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zn vs LLM Guard
LLM Guard (Protect AI, now inside Palo Alto Prisma AIRS) is the most complete open-source scanner suite. We are the focused gate. Different jobs.
| Capability | LLM Guard | zn |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | MIT (SDKs + Rust core + corpus CC-BY-4.0) |
| Install base | 2.5M+ downloads | Growing — v1.3.0 on npm, PyPI, GitHub |
| Scope | ~15 input + ~20 output scanners (PII, toxicity, topics…) | Focused gate: injection, tool poisoning, secrets, evidence |
| Hot-path latency | Classifier band, varies by scanner chain | Rules <1ms local · neural ~200ms cloud |
| MCP-native | No — generic API server | Yes — MCP server, shield proxy, per-agent setup |
| Evidence ledger | No built-in chain | SHA-256 chained, verify/export/UI built in |
| Managed upgrade | Via Palo Alto Prisma AIRS (enterprise) | Built-in: add ZN_API_KEY, same interface |
Pick LLM Guard when
You need the full scanner breadth (PII, toxicity, ban-topics) in one MIT package, with the largest community and Palo Alto behind the roadmap.
Pick zn when
The gate sits on every tool call: sub-millisecond budget, MCP-native wrapping, cryptographic evidence for audits — and a neural cloud upgrade without changing interfaces.