COMPARISON

CanaryVaults vs CanaryTokens

CanaryTokens (canarytokens.org) is a free service from Thinkst — and a genuinely great one. If you need a tripwire URL or document in the next sixty seconds, use it. CanaryVaults is what you reach for when tokens need to become an operation: identities that capture evidence, traps that survive AI pipelines, and logs you can hand to counsel.

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CAPABILITY BY CAPABILITY

What each platform is built for.

CapabilityCanaryVaultsCanaryTokens

Getting a first tripwireSign up free, plant a decoy identity or trap document from the dashboard in minutes.Fastest option anywhere: generate a token on canarytokens.org with no account at all.

CostFree tier with usable limits; paid plans add capacity and depth ($0 to $120/mo).Free, hosted by Thinkst. Also open source if you want to self-host and operate it yourself.

Trigger evidenceFull message and header capture, sender infrastructure fingerprint, and a hash-sealed record per hit.Trigger alerts include useful context such as source IP and user agent for the token hit.

AI / RAG coverageTrap facts that fire when a model reproduces them — detection survives paraphrase and re-embedding.Tokens fire on direct access (open, DNS, HTTP); a model paraphrasing your content does not trip a token.

Prompt-injection defenseThree-layer inline firewall in front of your model, adopted by changing one base URL.Out of scope — CanaryTokens is a tripwire service, not an LLM proxy.

AI honeypotsDecoy assistants with synthetic data, intent classification, and repeat-visitor fingerprinting.Out of scope, though tokens can be placed as bait in similar locations.

Tamper-evident loggingSHA-256 hash-chained records with public re-verification and legal PDF export.Alert history is available; hash-chained evidence logs are not the product's goal.

OperationsOne workspace: alert routing (email + Telegram), plan limits, weekly intelligence briefing.You operate the tokens yourself — fine for a handful, harder across a team and hundreds of assets.

Capability summaries reflect each vendor's public documentation at the time of writing. We do not list competitor pricing — check their site. If a row is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.

THE HONEST VERSION

Different problems, different tools.

CanaryTokens is the right first step.

If you have never planted a canary, go generate one at canarytokens.org today — free, instant, no account. Anyone who tells you that you need a paid platform to try deception is selling too hard.

The gap is operational, not conceptual.

Both products bet on the same idea: a marker that exists in one place proves access when it fires. The difference is what happens after the trigger — evidence depth, sealed records, routing, and team workflows.

AI pipelines break classic tokens.

A token fires when it is opened or resolved. Content ingested into a RAG system is copied, chunked, and paraphrased — nothing is 'opened'. That is the specific gap trap facts exist to close.

CHOOSE CANARYTOKENS IF

→You need a free tripwire in the next minute, no account.→You want to self-host an open-source token server and run it yourself.→A handful of tokens covers your whole threat model.

CHOOSE CANARYVAULTS IF

✓You want evidence capture and hash-sealed records behind every trigger.✓Your documents feed AI pipelines where classic tokens cannot fire.✓You need alert routing and limits managed across a team.✓You want honeypots, a prompt firewall, and audit logs in the same workspace.

GO DEEPER

Field notes from the team.

Proof beats suspicion when private documents leak through AI

Why trap facts survive the RAG pipeline that breaks classic tokens.

Why AI security alerts need evidence attached from the start

The operational difference: what an alert carries when it fires.

A believable decoy teaches you more than a blocked request

Where honeypots pick up after tripwires fire.

Ready to run canaries as an operation?

Free tier, no credit card. Five minutes to your first alert.