CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

NowSecure vs Operant AI

NowSecure sells mobile application risk management software that analyzes compiled iOS and Android app binaries on real devices to find hidden AI, risky SDKs, vulnerabilities and data flows. Operant AI sells one platform covering Endpoints, Agents, MCPs, and AI applications. CISO Tribune files both under 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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  • NowSecure
  • Operant AI
NowSecure vs Operant AI: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
NowSecureNowSecure sells mobile application risk management software that analyzes compiled iOS and Android app binaries on real devices to find hidden AI, risky SDKs, vulnerabilities and data flows.nowsecure.comOperant AIOperant AI sells one platform covering Endpoints, Agents, MCPs, and AI applications.operant.ai
What it sells
  • Mobile Application Risk Management[1][2][3][5]Continuously assesses apps a company builds and third-party apps its workforce uses.
  • Dynamic Mobile SBOM[7]Generates SBOMs from binary analysis of iOS, Android and hybrid apps.
  • NowSecure Privacy[8]Protects sensitive data and minimizes compliance exposure in mobile apps.
  • Operant Semantic Firewall[1][7]Understands the intent behind every agent action and enforces an allow, block, or redact decision inline, in real time.
  • Agent Protector[1][5][6]Inventories all AI agents operating within an organization's infrastructure.
Categories
Headquarters
Chicago, United States[1]San Francisco, United States[2]
Founded
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesPrivately held[1][3]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • April 28, 2026NowSecure announced Mobile App Risk Intelligence (MARI), giving enterprises evidence-based visibility into third-party mobile apps, including hidden AI components and data flows.[13]
  • May 4, 2026Operant AI launched Operant Endpoint Protector, a new addition to its AI Defense Platform for discovering and defending against threats across AI tools and coding agents.[4]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: listed, seen November 4, 2026[4]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, NowSecure sells mainly to enterprises that build, use and manage mobile apps. NowSecure addresses privacy, compliance and AI governance roles. NowSecure addresses AppSec, DevSecOps and mobile engineering roles. NowSecure addresses workforce app and third-party risk roles. NowSecure says financial institutions are accountable for every component shipped to production. NowSecure helps federal, local and state agencies deliver secure mobile apps.It describes plans for teams putting their first production AI into customers' hands and for companies running AI across teams and products with critical data and compliance requirements. Its pages say regulated and government deployments mostly use the VPC, on-premise, or air-gapped options on the Enterprise plan. Workloads it covers range from coding agents on employee laptops to cloud agents across any infra.
Last verified
September 27, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • NowSecure and Operant AI are both filed under AI model and agent security.
  • Both are headquartered in the United States.

Where they differ, field by field

  • NowSecure's primary category is Mobile security; Operant AI's is AI firewalls and guardrails.
  • NowSecure lists Mobile Application Risk Management, Dynamic Mobile SBOM and NowSecure Privacy. Operant AI lists Operant Semantic Firewall and Agent Protector.
  • NowSecure is headquartered in Chicago, United States. Operant AI is headquartered in San Francisco, United States.
  • Operant AI is privately held.

What it sells: NowSecure

What Mobile Application Risk Management does[1][2][3][5]
NowSecure gives enterprises continuous visibility into the security, privacy, compliance, and AI risk inside the mobile apps they build, use, and manage. Findings are based on what shipped apps do on real devices at runtime.
What Dynamic Mobile SBOM does[7]
NowSecure inspects compiled iOS, Android, and hybrid apps to identify every dependency, framework, and SDK actually present. It generates SBOMs for each build, storing version history and provenance.
What NowSecure Privacy does[8]
NowSecure Privacy protects sensitive data, minimizes compliance exposure, and maintains trust. NowSecure describes continuous mobile privacy testing as identifying excessive permissions, hidden data sharing, insecure SDK behaviors, and policy violations across iOS and Android applications.

