KeepAI vs Preloop: Which is Better in 2026?
A comprehensive comparison of KeepAI and Preloop covering features, pricing, use cases, and which tool is the right choice for your needs.
⚡ Quick Verdict
Choose KeepAI if:
- →You want more affordable paid plans (from $5/mo)
- →You need one control layer across all agents and apps or fine-grained scoping beneath coarse app permissions
Choose Preloop if:
- →You need mcp firewall with allow, deny and require-approval rules on tool access or ai model gateway with per-agent budgets and cost attribution
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KeepAI vs Preloop: At a Glance
Pricing Comparison: KeepAI vs Preloop
Understanding the pricing differences between KeepAI and Preloop is crucial for making the right choice. Here's how their plans compare side by side.
KeepAI Pricing
Preloop Pricing
💡 Pricing takeaway: Both KeepAI and Preloop offer free tiers, making it easy to try before you buy. Compare the specific plans to find the best value for your use case.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
Here's how every feature from KeepAI and Preloop stacks up.
What Makes Each Tool Unique
🔵 Unique to KeepAI
Features available in KeepAI but not in Preloop:
- ✓One control layer across all agents and apps
- ✓Fine-grained scoping beneath coarse app permissions
- ✓Approval gates on sensitive actions
- ✓One-click revocation per agent
- ✓Real-time approval and violation notifications
- ✓Credentials stay local, connections end-to-end encrypted
🟣 Unique to Preloop
Features available in Preloop but not in KeepAI:
- ✓MCP firewall with allow, deny and require-approval rules on tool access
- ✓AI model gateway with per-agent budgets and cost attribution
- ✓Policy-as-code in YAML with CEL expressions
- ✓Human approvals on mobile, watch, Slack, Mattermost or webhook
- ✓One-command discovery and transparent rewrite of existing agent configs
- ✓Runtime session observability and an audit trail for AI Act evidence
Use Case Recommendations
Best for: KeepAI
KeepAI is a local API hub that puts a permission boundary between AI agents and the apps they connect to. The problem it targets is access sprawl: each agent needs its own keys, permissions live in different dashboards, pausing a misbehaving agent means chasing API keys across apps, and what works with one agent and one app becomes unmanageable with several of each. KeepAI sits in the middle instead — you connect Gmail, Notion, Dropbox, HubSpot, Trello, GitHub or Airtable once, then decide per agent what each one may do. Because most app OAuth scopes are coarse, KeepAI narrows them further; sensitive actions can be forced through an explicit approval step while routine ones run unattended; real-time notifications tell you when an agent requests approval or trips a blocked action; and an activity log records exactly what each agent did and when. Access to any agent can be revoked in one click rather than by hunting through provider dashboards. The security posture is the pitch: the project is open source, credentials and tokens stay on your own devices, agent connections are end-to-end encrypted, and no sign-up is required to start. It works with OpenClaw, Claude, Codex and other agent runtimes, and is currently in open beta with launch pricing locked for the life of the subscription.
Ideal use cases:
- •Teams or individuals who need one control layer across all agents and apps
- •Teams or individuals who need fine-grained scoping beneath coarse app permissions
- •Teams or individuals who need approval gates on sensitive actions
- •Teams or individuals who need one-click revocation per agent
- •Anyone focused on agents workflows
- •Anyone focused on permissions workflows
Best for: Preloop
Preloop is an Apache-2.0 licensed control plane for AI agents, aimed at the governance problem that appears the moment more than one agent is running in an organisation: nobody can see what tools they can reach, what they are spending, or who approved anything. It bundles six capabilities into one self-hostable platform — an MCP firewall that defines allow, deny and require-approval rules on tool access; an AI model gateway that attributes cost and enforces per-agent budgets; policy-as-code written in YAML with CEL expressions; human-in-the-loop approvals delivered to mobile, watch, Slack, Mattermost or a webhook; runtime session observability; and an audit trail. Onboarding is deliberately frictionless: `preloop agents discover` finds compatible agent configurations already on the machine and transparently rewrites them so tool calls route through the MCP firewall and model traffic through the gateway, with no SDK changes and no agent code changes. The named runtimes it rewrites include Claude Code, Codex CLI, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Hermes, OpenClaw, OpenCode and Windsurf. The vendor positions Preloop explicitly as an open-source alternative to AWS Bedrock AgentCore and as a way to build EU AI Act readiness evidence, with dedicated guidance published for that use case. Because the full control plane is Apache 2.0 and self-hostable, the paid tiers sell hosting, team governance and conditional-approval sophistication rather than the core capability.
Ideal use cases:
- •Teams or individuals who need mcp firewall with allow, deny and require-approval rules on tool access
- •Teams or individuals who need ai model gateway with per-agent budgets and cost attribution
- •Teams or individuals who need policy-as-code in yaml with cel expressions
- •Teams or individuals who need human approvals on mobile, watch, slack, mattermost or webhook
- •Anyone focused on mcp workflows
- •Anyone focused on agent-governance workflows
🤖 Other AI Agent Infrastructure Tools to Consider
KeepAI and Preloop aren't the only options. Here are other popular tools in the same space:
SuperAGI
Open-source autonomous AI agent framework with visual dashboard — 14K GitHub stars
MetaGPT
Multi-agent AI framework simulating software teams — 45K GitHub stars, builds full apps from prompts
Cerebras
Fastest LLM inference powered by the Wafer Scale Engine.
Scale AI
AI data platform for training data and model evaluation.
Roboflow
End-to-end computer vision platform for developers.
Labelbox
Enterprise data labeling platform for ML training datasets.
Is one of these your tool?
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is KeepAI better than Preloop?
It depends on your needs. KeepAI offers 6 key features including One control layer across all agents and apps and Fine-grained scoping beneath coarse app permissions, while Preloop provides 6 features including MCP firewall with allow, deny and require-approval rules on tool access and AI model gateway with per-agent budgets and cost attribution. KeepAI uses a paid model with a free tier, while Preloop is open-source with free access available. Choose based on which features and pricing model align with your requirements.
Is KeepAI cheaper than Preloop?
KeepAI is cheaper, starting at $5/month compared to Preloop's $29/month. Both tools offer free tiers, so you can try each before committing. Always check the official websites for the most current pricing.
Can I use KeepAI and Preloop together?
Yes, many users combine KeepAI and Preloop in their workflow. KeepAI excels at one control layer across all agents and apps, while Preloop shines with mcp firewall with allow, deny and require-approval rules on tool access. Using both allows you to leverage the strengths of each tool, though this means managing two subscriptions — though free tiers can help manage costs.
What's the main difference between KeepAI and Preloop?
While both are ai agent infrastructure tools, KeepAI emphasizes one control layer across all agents and apps, whereas Preloop is known for mcp firewall with allow, deny and require-approval rules on tool access. The best choice depends on your specific workflow and feature priorities.
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