Buyer's Guide

Railguard vs. Legacy Gateways

The difference isn't just features—it's architecture. Legacy gateways are slow, opaque proxies. Railguard is a high-performance, verifiable control plane.

At a Glance
CriterionRailguard AITypical Alternatives
Runtime Latency (p95)2.1ms (verifiable)50ms – 500ms
Fail SemanticsFail‑closed (Secure)Fail-open (Insecure)
Cryptographic EvidenceEd25519 ATR v0.1None
Audit ReadinessOne‑click packsManual screenshots
DeploymentRust Binary / WasmPython / Docker Heavy
Self‑Service GTMStripe → 15s provisionSales-gated
Operational SLOsPublished with receiptsMarketing claims only
Public Trust CenterYes (verifiable)No

1. The Latency Tax

The Problem: Most AI gateways are built in Python. They introduce 50ms to 500ms of latency per request. For real-time voice agents or high-frequency trading, this is unacceptable.

The Railguard Difference: Written in Rust. Our governance engine adds just 2.1ms (p95) of overhead. We don't just claim this; we publish signed latency receipts daily.

Request Overhead (Lower is Better)

Railguard2.1ms
Legacy Gateway A85ms
Legacy Gateway B210ms

Competitor: Fail-Open

"If the policy engine times out, let the request through to avoid disrupting the user." (Data Leak Risk)

Railguard: Fail-Closed

"If we can't verify safety, we block. Security is non-negotiable." (Zero Trust)

2. Security Posture

The Problem: Many gateways prioritize "uptime" over security. If their inspection service crashes or times out, they "fail open"—allowing uninspected traffic to pass. This defeats the purpose of a firewall.

The Railguard Difference: We are a security company first. We default to Fail-Closed. If a policy cannot be evaluated, the request is blocked. We guarantee that 100% of egress traffic is inspected.

3. Trust vs. Proof

The Problem: Competitors ask you to trust their dashboards. "We blocked 5 attacks today." How do you know? Can you prove it to an auditor? Can you prove they didn't miss 50 others?

The Railguard Difference: We don't ask for trust. We provide Cryptographic Proof. Every decision generates an Ed25519-signed receipt. You can verify these offline, independently of our platform.

// Example Railguard Trust Receipt
{
"decision": "allow",
"policy_hash": "sha256:7f8a...",
"timestamp": "2025-12-03T14:00:00Z",
"signature": "ed25519:9c2b..."
}
✓ Signature Verified

Stop Guessing. Start Verifying.

Don't settle for a black box. Switch to the only AI gateway that proves its value with every request.

Railguard vs. Alternatives — Verifiable AI Governance | Railguard AI