What it sells: Operant AI

What Operant Semantic Firewall does[1][7]
Operant Semantic Firewall holds an agent to its assigned purpose across the whole session, catching drift from manipulation or its own initiative. Operant can redact the sensitive part of an action and let the agent keep working within scope, instead of killing the workflow.
What Agent Protector does[1][5][6]
Agent Protector covers managed agents deployed through official channels and unmanaged agents running in cloud environments, SaaS platforms, and development tools. Agent Protector analyzes agent behavior patterns to identify and prevent security threats before they execute.

Questions about NowSecure and Operant AI

What do NowSecure and Operant AI sell?
NowSecure sells Mobile Application Risk Management, Dynamic Mobile SBOM and NowSecure Privacy. Operant AI sells Operant Semantic Firewall and Agent Protector.
Are NowSecure and Operant AI in the same category?
They share AI model and agent security. NowSecure's primary category is Mobile security and Operant AI's is AI firewalls and guardrails.
Where are NowSecure and Operant AI headquartered?
NowSecure is headquartered in Chicago, United States. Operant AI is headquartered in San Francisco, United States.
Who owns NowSecure and Operant AI?
Operant AI is privately held.
Who are NowSecure and Operant AI sold to?
From its own pages, NowSecure sells mainly to enterprises that build, use and manage mobile apps. It describes plans for teams putting their first production AI into customers' hands and for companies running AI across teams and products with critical data and compliance requirements.
What have NowSecure and Operant AI announced recently?
April 28, 2026: NowSecure announced Mobile App Risk Intelligence (MARI), giving enterprises evidence-based visibility into third-party mobile apps, including hidden AI components and data flows. May 4, 2026: Operant AI launched Operant Endpoint Protector, a new addition to its AI Defense Platform for discovering and defending against threats across AI tools and coding agents.

About NowSecure

NowSecure sells mobile application risk management software that analyzes compiled iOS and Android app binaries on real devices to find hidden AI, risky SDKs, vulnerabilities and data flows. NowSecure says it helps organizations secure and govern mobile app risk, from code and dependencies to runtime behavior and data flows.

NowSecure says more than half of the 50,000+ mobile apps it analyzes each month contain undisclosed AI. NowSecure says most AI governance programs cover SaaS, cloud, and employee AI tools. NowSecure says it builds the mobile app record those programs are missing: which apps contain AI, what data it touches, where that data goes, and who owns the risk.

NowSecure analyzes the shipped mobile binary to identify AI models, SDKs, dependencies, APIs, and indicators of AI-generated code. NowSecure runs the app on real devices to observe live behavior, permissions, connections, and data movement. NowSecure says the result is a Dynamic SBOM showing every component and where its data lands. NowSecure says it fills the gap with binary and runtime truth, not source, SBOM, or SCA assumptions.

Mobile Application Risk Management brings four risk domains into one operating model. NowSecure says Mobile Application Risk Management exists to close visibility gaps before they become business events. NowSecure gives enterprises continuous, evidence-based visibility into the security, privacy, compliance, and AI risk inside the mobile apps they build, use, and manage. NowSecure says the new shape of mobile app risk management is continuous, evidence-based, and proportioned to business impact, governing security, privacy, safety, compliance, and AI risk in one program. NowSecure describes a living catalog of apps, SDKs, APIs, AI components, data destinations, and ownership across the mobile estate. NowSecure says it gives every accountable function the evidence to find hidden AI, govern data flows, and reduce risk across the apps an organization builds and uses.[5]

NowSecure tests the compiled iOS and Android app on real devices, logged in, with every SDK and AI feature inside it. NowSecure says AI-Navigator logs in so dynamic testing reaches every post-login screen. NowSecure research found that authenticated mobile app security testing finds 78% more sensitive data risk. Customers can upload an IPA or APK, or trigger tests automatically from GitHub Actions, GitLab, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, CircleCI, or Bitrise. NowSecure maps findings to OWASP MASVS and sends them to the customer's tracker with remediation guidance. NowSecure adds Guided Testing or Pen Testing as a Service when an app needs an analyst to work through MFA. NowSecure identifies every component inside the compiled app and watches what each one does at runtime. NowSecure identifies the AI inside an app and shows what data reaches it.[5][6]

