# Alation vs Guru

> Alation scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against Guru's 45.1 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do company knowledge search. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-guru
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-guru.md (~2,200 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-guru.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-guru.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
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Alation scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against Guru's 45.1 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do company knowledge search.

- Alation: grade C, 60.3/100, rank #472 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/alation.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/alation.json
- Guru: grade E, 45.1/100, rank #773 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/guru.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/guru.json

## Which one, for what

### Alation (C)

Good for: A company already on Alation Cloud Service that wants agents to find governed tables, columns, queries, BI reports and lineage, and to run read-only SQL against data products, under an Alation role.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 61 against 48
- Schema & documentation, 78 against 58
- Agent ergonomics, 71 against 48
- Security & auth, 63 against 52
- Maintenance & community, 71 against 46
- Transparency & trust, 76 against 59

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: No published price, trial or self-serve sign-up. The pricing address redirects to a sales form

### Guru (E)

Good for: Companies already running Guru that want agents to answer from verified cards with each user's permissions, and to draft card changes.

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: No public prices, plans or trial, and the pricing page sends everyone to sales


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Alation | Guru | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 61 | 48 | Alation +13 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 58 | Alation +20 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 48 | Alation +23 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 52 | Alation +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 0 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 46 | Alation +25 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 59 | Alation +17 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **60.3 · C** | **45.1 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Alation | Guru |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Alation, Inc. | Guru Technologies, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Alation's Master Cloud Software Licence and Services Agreement. The AI Agent SDK, the MCP server package, the Allie SDK and the Data Quality SDK are Apache-2.0 | Proprietary hosted service under Guru's terms of service. The Python SDK (guruhq/guru-py-sdk) is MIT, and the MCP server's public repository holds only a README and server.json |
| Tools exposed | 16 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `com.getguru/mcp-server` |
| Last release | 2026-10-03 | none |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-03-25 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2025-08-19 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 19 stars, 2.1k PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Alation.** Each API has an OpenAPI 3.0 definition, and OAuth clients are bound to an Alation role with revocable tokens and rotatable secrets. Access needs a sales contract, since no price, trial or self-serve sign-up is published. The agent SDK and local MCP server have stayed at a release candidate since 14 January 2026.

**Guru.** Hosted MCP server at https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp, registered as com.getguru/mcp-server in the official MCP registry. No public prices, plans or trial, and the pricing page sends everyone to sales.

## Before you call either

### Alation

1. Ask a Server Admin to register an OAuth client application with the lowest role that fits. Only admins can create one, and the secret is shown once
2. Pin `alation-ai-agent-mcp==1.0.0rc3`. An unpinned install resolves to 0.12.0, which predates the catalogue search agent
3. Call `catalog_context_search_agent` for catalogue questions. `alation_context` is deprecated and its description tells models not to call it directly
4. Watch `X-Entitlement-Usage` on Aggregated Context API responses. The 2,000 free calls never reset, and a quota 429 is not retryable
5. Page with `limit` and `skip` and follow `X-Next-Page`. The BI Source API uses `offset`, and one call returns at most 1,000 objects

### Guru

1. Ask the person for a Guru account. There's no trial or keyless route, and OAuth needs a pre-approved client
2. Send `Authorization: Bearer email:token` to the MCP server when OAuth isn't available, and basic auth to https://api.getguru.com/api/v1/
3. Use a collection token for read-only work. User tokens write with the user's full rights
4. Follow the `Link` header to page REST search results. Each page holds at most 50 cards
5. Confirm with a person before archiving or moving cards. Guru documents no confirmation step

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Alation or Guru?

Alation scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against Guru's 45.1 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Alation and Guru need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Alation and Guru without installing anything?

Alation runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Guru has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Alation or Guru

- [Alation vs Cohere North](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-cohere-north.md)
- [Alation vs Dust](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-dust.md)
- [Alation vs Glean](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-glean.md)
- [Alation vs Onyx](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-onyx.md)
- [Alation vs Overclock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-overclock.md)
- [Atlan vs Guru](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlan-vs-guru.md)
- [Cohere North vs Guru](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-north-vs-guru.md)
- [Dust vs Guru](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-guru.md)
- [Glean vs Guru](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/glean-vs-guru.md)
- [Guru vs Onyx](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guru-vs-onyx.md)
- [Guru vs Overclock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guru-vs-overclock.md)
- [Alation vs Atlan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-atlan.md)
- [Alation vs DataHub](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-datahub.md)
- [Alation vs Marmot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-marmot.md)
- [Alation vs OpenMetadata](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-openmetadata.md)
- [DataHub vs Guru](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datahub-vs-guru.md)
- [Guru vs Marmot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guru-vs-marmot.md)
- [Guru vs OpenMetadata](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guru-vs-openmetadata.md)