CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Pillar Security vs Promptfoo

Pillar Security sells one platform to discover, test, secure and govern every AI agent across an organization. Promptfoo builds open-source tools for secure, reliable AI applications. CISO Tribune files both under AI model and agent security and AI firewalls and guardrails. 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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  • Pillar Security
  • Promptfoo
Pillar Security vs Promptfoo: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
Pillar SecurityPillar Security sells one platform to discover, test, secure and govern every AI agent across an organization.pillar.securityPromptfooPromptfoo builds open-source tools for secure, reliable AI applications.promptfoo.dev
What it sells
  • Agentic Endpoint[7][10]Protects the AI agents that run on employee machines.
  • Red Teaming[2][4][5]Simulates real users to uncover application-specific vulnerabilities.
  • Evaluations[2][5]LLM evaluation of prompts and models that can run inside CI workflows.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesSan Francisco, United States[1][3]
Founded
Not stated on its pages2024[1][12]
Ownership and funding
Owned by VantaOwned by OpenAI[12]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • November 9, 2026Vanta signed a definitive agreement to acquire Pillar Security, an AI security platform that protects AI agents across their lifecycle.[11]
  • March 9, 2026OpenAI agreed to buy Promptfoo, a startup helping businesses find and fix security issues in AI models during development.[13]
  • March 9, 2026OpenAI announced it has acquired Promptfoo, an AI security startup founded in 2024 to protect LLMs from adversarial attacks.[12]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • 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
Not written yetNot written yet
Last verified
November 10, 2026November 4, 2026

Where they overlap

  • AI model and agent security is the primary category of both Pillar Security and Promptfoo; both are also filed under AI firewalls and guardrails.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Pillar Security is also filed under AI governance and Workforce AI usage security. Promptfoo is also filed under Static application security testing and Breach simulation and automated pen-testing.
  • Pillar Security lists Agentic Endpoint. Promptfoo lists Red Teaming and Evaluations.
  • Promptfoo is headquartered in San Francisco, United States.
  • Promptfoo was founded in 2024.
  • Pillar Security is owned by Vanta. Promptfoo is owned by OpenAI.

What it sells: Pillar Security

What Agentic Endpoint does[7][10]
Pillar deploys through an MDM and inventories the AI coding agents across a fleet: which agents run where, their versions, sandbox state and risk. Runtime Guardian sits in the agent's own pre-tool hook for Claude Code, Codex CLI and Cursor, and decides on every action before it runs. Pillar inventories local and remote servers across a fleet and scores each against a catalog of 23,000+ pre-analyzed servers.

What it sells: Promptfoo

What Red Teaming does[2][4][5]
Promptfoo creates thousands of context-aware attacks tailored to the customer's application. The open-source Community version includes up to 10k probes per month at no charge.
What Evaluations does[2][5]
Promptfoo's LLM evaluation can be integrated into a CircleCI pipeline. Promptfoo can be integrated with test frameworks like Jest and Vitest to evaluate prompts as part of existing testing and CI workflows. Promptfoo provides real-time alerts and automated evaluations to show LLM security status across all projects.

Questions about Pillar Security and Promptfoo

What do Pillar Security and Promptfoo sell?
Pillar Security sells Agentic Endpoint. Promptfoo sells Red Teaming and Evaluations.
Are Pillar Security and Promptfoo in the same category?
Yes. AI model and agent security is the primary category of both on CISO Tribune.
Where are Pillar Security and Promptfoo headquartered?
Promptfoo is headquartered in San Francisco, United States.
When were Pillar Security and Promptfoo founded?
Promptfoo was founded in 2024.
Who owns Pillar Security and Promptfoo?
Pillar Security is owned by Vanta. Promptfoo is owned by OpenAI.
What have Pillar Security and Promptfoo announced recently?
November 9, 2026: Vanta signed a definitive agreement to acquire Pillar Security, an AI security platform that protects AI agents across their lifecycle. March 9, 2026: OpenAI agreed to buy Promptfoo, a startup helping businesses find and fix security issues in AI models during development.

About Pillar Security

Pillar Security sells one platform to discover, test, secure and govern every AI agent across an organization. Pillar catalogs AI agents, models, prompts, frameworks, tools, MCP servers, skills and coding agents through agentless integrations. The catalog covers shadow AI and unapproved systems deployed without oversight. Pillar maps instructions, data sources, tool permissions, and external connections for each agent. Pillar traces dependencies across models and agent harness and scans agent configs, permissions, and identities.[1][2][3][4]

For discovery, Pillar works through agentless integrations with source code repos, data platforms, and endpoints. Pillar assesses risks in AI stacks from vulnerabilities in models, frameworks, and dependencies. Pillar flags violations when unsanctioned AI appears in an environment. Pillar policy rules enforce approved models, frameworks, and data sovereignty standards across an AI stack. Pillar generates audit reports for GDPR, SOC 2, EU AI Act, and ISO 42001.[4]

