Pretense vs Nightfall DLP
Nightfall sends your data to the cloud and redacts it. Pretense runs on your machine, mutates proprietary identifiers before LLM transmission, and reverses them in AI responses. No cloud dependency. No broken context.
Nightfall DLP
Nightfall DLP is a cloud-based data loss prevention platform. It scans API traffic for PII and secrets, then redacts or blocks sensitive content. Enterprise deployments typically require weeks of integration work and run $5,000+ per month for meaningful team coverage.
Pretense
Pretense is a local-first AI firewall. It intercepts LLM API calls, mutates proprietary identifiers into synthetic tokens, and reverses mutations in AI responses. Setup takes 30 seconds. Nothing leaves your machine.
Feature Comparison
Side-by-side view of how Pretense and Nightfall DLP compare on the capabilities that matter most to security teams.
Why Teams Switch from Nightfall DLP
Mutation preserves AI quality; redaction destroys it
When Nightfall redacts a function name, the LLM receives an incomplete prompt. The AI cannot reason about redacted code. Pretense replaces identifiers with deterministic synthetic tokens. The LLM sees complete, coherent code. You get back the real identifiers. AI quality is identical to working without protection.
Local-first means zero cloud exposure
Nightfall is a cloud product. Your sensitive data travels to Nightfall servers before being scanned. Pretense runs entirely on developer machines. Your code and data never reach Pretense infrastructure. For organizations with strict data residency requirements, this is not optional.
Deploy in 30 seconds, not 3 weeks
Nightfall enterprise deployments require API integration, policy configuration, and security team approval cycles. Pretense is one npm install and one environment variable. Engineering teams adopt it without a procurement process.
90% cost reduction at scale
Nightfall enterprise pricing typically runs $100 to $500+ per developer per month. Pretense Pro is $29 per seat. For a 100-developer engineering team, that is $85,000 to $471,000 per year in savings while getting stronger protection.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Pretense replace Nightfall entirely?
Pretense specifically protects AI coding tool traffic. If your organization uses Nightfall for SaaS application DLP (Slack, Google Drive, etc.), you may run both. For AI developer tooling protection, Pretense provides superior protection at a fraction of the cost.
Can Pretense export compliance reports for audits?
Yes. Pretense generates SOC2-ready and HIPAA-ready audit logs with mutation metadata, exportable as PDF or JSON. These satisfy the same audit requirements Nightfall addresses for AI tool usage.
Is Pretense suitable for large enterprise teams?
Yes. Pretense includes SSO/SCIM integration (BoxyHQ), on-prem deployment via Docker Compose and Kubernetes Helm chart, and SIEM integration (Splunk, Sentinel, Elastic). Enterprise pricing starts at $99 per seat per month.
How does Pretense handle secrets vs code identifiers?
Pretense runs two scanning engines: a secrets engine (30+ regex patterns for API keys, credentials, PII) and a code token scanner (function names, class names, variables). Secrets are blocked entirely. Code identifiers are mutated and reversed.
See More Comparisons
Ready to switch from Nightfall DLP?
Install Pretense in 30 seconds. One environment variable. No code changes. Protect every AI tool request from day one.
No credit card required. Free tier available. Local-first, nothing leaves your machine.