway key, the pipe stays open. At least until someone thinks to rotate it. How Auth does it.

Erasure that reaches the mapping table

GDPR says delete the person. Your auditor says keep the record. Crypto-shred settles it. We wipe the person's key parts. The data becomes unreadable. The chain still checks out. Ask any redaction vendor what happens to their stored maps. The method, drawn out.

Where Enkrypt AI is genuinely stronger

Their gateway does things we don't. It sits in the path. It can block a tool call before it runs. It sandboxes runs too. Its redact-then-unredact round trip is a genuinely good build. The MCP server behind it only ever sees tokens. The human still gets a readable answer. Their detection covers injection, jailbreaks, toxic text and multi-mode content. We don't touch any of that. They have SOC 2 Type 2, a Gartner Cool Vendor nod. And a real red-team brand. Plus an Apache-2.0 gateway a coder can install in ten minutes. Anaconda's reach behind all that is not nothing.

Here's the question we'd still put to them. The gateway spots PII, and holds the map. It writes plain text back into every response. By build, that makes it a plain-text PII handler. It sits on a mapping table, on the path of every call. That's not a flaw in their work. It's what inline redaction is. So ask where the map lives. Ask if it's locked at rest, and what its TTL is. Who can read it, and does the detect call leave your network? Ask what proves the agent could re-ID it. We took the other road. The data set gets tokenized at ingest, so there's no plain-text choke point to guard. We make detokenization a locked step, and it lands in the chain.

Questions worth asking both of us

The questions below deserve an answer from both vendors. Don't give us a pass on them.

Can you cryptographically prove an audit log entry wasn't deleted?

DataShield: yes. Each record ties to the one before it. We sign and chain the checkpoints over them too. Pulling a checkpoint is as visible as pulling a row. A check names the fault, not just a shrug. Live chain at /verify. Enkrypt AI: the open-source gateway logs requests to local files. Enterprise adds reports and export packs. We found no tamper-proof method published. Audit-ready trace notes are a report, not a proof. Ask them to show the same kind of check.

What happens to a revoked agent mid-session?

We check access at dispatch, on each checked tool call. A revoke bites on the next call, and the context drops with it. Enkrypt's public auth model is gateway and API keys, with tool allowlists. We couldn't find a per-call access check in their docs. Ask how long a bad agent keeps working after you pull its access. Ask if the answer is "until we rotate the key."

Where exactly does the unredacted data live?

This is the one we'd spend the most time on. Their gateway swaps PII for tokens before the MCP server sees the request. It keeps the map keyed per request. It puts plain text back in the response. Ask: is the map locked at rest? What's the TTL? Who can read it? Does PII detection run as a call to their hosted service? Is every response logged with the plain text in it? We have no matching store. We tokenize data sets at ingest. Detokenization is a locked, checked step. Not an auto last one.

How does GDPR erasure interact with the audit trail?

Erasure here wipes the person's key parts, and gives an ISO 27560 receipt. The chain isn't edited, and doesn't need to be. Actor names in it carry HMAC locks, so it still checks out after. Enkrypt's redaction is short-lived. We found no public erasure story for kept maps or logs. If a person asks to be deleted: ask what happens to the records. The ones that hold their data.

Do we still need prompt injection detection if we run DataShield?

Probably, and we'd point you at Enkrypt or Lakera for it. We're the layer underneath detection: identity, rights, and proof. Through 2028, Gartner expects most bad agent moves to be inside jobs. Not outside attacks. That's the half of the problem no detector even looks at. Most buyers who look hard at both end up running both.

Does DataShield have SOC 2?

No, and Enkrypt has SOC 2 Type 2, which we score in their favor. Worth saying plainly: SOC 2 attests to their firm. Not to your proof. Auth is live. It ships with a public threat model, and a verifier anyone can run. Guardian and Lighthouse have been live since April 2026. Security page.

Enkrypt AI's current positioning: "Ship Fast, Ship Safe, Stay Ahead" with the sub-head "Agentic Security & Compliance." - enkryptai.com, 13 Sep 2026
Published self-serve pricing: free Explore tier, Launch at $149/mo, Scale at $1,499/mo on credit metering, Enterprise custom with unlimited VPC usage. - enkryptai.com/pricing, 13 Sep 2026
Enkrypt AI was acquired by Anaconda; terms were not disclosed. - Enkrypt AI newsroom, checked 13 Sep 2026
The Secure MCP Gateway is an Apache-2.0 bidirectional proxy with tool allowlisting, sandbox isolation, and local request logging; platform log forwarding was listed as coming soon. - github.com/enkryptai/secure-mcp-gateway, 13 Sep 2026
Enkrypt AI announced SOC 2 Type 2 certification. - enkryptai.com, 11 Sep 2024
≥80% of unauthorized agent transactions through 2028 will be internal policy violations rather than attacks. - Gartner, 2026

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