CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

42Crunch vs Salt Security

42Crunch sells a platform for governing the security of MCP servers, APIs and AI agents at enterprise scale. 42Crunch says it helps enterprises bring AI security under control. 42Crunch describes the job as discovering every MCP server that AI agents expose or consume, securing each one against attack, and assessing compliance with AI regulations and security frameworks. Salt Security provides security for the APIs, MCP servers and data infrastructure where agents execute. CISO Tribune files both under API security and AI model and agent security. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • 42Crunch
  • Salt Security
42Crunch vs Salt Security: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
42Crunch42Crunch sells a platform for governing the security of MCP servers, APIs and AI agents at enterprise scale. 42Crunch says it helps enterprises bring AI security under control. 42Crunch describes the job as discovering every MCP server that AI agents expose or consume, securing each one against attack, and assessing compliance with AI regulations and security frameworks.42crunch.comSalt SecuritySalt Security provides security for the APIs, MCP servers and data infrastructure where agents execute.salt.security
What it sells
  • AI Regulatory Compliance[5]Evaluates every MCP server against regulatory and industry frameworks. Maps each finding to the control it breaches.
  • Agentic Security Graph[4][8]Maps and correlates the full environment out-of-band.
  • Salt Surface[5][9]Provides agentless, outside-in discovery of MCP servers and APIs.
  • Salt Connect[5][9]Provides cloud and code inventory.
Categories
Headquarters
London, United KingdomPalo Alto, United States[1][3]
Founded
Not stated on its pages2016[1][11]
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • September 23, 202642Crunch announced the general availability of its MCP Security Governance solution.[8]
  • January 19, 202642Crunch announced the availability of API Contract Generator in developer IDEs.[9]
  • June 1, 2026Salt Security launched Salt Code, a component that enforces security policies on AI-generated code across the development lifecycle.[17]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 10, 2026[7]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, 42Crunch sells mainly to enterprise security and platform teams that govern MCP servers, APIs and AI agent security at scale. Its pricing is sized to the number of APIs, MCP servers and users in an organization. Individual developers who use its AI coding agent plugins have a separate self-serve pricing option.From its own pages, the company shows an industry solution for Finance, described as stop fraud and abuse. It lists one for Healthcare, described as HIPPAA-grade protection. Transportation is also listed, with secure logistics APIs. Retail is listed, with protect PII at scale. Software is listed, with API-first app security. Its whitepaper page also says security teams face a challenge in which the action layer goes unmonitored.
Last verified
November 9, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • API security is the primary category of both 42Crunch and Salt Security; both are also filed under AI model and agent security.

Where they differ, field by field

  • 42Crunch is also filed under Dynamic application security testing.
  • 42Crunch lists AI Regulatory Compliance. Salt Security lists Agentic Security Graph, Salt Surface and Salt Connect.
  • 42Crunch is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Salt Security is headquartered in Palo Alto, United States.
  • Salt Security was founded in 2016.

How they differ

CISO Tribune files both 42Crunch and Salt Security under API security and AI model and agent security, with API security as the primary category for each. 42Crunch also appears under dynamic application security testing. 42Crunch is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, while Salt Security is headquartered in Palo Alto, United States. Salt Security, Inc. is a Delaware corporation.

42Crunch sells a platform for governing the security of MCP servers, APIs and AI agents at enterprise scale. It describes a contract-driven model in which discovery writes the contract, testing measures against it, and runtime enforces it. It also says it evaluates every MCP server against regulatory and industry frameworks, including the EU AI Act, ISO 42001, NIST AI RMF, CSA AICM and OWASP. Its pricing is sized to the number of APIs, MCP servers and users, and individual developers who use its AI coding agent plugins have a self-serve option. On September 23, 2026, 42Crunch announced general availability of its MCP Security Governance solution.

Salt Security describes its agentic security platform as one graph of agents, the MCP servers they use and the APIs they call. Its products include Salt Surface, which provides agentless, outside-in discovery of MCP servers and APIs, and Salt Connect, which provides cloud and code inventory. Salt says it delivers protection without proxying all MCP traffic through an inline gateway, and it maps agent posture to the EU AI Act, NIST and SOC 2. Salt names Armis and Navan among its customers. On June 1, 2026, Salt Security launched Salt Code, which enforces security policies on AI-generated code across the development lifecycle.

What it sells: 42Crunch

What AI Regulatory Compliance does[5]
42Crunch continuously evaluates every MCP server against the regulatory and industry frameworks an organization answers to. It maps each finding to the specific control it breaches. The page says compliance posture is computed by the control on every audit and every scan, not assembled from documents afterward. Its headline refers to real-time compliance reporting mapped to five frameworks.

What it sells: Salt Security

What Agentic Security Graph does[4][8]
Salt's Agentic Security Graph maps and correlates the full environment out-of-band. Salt describes its agentic security platform as one graph of agents, the MCP servers they use and the APIs they call, with the context behind each one.
What Salt Surface does[5][9]
Salt Surface provides agentless, outside-in discovery of MCP servers and APIs. Salt Surface discovers these from the outside, without an agent.
What Salt Connect does[5][9]
Salt Connect provides cloud and code inventory. Salt names Salt Connect together with collectors that are used where runtime analysis is needed.

