Lakera vs Salus
Updated March 27, 2026
Overview
Lakera provides real-time AI security that protects LLM applications from prompt injection, jailbreaks, data leakage, and toxic content. Lakera Guard is a low-latency API that scans inputs and outputs to detect and block attacks before they reach the model. The platform defends against the OWASP Top 10 for LLMs and is used by enterprises to secure customer-facing AI applications.
Runtime guardrails API that validates AI agent actions against policies before execution, blocking incorrect actions with structured feedback.
Key features
Core capabilities each platform advertises.
- Prompt injection detection
- Content moderation
- PII detection and masking
- Real-time threat monitoring
- API-based security layer
- Runtime action validation
- Policy-based guardrails
- Pre-execution blocking
- Structured feedback for self-correction
- Agent action auditing
Strengths and tradeoffs
What each tool does well, and the limitations to keep in mind.
Pros
- Real-time protection against prompt injection and LLM-specific attacks
- Free tier enables testing and evaluation without upfront costs
- AI-powered red teaming helps identify vulnerabilities proactively
- Acquired by Check Point provides enterprise credibility and long-term stability
Cons
- Enterprise pricing not publicly disclosed makes budget planning difficult
- Smaller ecosystem compared to established security vendors
- Custom pricing model may not suit teams seeking predictable costs
- Relatively new company with limited long-term production track record
Pros
- Solves a critical problem — agents executing incorrect actions can cost enterprises thousands per incident
- Clean developer experience with Python SDK, decorator-based instrumentation, and framework-agnostic compatibility
- 58% self-recovery rate on blocked actions means agents keep working rather than failing hard
- Comprehensive approach combining runtime guardrails, observability, and pre-deployment adversarial evals
- Well-funded at .7M with strong Stanford CS founding team
Cons
- No public pricing creates friction for developer adoption in a space with transparent free tiers
- Very early stage (founded 2026) with a small team and limited enterprise track record
- Competes with Guardrails AI and built-in safety features from OpenAI and Anthropic
- Adding a validation layer introduces latency to every agent action
Lakera or Salus — which should you choose?
Choose Lakera if you wantChoose if you want
- Protecting LLM apps from prompt injection
- Automated content moderation
- PII detection before data reaches LLMs
- Compliance monitoring for AI systems
- Real-time security threat prevention
Choose Salus if you wantChoose if you want
- Agent safety enforcement
- Action policy compliance
- Runtime guardrails
- Agent audit trails
Compare Lakera and Salus on your own traffic
Respan lets you trace LLM and agent calls across any model or framework, A/B test prompts on production traffic, and route requests across 500+ models through one gateway.