NowSecure inspects compiled iOS, Android, and hybrid apps to identify every dependency, framework, and SDK actually present. NowSecure generates SBOMs for each build, storing version history and provenance. A signed, machine-readable SBOM in CycloneDX or SPDX is generated and versioned. NowSecure produces SBOMs automatically at each merge or release, within GitHub Actions, GitLab, Jenkins, and Azure DevOps. NowSecure correlates SBOM data with live CVE, CWE, and license feeds for immediate risk visibility. NowSecure says organizations using Dynamic Mobile SBOM transition from reactive audits to proactive risk governance.[7]

NowSecure Privacy protects sensitive data, minimizes compliance exposure, and maintains trust. NowSecure tests for the OWASP MASVS throughout the mobile app security testing software and services. NowSecure supports organizations looking to comply with ISO 27001 by implementing mobile app security controls. NowSecure says it helps write the mobile security standards auditors rely on and maintains the open-source tools that power runtime analysis worldwide. Carlos Holguera, a NowSecure principal research engineer, co-leads the OWASP Mobile Application Security project that maintains MASVS and MASTG.[6][8][9]

For mobile banking apps, NowSecure says new regulatory standards demand a real-time Mobile App BOM and continuous runtime validation. NowSecure says financial institutions are fully accountable for every component shipped to production, including software their internal engineers never wrote. NowSecure says it generates an audit-ready Mobile Application Bill of Materials through automated binary analysis on every build. NowSecure helps federal, local and state agencies, including AirForce’s BESPIN software factory, deliver secure mobile apps. NowSecure Platform performs static, dynamic, interactive and API security analysis across the mobile apps in an organization's environment.[2][10][11]

NowSecure cites NIAP, ISO 17025, and Google MASA lab credentials. Independent auditor Coalfire completed its review of NowSecure and issued an attestation report finding zero deficiencies. NowSecure provides a SOC 2 report to requesters who first execute an NDA.[6][8][12]

NowSecure on the record

Sources

NowSecure full record

  1. [1]Nowsecure launches ai data partner program to expand mobile application risk intelligence for security platformsNowSecure · nowsecure.com · published March 18, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]nowsecure.comNowSecure · nowsecure.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Enterprise Mobile App Security & AI Governance | NowSecureNowSecure · undated page, accessed October 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]NowSecure Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 27, 2026 · Tier C
  5. [5]Mobile App Risk Management Platform & Programs | NowSecureNowSecure · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Mobile app security testing (MAST) for iOS & Android | NowSecureNowSecure · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Dynamic SBOM for iOS and Android Mobile Apps | NowSecureNowSecure · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Mobile Application Privacy Testing | NowSecure PrivacyNowSecure · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Mobile App Security Standards & Compliance | NowSecureNowSecure · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Financial Services - NowSecureNowSecure · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Government - NowSecureNowSecure · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Request NowSecure SOC 2 ReportNowSecure · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]NowSecure Launches MARI to Close the AI Governance Gap in Third-Party Mobile AppsNowSecure · published April 28, 2026 · Tier A

Operant AI full record

  1. [1]Operant AI - Secure Your AIOperant AI · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Operant ai launches agent protector the first real time agentic security solution enabling safe ai agent innovation at scaleOperant AI via GlobeNewswire · globenewswire.com · published February 5, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Operant ai secures 10m series a to protect the modern cloud across apis applications and aiOperant AI via GlobeNewswire · globenewswire.com · published September 12, 2024 · Tier A
  4. [4]Operant AI Endpoint Protector secures AI agents and MCP toolsHelp Net Security · published May 4, 2026 · Tier B
  5. [5]Pricing - AI & Agent Security Platform | Operant AIOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Agent Protector: Real-Time AI Agent Security | OperantOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Operant Semantic Firewall | Govern AI Agents in Real TimeOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Operant MCP GatewayOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]AI GatekeeperOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]AI Application SecurityOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]API & Cloud Protector | Real-Time API Security | Operant AIOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Woodpecker: Open Source Red Teaming for AI, APIs & K8sOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]FAQsOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Start Your Free 7-Day Trial | Operant AI Security PlatformOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

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