For testing, Pillar executes multi-turn adversarial attacks against complete AI systems to test tool orchestration, permission escalation, and agentic workflows. Pillar maps an AI attack surface as a graph showing relationships between agents, tools, permissions, and data sources. RedGraph maps how tools, prompts, and data combine to create exploitable surfaces specific to an environment. Pillar tests AI platforms, third-party agents, and production systems that a customer does not own or control through multi-step black box adversarial attacks against prompts, tools, and workflows. Pillar documents exploitability with attack transcripts, recordings and reproduction steps, and feeds validated findings into adaptive guardrails.[2][3][5]

For runtime protection, Pillar analyzes user and agent intent to detect malicious behavior before it impacts production. Pillar identifies PII, PHI, secrets, and credentials flowing through AI interactions in real time. Pillar applies configurable policies to mask, block, or log sensitive data before exposure to AI models or external systems. Pillar guardrails calibrate using red teaming findings from specific applications to tune protection against the manipulation patterns detected during testing. Pillar logs prompts, responses, tool invocations, and results with timestamps. Pillar streams telemetry to security platforms for centralized monitoring.[6]

For developer machines, Pillar deploys through an MDM and inventories the AI coding agents across a fleet: which agents run where, their versions, sandbox state and risk. Pillar runs full configuration scans for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, OpenCode and Pi Coding Agent, and detects other agents such as Amazon Q, Antigravity, Codeium and OpenClaw by fingerprint. Runtime Guardian sits in the agent's own pre-tool hook for Claude Code, Codex CLI and Cursor, and decides on every action before it runs. Pillar inventories local and remote servers across a fleet and scores each against a catalog of 23,000+ pre-analyzed servers. Pillar rolls out through Jamf Pro, Kandji, JumpCloud or any MDM that runs scripts, on macOS, Linux and Windows. On endpoints, Pillar analyzes permissions, credentials, access scopes, and auto-run settings, then provides step-by-step remediation. At runtime, Pillar monitors every prompt, tool call, and command to detect prompt injection, tool poisoning, and data exfiltration.[7][8]

For governance, Pillar translates governance policies into technical controls that enforce approved models, licensing standards, and data sovereignty requirements at every stage. Pillar extends governance controls to external AI providers, SaaS platforms, and vendor integrations. Pillar maps governance findings, testing results, and runtime logs to regulatory requirements automatically. Pillar adds a security enforcement layer on AI gateway frameworks without re-architecting a stack. Pillar inspects every prompt and response in real time for sensitive data exposure, prompt injection, toxic content, and policy violations. For tool integrations, Pillar validates at runtime that tool calls match their declared schemas and flags anomalous behavior, like a tool accessing resources outside its expected scope.[8][9]

Pillar can be deployed in its managed cloud, in a customer's own cloud account or data center, or as a mix of both. Self-hosted deployments include runtime guardrails, AI discovery, red teaming and agentic endpoint security. Adaptive guardrails are available in the managed cloud only today. Telemetry back to Pillar is off unless the customer enables it. A Fortune 300 manufacturer runs Pillar fully self-hosted. Pillar cites SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001:2022.[1][6][7][8][10]

Pillar Security on the record

Sources

Pillar Security full record

  1. [1]pillar.securityPillar Security · pillar.security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Pillar Security | Securing the Agentic WorkforcePillar Security · undated page, accessed November 11, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Pillar Security Platform | Securing the Entire AI Software LifecyclePillar Security · undated page, accessed November 11, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]AI Discovery & Posture | Pillar SecurityPillar Security · undated page, accessed November 11, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]AI Red Teaming & Risk Detection | Pillar SecurityPillar Security · undated page, accessed November 11, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]AI Runtime Guardrails | Pillar SecurityPillar Security · undated page, accessed November 11, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Agentic Endpoint: Secure AI Coding Agents | Pillar SecurityPillar Security · undated page, accessed November 11, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]AI Security Solutions | Pillar SecurityPillar Security · undated page, accessed November 11, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]AI Governance & Compliance | Pillar SecurityPillar Security · undated page, accessed November 11, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Deployment Options: Cloud, Self-Hosted, Hybrid · PillarPillar Security · undated page, accessed November 11, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Vanta to Acquire Pillar Security to Turn AI Policy Into PracticeBusiness Wire · published November 9, 2026 · Tier A

Promptfoo full record

  1. [1]PressPromptfoo · promptfoo.dev · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]promptfoo.devPromptfoo · promptfoo.dev · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]About Promptfoo | AI Security Experts | PromptfooPromptfoo · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Build Secure AI Applications | PromptfooPromptfoo · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Pricing | PromptfooPromptfoo · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Setting up Promptfoo with CircleCI | PromptfooPromptfoo · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Testing prompts with Jest and Vitest | PromptfooPromptfoo · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Finding LLM Jailbreaks with Burp Suite | PromptfooPromptfoo · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]SharePoint Integration | PromptfooPromptfoo · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Langfuse integration | PromptfooPromptfoo · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]AI Security for Real Estate | PromptfooPromptfoo · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]OpenAI acquires Promptfoo to secure its AI agents | TechCrunchTechCrunch · published March 9, 2026 · Tier B
  13. [13]OpenAI Buying AI Security Startup Promptfoo to Safeguard AI Agents - BloombergBloomberg · published March 9, 2026 · Tier B

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