Comparison
Gateco vs Oso
Oso is a general-purpose authorization library and cloud service. Gateco is retrieval-specific security middleware for AI systems. Both handle authorization — but at different layers, for different audiences, with different abstractions.
| Capability | Gateco | Oso |
|---|---|---|
| Vector-DB-native deny-by-default | ||
| 12 vector DB connectors out of the box Oso requires custom adapters per DB | ||
| Multi-mode search (vector/keyword/hybrid/grep) | N/A | |
| IDP sync (Okta, Entra ID, AWS IAM, GCP) Oso Cloud has some IDP integrations; library requires you to build sync | partial | |
| MCP server | ||
| ABAC & RBAC policies | ||
| ReBAC (relationship-based access) Oso was built specifically for ReBAC; Gateco added 1-hop ReBAC in May 2026 | ||
| Audit trail per retrieval Oso Cloud has decision logging; library is your responsibility | partial | |
| Fail-closed on evaluation error Oso library behavior on error is caller-defined | ||
| Grounded answers (policy-filtered LLM synthesis) | ||
| Multi-language support | Python + TS | Python, Ruby, Go, Java, Node, Rust |
| Open source Oso open-source library is Apache 2.0; Oso Cloud is commercial | On roadmap | |
| Public pricing Oso Cloud is contact sales |
Oso is engine-shaped. Gateco is product-shaped.
Oso solves the general authorization problem: given a principal, a resource, and an action, should access be allowed? You model your resource hierarchy in Polar (Oso's policy language) and call oso.is_allowed() at decision points in your application. Oso is excellent for this. It is widely used, well-documented, and the open-source library is free.
Gateco solves a specific problem: policy-enforced retrieval from vector databases in AI applications. It ships with connectors to 12 vector DBs, IDP sync for 4 identity providers, a grounded answer synthesis path, a fail-closed default, and an MCP server for LLM tool use — none of which you would get from an authorization library without building them yourself.
They can be used together
Some architectures use Oso for application-layer authorization (REST API endpoint decisions) and Gateco for the retrieval layer (vector DB policy enforcement). Oso decides whether a user can call an API endpoint; Gateco decides what that endpoint can retrieve from the vector database. The two operate independently at different layers.
Start with Gateco
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