SurePath AI (now F5) alternatives.Start with Aona.

Aona secures employee AI use with prompt and file protection. Compare its controls, coverage and deployment with the other products on your shortlist.

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A buyer’s starting point

Secure employee AI use without losing the practical detail.

Compare the control point, evaluation path and practical fit for the employee AI problem in front of you.

Aona protects employee use of third-party AI tools on managed devices, including the prompt and upload path.

Aona AI

For employee AI security

Workforce AI Security on the device rather than in the network path: a browser plugin for Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari plus a native endpoint app that intercepts ChatGPT, Copilot and Claude desktop at the prompt, hard block with no user override, layout-preserving DOCX, XLSX and PDF redaction on upload, real-time coaching, and a first signal within hours with no routing or DNS change. SOC 2 Type II and a self-serve 30-day trial.

Best for: Any organisation whose employees use ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude or Gemini and that needs prompt-level control and coaching on the device, including on managed laptops working off the corporate network.

The complete list

A closer look at your shortlist.

See who each option is best for. Expand a row for the full product overview.

Aona AIBuilt for employee AI securityAny organisation whose employees use ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude or Gemini and that needs prompt-level control and coaching on the device, including on managed laptops working off the corporate network.
Workforce AI Security on the device rather than in the network path: a browser plugin for Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari plus a native endpoint app that intercepts ChatGPT, Copilot and Claude desktop at the prompt, hard block with no user override, layout-preserving DOCX, XLSX and PDF redaction on upload, real-time coaching, and a first signal within hours with no routing or DNS change. SOC 2 Type II and a self-serve 30-day trial.
SurePath AI (F5)Organisations that want AI traffic discovered and governed in the network path, bought as part of the F5 platform.
Network-based AI discovery, intent classification and shadow AI detection inline with corporate traffic, now sold as F5 AI Security inside the F5 AI Security Platform after F5's June 2026 acquisition. As an agentless gateway it governs the traffic routed through it.
WitnessAIOrganisations that want AI controls applied in a network path they already route traffic through.
Network-based AI security and governance that observes and controls AI traffic without browser extensions or endpoint clients; desktop AI apps are covered when their traffic is routed through it. An Instant Demo product tour stands in for a self-serve trial, and the product is also listed on AWS Marketplace, as of September 2026.
Harmonic SecurityOrganisations that want prompt-text redaction and nudges across browsers and desktop AI clients, bought by demo or through AWS Marketplace.
Browser extension plus a desktop client (Claude Desktop, ChatGPT Desktop, Cursor, Codex, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Ollama) with real-time prompt redaction and an MCP gateway. Bought by demo or through its AWS Marketplace listing, as of September 2026.
Prompt SecurityOrganisations that want employee and application AI security bought together through the SentinelOne Singularity platform.
GenAI security platform from SentinelOne, built into the Singularity platform: employee AI controls with anonymisation and coaching, an LLM firewall for applications, and an AI endpoint agent for local LLMs and MCP servers (February 2026). Sold by demo, with no self-serve trial, as of September 2026.
ZscalerOrganisations already steering traffic through Zscaler that want AI app access controlled in the same proxy.
Security service edge with GenAI controls in the proxy: allow, block or coach access by user or group, prompt extraction across 250+ GenAI apps with AI Protect (June 2026), and a browser-extension form factor through Zero Trust Browser. Enforcement requires traffic steering with TLS inspection, and GenAI Security is sold as a Data Security add-on.

Deployment context

How Aona fits your security stack.

Aona secures employee AI use alongside your existing security tools. See how its device-level controls fit with the other products in your stack.

Read the full Aona vs SurePath AI (now F5) comparison →

Coverage needs the Aona plugin or endpoint app on the device. There is no agentless or network-only mode, so personal and unmanaged devices are out of scope.
Aona does not enforce at the network edge. It enforces on the device, at the moment of use.
No iOS or Android coverage: AI use on phones is out of scope.
AI agent and MCP inspection ships in limited rollout on the native endpoint app, not general availability.
Aona has a SOC 2 Type II examination report. No FedRAMP, IRAP or ISO 27001 today.

Your questions

SurePath AI (now F5) alternatives, answered.

Answers to help you build your shortlist.

What are the best SurePath AI alternatives in 2026?

Alternatives to SurePath AI for securing employee AI use include Aona AI, WitnessAI, Harmonic Security, Prompt Security and Zscaler. Aona AI is built for securing employee AI use: it inspects the prompt and the upload on the device, in the browser and in ChatGPT, Copilot and Claude desktop apps, with hard block, layout-preserving file redaction and real-time coaching, and it starts with a self-serve 30-day trial. SurePath is an agentless gateway, now sold as F5 AI Security, so it governs the traffic routed through it, which is where it stops.

Why is Aona AI a strong alternative to SurePath AI?

SurePath AI sits inline with network traffic as an agentless gateway; Aona enforces on the device at the prompt. Aona's browser plugin and native endpoint app inspect the prompt before it reaches the AI provider, including in ChatGPT, Copilot and Claude desktop apps, with no routing or DNS change, block hard with no user override, redact DOCX, XLSX and PDF uploads with the layout intact, and coach the employee in real time, with a first signal within hours. Aona is SOC 2 Type II certified, exports to Microsoft Sentinel via OCSF, and starts with a 30-day self-serve trial.

Where does Aona stop, compared with SurePath AI?

Scope, stated plainly: Coverage needs the Aona plugin or endpoint app on the device. There is no agentless or network-only mode, so personal and unmanaged devices are out of scope. Aona does not enforce at the network edge. It enforces on the device, at the moment of use. No iOS or Android coverage: AI use on phones is out of scope. AI agent and MCP inspection ships in limited rollout on the native endpoint app, not general availability. Aona has a SOC 2 Type II examination report. No FedRAMP, IRAP or ISO 27001 today. These lines are carried from our own Aona vs SurePath AI comparison, so you can evaluate with eyes open.

Is there a free trial to evaluate these alternatives?

Aona offers a 30-day self-serve free trial covering AI adoption analytics, shadow AI discovery, security and compliance monitoring and real-time employee coaching; IT deploys it with existing tooling and the first signal arrives within hours. SurePath AI is now sold through F5; check the F5 AI Security pages for the current evaluation path. WitnessAI offers a product tour rather than a self-serve trial, as of September 2026.

What does the F5 acquisition mean for SurePath AI buyers?

F5 announced its acquisition of SurePath AI in late June 2026, alongside the launch of the F5 AI Security Platform, where SurePath's network-based AI discovery and shadow AI detection are now sold as F5 AI Security. Financial terms were not disclosed, and no product sunset has been announced. The questions worth asking are about availability on its own, existing contracts and support, and how the roadmap is prioritised inside F5's broader portfolio. Aona is independent and purpose-built for Workforce AI Security, with seven Aona-managed hosting regions and a 30-day self-serve trial that you can start while the integration takes shape.

Agentless gateway or endpoint layer: which should I choose?

Start with Aona for employee AI use: it governs the prompt and the upload on the device, in the browser and in native desktop AI apps, with hard block, file redaction and coaching, and it is live within hours with no routing or DNS change. Add a gateway such as F5 AI Security if you also need server-side AI egress governed in the network path, which Aona does not inspect. SurePath stops at the routed path: as an agentless gateway it sees the traffic steered through it, so a prompt typed into a desktop AI app whose traffic is not routed through the gateway, or a file that needs redacting with its layout intact before upload, is handled on the device by Aona.

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SOC 2 Type II report · Free 30-day guided trial