Questions about 42Crunch and Salt Security

What do 42Crunch and Salt Security sell?
42Crunch sells AI Regulatory Compliance. Salt Security sells Agentic Security Graph, Salt Surface and Salt Connect.
Are 42Crunch and Salt Security in the same category?
Yes. API security is the primary category of both on CISO Tribune.
Where are 42Crunch and Salt Security headquartered?
42Crunch is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Salt Security is headquartered in Palo Alto, United States.
When were 42Crunch and Salt Security founded?
Salt Security was founded in 2016.
Who are 42Crunch and Salt Security sold to?
From its own pages, 42Crunch sells mainly to enterprise security and platform teams that govern MCP servers, APIs and AI agent security at scale. From its own pages, the company shows an industry solution for Finance, described as stop fraud and abuse.
What have 42Crunch and Salt Security announced recently?
September 23, 2026: 42Crunch announced the general availability of its MCP Security Governance solution. June 1, 2026: Salt Security launched Salt Code, a component that enforces security policies on AI-generated code across the development lifecycle.

About 42Crunch

42Crunch sells a platform for governing the security of MCP servers, APIs and AI agents at enterprise scale. 42Crunch says it helps enterprises bring AI security under control. 42Crunch describes the job as discovering every MCP server that AI agents expose or consume, securing each one against attack, and assessing compliance with AI regulations and security frameworks.[4][10]

42Crunch says AI coding agents ship MCP servers faster than any manual inventory process can track. 42Crunch discovers every MCP server across an organization automatically, both sanctioned and shadow alike, audits each one and ranks it by risk. 42Crunch says every request from an AI agent passes through the MCP server before it ever reaches an enterprise system or the API behind it. 42Crunch also says an MCP tool is only as secure as the API it wraps.[4]

42Crunch says its deterministic contract-driven model applies equally to the MCP and API layer. Every MCP server and every API behind it gets a machine-readable contract of its declared surface. In the 42Crunch model, discovery writes the contract, testing measures against it, and runtime enforces it. 42Crunch says the model it uses to secure APIs now extends to the MCP servers AI agents call and expose.[4][6]

On the MCP side, 42Crunch sweeps registries, gateways and repos to surface the shadow servers agents are already calling, then reads each server's advertised tools, resources and prompts and emits a contract. Every finding carries severity, evidence and the fix. 42Crunch fails the build when a server leaves its approved contract, then keeps watching the one in production for new tools, rewritten descriptions and widened permissions.[4]

Tests are generated from the OpenAPI definition and run in the pipeline, covering broken object-level authorization, broken auth, mass assignment and unrestricted resource consumption. All AI generated code is automatically fixed by 42Crunch. For runtime, 42Crunch describes a positive-security firewall assembled from the contract itself, where unknown paths, extra parameters, malformed payloads and over-sharing responses are rejected before they reach the backend.[4]

For compliance, 42Crunch says the EU AI Act, ISO 42001, NIST AI RMF, CSA AICM and OWASP are all tagged automatically on every audit. A security review doubles as compliance evidence without extra work. Each finding arrives already tied to the control it answers, so the audit trail for an AI estate is a by-product of the scan. 42Crunch computes compliance posture control by control on every audit and every scan, not assembled from documents afterward. Each audit and scan checks a server against all applicable frameworks at the same time.[4][5][11]

A server below the threshold does not reach production.[12]

42Crunch is built for enterprise security and platform teams governing MCP servers, APIs and AI agent security at scale. 42Crunch pairs API Audit, Scan and Protection with MCP Contract, Audit, Scan and Protect on one platform, with one set of SQG policies and one CI/CD pattern. Pricing includes a dedicated encrypted tenant, SSO and a dedicated support manager, sized to the number of APIs, MCP servers and users. Individual developers who use the 42Crunch AI coding agent plugins have a self-serve pricing option.[2][3][4][5][6][7][10][12]

42Crunch on the record

Sources

42Crunch full record

  1. [1]42crunch criticalblue announce partnership42Crunch · 42crunch.com · published November 21, 2018 · Tier A
  2. [2]42crunch.com42Crunch · 42crunch.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]42crunch publishes state of api security 202642Crunch · 42crunch.com · published February 11, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]42Crunch — AI Security Platform for MCP42Crunch · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]AI Regulatory Compliance | 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Management der MCP-Server-Sicherheitslage | 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]About 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]42Crunch Launches MCP Security Governance, Giving Enterprises Detailed AI Exposure Management and Compliance with AI Regulatory Frameworks42Crunch · published September 23, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]42Crunch Launches API Contract Generator in Developer IDEs42Crunch · published January 19, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Pricing | 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]KI-Regulierungskonformität | 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Management der MCP-Server-Sicherheitslage | 42Crunch42Crunch · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A

Salt Security full record

  1. [1]Salt security raises 140 million series d round led by capitalg at 1 4 billion valuationSalt Security · salt.security · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Salt security extends its agentic security platform with native ai detection and responseSalt Security · salt.security · published September 22, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Contact usSalt Security · salt.security · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]The Agentic Security Graph: A New Framework for the AI EraSalt Security · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Salt Security: Agentic AI Security, MCP Discovery, and API SecuritySalt Security · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]EU AI Act Compliance 2026: What High-risk AI Systems Must Do Now | Salt SecuritySalt Security · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Salt Security Reviews & Product Details - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier C
  8. [8]Onyx Security vs Salt Security | Secure the Agentic Action LayerSalt Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Securing APIs - API Attack Surface Management SolutionSalt Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Salt Security Master Services AgreementSalt Security · published May 20, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]API Security Company - About Us Salt Security API SecuritySalt Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Agentic Security Platform - Complete AI & API Protection PlatformSalt Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]API Security Software - API Security Management SoftwareSalt Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Proactive API Security - “Shift Left" API DevelopmentSalt Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]API Security Customers - Salt Security CustomersSalt Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]API Security Trends - API Attacks, Breaches & Threats ReportSalt Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]Salt Security launches Salt CodeSalt Security · published June 1, 2026 · Tier A

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