# AgentGate vs Presidio

> Presidio scores 66 (B) to AgentGate's 48.5 (D) for self-hosted guardrails. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-microsoft-presidio
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-microsoft-presidio.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-microsoft-presidio.min.md (~530 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-microsoft-presidio.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-15

Presidio scores 66 (B) on agent readiness against AgentGate's 48.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do self-hosted guardrails.

- AgentGate: grade D, 48.5/100, rank #883 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agentgate.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agentgate.json
- Presidio: grade B, 66/100, rank #325 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-presidio.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/microsoft-presidio.json
- Best guardrails and safety filters for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/guardrails/index.md
- All 132 guardrails comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guardrails/index.md

## Which one, for what

### AgentGate (D)

Good for: A team that wants a self-hosted check between an agent and its shell, database or webhook tools, with a human approval queue.

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Agent endpoints need no key unless `AG_AGENT_KEY` is set, the proxy binds 0.0.0.0:8080, and the dashboard key defaults to `dev-key-123`

### Presidio (B)

Good for: Detecting and masking personal data in prompts, outputs, logs and images on the owner's own machines, with detection tuned by entity, threshold and custom recognisers.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 78 against 44
- Schema & documentation, 69 against 47
- Agent ergonomics, 69 against 53
- Maintenance & community, 63 against 28
- Transparency & trust, 65 against 56

Watch for: The REST containers have no authentication by design. The FAQ says to put a gateway or proxy in front


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | AgentGate | Presidio | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 44 | 78 | Presidio +34 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 47 | 69 | Presidio +22 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 53 | 69 | Presidio +16 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 49 | 53 | Presidio +4 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 28 | 63 | Presidio +35 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 65 | Presidio +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **48.5 · D** | **66 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | AgentGate | Presidio |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | SDK + MCP |
| Vendor | Mohit Singh (mohitdebian) | Data Privacy Stack |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | none | 2026-07-22 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | 0 stars | 11k stars, 1.2M PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**AgentGate.** An agent or its host can send each tool call to one REST endpoint, or wrap an MCP server, and get allow, deny or ask from a local classifier and a YAML policy, with an audit log and approval queue. The project is three days old, auth is off by default, and no detection accuracy is published.

**Presidio.** MIT-licensed personal data detector with a public OpenAPI document, tests on Python 3.10 to 3.14 and about 1.2 million weekly PyPI downloads. The REST containers have no authentication, the project states no SLA or support, and it covers personal data only, with no prompt injection or content moderation checks.

## Before you call either

### AgentGate

1. Create a session with the user's real goal first. The goal-alignment head scores every later call against it
2. Pass earlier tool results in `history_override` with `untrusted: true` for web or email content, or the injection head sees only the action
3. On `ask`, stop and tell the user the `decision_id`. Polling `/v1/decisions/:id` needs the dashboard key
4. Treat `allow_with_checkpoint` as allow and keep the `checkpoint_id` for an undo
5. Expect HTTP 404 with `not_found` for an unknown session and 401 when the owner has set an agent key

### Presidio

1. Install from PyPI or pull images from ghcr.io/data-privacy-stack. The mcr.microsoft.com/presidio-* images are no longer updated
2. Download a spaCy model (python -m spacy download en_core_web_lg) before the first `AnalyzerEngine()` call, or use the Docker image
3. Send both text and language to `/analyze`. A request missing either returns HTTP 500 with a JSON error field
4. Pass entities and score_threshold to limit results. Many country-specific recognisers are disabled by default and need enabling in the registry YAML
5. Keep the containers on a private network or behind your own authenticating proxy. They accept any caller

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, AgentGate or Presidio?

Presidio scores 66 (B) on agent readiness against AgentGate's 48.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Can an agent call AgentGate and Presidio without installing anything?

AgentGate runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. No hosted endpoint is listed for Presidio.

### Are AgentGate and Presidio open source?

Yes. AgentGate is open source (MIT). Presidio is open source (MIT).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-microsoft-presidio.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-microsoft-presidio.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "agentgate", "b": "microsoft-presidio"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare agentgate microsoft-presidio`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agentgate.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/microsoft-presidio.json

## Other comparisons with AgentGate or Presidio

- [AgentGate vs Amazon Bedrock Guardrails](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-amazon-bedrock-guardrails.md)
- [AgentGate vs Azure AI Content Safety (Prompt Shields)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-azure-ai-content-safety.md)
- [AgentGate vs Cisco AI Defense Inspection API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-cisco-ai-defense-inspection.md)
- [AgentGate vs Google Cloud Model Armor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-google-model-armor.md)
- [AgentGate vs Granite Guardian](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-granite-guardian.md)
- [AgentGate vs Guardrails AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-guardrails-ai.md)
- [AgentGate vs Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-lakera-guard.md)
- [AgentGate vs Llama Guard 4](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-llama-guard.md)
- [AgentGate vs LlamaFirewall](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-llamafirewall.md)
- [AgentGate vs Mistral Moderation API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-mistral-moderation.md)
- [AgentGate vs NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-nemo-guardrails.md)
- [AgentGate vs OpenAI Guardrails](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-openai-guardrails.md)
- [AgentGate vs Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-prisma-airs.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock Guardrails vs Presidio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-bedrock-guardrails-vs-microsoft-presidio.md)
- [Cisco AI Defense Inspection API vs Presidio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cisco-ai-defense-inspection-vs-microsoft-presidio.md)
- [Google Cloud Model Armor vs Presidio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-model-armor-vs-microsoft-presidio.md)
- [Guardrails AI vs Presidio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guardrails-ai-vs-microsoft-presidio.md)
- [Lakera Guard (Check Point AI Guardrails) vs Presidio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lakera-guard-vs-microsoft-presidio.md)
- [LlamaFirewall vs Presidio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llamafirewall-vs-microsoft-presidio.md)
- [Presidio vs Mistral Moderation API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-presidio-vs-mistral-moderation.md)
- [Presidio vs NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-presidio-vs-nemo-guardrails.md)
- [Presidio vs OpenAI Guardrails](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-presidio-vs-openai-guardrails.md)
- [Presidio vs Prisma AIRS AI Runtime Security API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-presidio-vs-prisma-airs.md)
- [Granite Guardian vs Presidio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-guardian-vs-microsoft-presidio.md)
- [Llama Guard 4 vs Presidio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llama-guard-vs-microsoft-presidio.md)