An AlgoSec alternative that sees past the firewall.
If you’re looking at an AlgoSec alternative, it helps to know which half of AlgoSec you actually use. For rule recertification and approval workflows, AlgoSec is hard to beat. If what you need day to day is to see the policies, work out what they really allow, and know who changed them, SAMURAI does that for Palo Alto, FortiGate, Cisco FMC and Juniper SRX, plus the switches, ACI fabric, ISE and vCenter around them.
Updated June 2026
What SAMURAI covers
One search across firewall vendors
Look up rules on Palo Alto, FortiGate and FMC by zone, address, port or action in a single query, with objects expanded to real addresses and ports.
What the rules really allow
Effective access with objects and NAT resolved, shadowed, redundant and overly broad rules flagged, and every rule ranked by exposure.
Who changed it, and when
Policy changes are diffed from device state and tied to the admin who made them, on every vendor, in one timeline.
The network around the firewalls
Routers, switches, ACI fabrics, ISE TrustSec and vCenter sit in the same inventory, so a path trace doesn’t stop at the firewall.
Yours to host
One Docker container on your own VM. No telemetry, and it runs air-gapped.
A trial you can run yourself
docker run, add credentials, and you’re looking at your own rules in about five minutes. No services engagement needed.
SAMURAI vs AlgoSec, Tufin and FireMon
The three policy suites are built around the rule lifecycle: requests, approvals, recertification and provisioning. SAMURAI doesn’t do those workflows. It does the analysis (effective access, rule hygiene, risk per rule) and adds the rest of the network and a cross-vendor change history.
Scope
SAMURAI
Firewalls plus routers, switches, ACI fabrics, ISE and vCenter in one inventory
AlgoSec / Tufin / FireMon
Security policy across firewalls and cloud security groups
Deployment
SAMURAI
One self-hosted Docker container; runs air-gapped; data in about five minutes
AlgoSec / Tufin / FireMon
Enterprise platform, on-premises or SaaS
Policy analysis
SAMURAI
Effective access, shadowed/redundant/overly broad rules, per-rule risk scores
AlgoSec / Tufin / FireMon
Analysis plus the rule-lifecycle workflows: recertification, approvals, provisioning
Change history
SAMURAI
One timeline across vendors, with snapshot diffs and the admin’s name
AlgoSec / Tufin / FireMon
Change tracking inside the firewall policy workflow
If recertification campaigns and approval chains are the job, keep the policy suite. If the job is understanding a mixed-vendor network and catching changes nobody filed a ticket for, SAMURAI is the lighter tool for it, and some teams run it alongside AlgoSec.
Frequently asked questions
Is SAMURAI a direct AlgoSec replacement?
For policy visibility across vendors, effective-access and rule-hygiene analysis, risk scoring, change history and audit trails, yes. For automated recertification and approval workflows, no: AlgoSec is the specialist there. Plenty of teams find their day-to-day need is the first list.
What are the main AlgoSec competitors?
Tufin and FireMon are the established policy-management suites that compete with AlgoSec, and all three are built around the firewall rule lifecycle. SAMURAI comes at it from another side: it analyzes the rules and covers the network around them, self-hosted in one container.
Tufin vs AlgoSec vs SAMURAI: how do I choose?
Choose between Tufin and AlgoSec on workflow fit and vendor coverage, since both compete on rule-lifecycle and compliance workflows. Choose SAMURAI when you want effective access and rule hygiene, plus firewalls, routers, switches, ACI, ISE and vCenter in one place, running entirely on your own infrastructure.
AlgoSec vs Tufin: what is the difference?
AlgoSec leans toward application connectivity, mapping rules to the business applications that depend on them. Tufin leans toward change orchestration and automated provisioning. SAMURAI can sit beside either one as the self-hosted layer that sees the whole network and records who changed what.
AlgoSec vs FireMon: what is the difference?
AlgoSec is organized around applications and compliance; FireMon is organized around individual rules, with usage-based analysis and cleanup. Pick on whether your team thinks in applications or in rules. Both still lead SAMURAI on recertification and approvals.
Can I evaluate SAMURAI without a sales process?
Yes. The Docker image includes a free test license, so you can run it against your own devices first. If you’d rather see it with us, demo requests get a reply within 24 hours.
Does SAMURAI work in air-gapped environments?
Yes. It’s a self-contained Docker image with an offline IEEE OUI database and no telemetry, so it has no reason to reach the internet.