# Nerve compared with alternatives

Last reviewed: 2026-10-23

**Short answer:** We publish a comparison with a named alternative only when every row has a dated, public source, and none have passed that bar yet, so this page lists no competitor claims.

## Questions to put to any vendor, including us

These are evaluation questions, not claims about anyone else.

- Can an agent approve its own request?
- Can an agent reach production or protected branches directly?
- Are refused actions recorded?
- Does an agent ever hold your provider credentials?
- Does isolation between tenants hold even when application code is wrong?
- Where does it run, and what does running it yourself cost?

## Nerve’s answers, as of the review date

- An agent can ask to deploy; it can never approve its own request.
- By default, agents cannot execute production deploys.
- Agents cannot push to main, master or production branches.
- Every blocked attempt is audited.
- Agents never hold provider credentials; the platform performs the privileged action on their behalf.
- Tenant isolation is enforced at the database and fails closed: even the database owner role cannot read another tenant’s rows.
- Nerve is a managed service by default; on-premises is available for enterprise customers at significant cost.

## Alternatives

Alternatives table: no rows published. Each row will carry a source and a date before it appears here.

## Related

- [What Nerve does and does not do](https://dubhlan.com/answers/what-nerve-does)
- [AI agent governance: build vs buy](https://dubhlan.com/answers/ai-agent-governance-build-vs-buy)
- [AI agent governance: questions buyers ask](https://dubhlan.com/answers/faq)

Canonical page: https://dubhlan.com/answers/compare