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Compare · vs Google Vault

PortEden vs Google Vault

Google Vault is eDiscovery, retention, and legal-hold for Google Workspace — designed for litigation response and compliance archives. PortEden is real-time AI access control: it sits between AI clients (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot) and your live Gmail, Drive, and Calendar data. Most regulated teams need both — Vault to retain history, PortEden to govern what AI can see right now.

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Choose PortEden if
  • You need real-time control over what AI clients can see in Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Calendar.
  • You want redaction and per-agent rules at the request boundary, not retention after the fact.
  • You use multiple AI vendors — Vault has no concept of an 'AI client.'
  • You also need controls on Microsoft 365 data (Outlook, SharePoint, Teams).
Choose Google Vault if
  • Your only need is eDiscovery, legal hold, and retention policies for Google Workspace.
  • You don't have AI clients touching live Workspace data yet, or you accept that they will be unmoderated when they do.
  • Your security team's question is 'preserve the past' not 'control the present.'

Side-by-side

FeaturePortEdenGoogle Vault
Plans
Free tier
Self-serve signupWorkspace Business+/Enterprise
Enforcement
Real-time AI request filtering
Per-AI-client rules
Inline redaction
Compliance
eDiscovery / legal holdOut of scope
Data lifecycle
Retention rulesOut of scope
Model coverage
Works with Claude / ChatGPT / Copilot
Integrations
Works with Microsoft 365 data
Audit
Per-agent audit logUser audit log

How each handles real scenarios

A workspace admin needs to ensure Claude Desktop can't read the CEO's mailbox via a shared Gmail delegate

PortEden

PortEden's Gmail connector denies delegated mailbox access by sender domain, mailbox alias, and label. Claude Desktop, configured as a remote MCP client, sees the user's own inbox but the delegated mailbox returns a redacted stub.

Google Vault

Vault has no AI client concept. It can produce a forensic record of what was in the mailbox at a point in time, but it does not sit in Claude's request path.

Legal asks 'preserve every email matching <case ID> sent by these 12 custodians for two years'

PortEden

Out of scope — PortEden does not handle retention or legal hold. Use Vault.

Google Vault

This is Vault's primary purpose: matter-based holds, retention policies, and exportable preservation across Gmail, Drive, Chat, Meet, and Voice.

An AI agent is summarizing customer support tickets pulled from Gmail and accidentally surfaces an HR escalation

PortEden

Pre-deployed Gmail rule denies access to any thread containing senders from hr@ or recipients in the leadership-team alias. The agent's request returns the rest of the inbox; the HR thread is invisible at the API layer. Audit log shows the deny.

Google Vault

Vault would let you find the leaked summary after the incident is reported and produce the underlying email for a hold. It doesn't prevent the access in the first place.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are PortEden and Google Vault competitors?
Not really. Vault is built for the retain/preserve/discover lifecycle. PortEden is built for the request-time control lifecycle. The overlap on Venn diagrams is small. Teams that want both AI governance and legal-hold typically run both products in parallel.
Can PortEden's audit log replace Vault's?
No. PortEden logs every AI-tool request — what asked for what, what rule fired, what was returned. Vault logs Workspace activity end-to-end (sends, edits, shares, deletes) with legal-grade preservation. Different purposes; different consumers (Security/AI Governance vs Legal/Compliance).
Does PortEden work alongside Vault without conflict?
Yes. Vault operates at the Google Workspace control plane; PortEden operates at the Gmail / Drive / Calendar API request layer above it. Vault retains data; PortEden filters AI access to that data. Neither modifies the other's behavior.
We're a Google Workspace shop — do we still need PortEden if we have Vault?
Vault handles 'past data preservation.' If your team is now adding Claude Desktop, ChatGPT custom GPTs, Gemini in Workspace, or internal LangChain agents that read live Gmail / Drive, none of that is in Vault's scope. PortEden gives you a control plane for those agents specifically. If your team isn't using outside AI tools, Vault alone is fine.

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