Head-to-head
Kasada vs Vercel
In short
Kasada powers Vercel BotID Deep Analysis, sold by Vercel at USD 1 per 1,000 checkBotId() calls on Pro; Kasada itself is sales-led and adds an AI agent directory and edge policies. On per-purpose policy the rubric grades Kasada partial and Vercel yes. For a security engineer: Kasada direct adds Web Bot Auth directory and endpoint policies; BotID returns verified-bot fields.
The sourced difference
Kasada powers Vercel BotID Deep Analysis, sold by Vercel at USD 1 per 1,000 checkBotId() calls on Pro; Kasada itself is sales-led and adds an AI agent directory and edge policies. Source, read 2026-11-04.
Side by side
| Question | Kasada | Vercel |
|---|---|---|
| Tells a verified agent from a spoof | Yes Web Bot Auth plus Kasada's verified agent directory |
Yes IP, reverse DNS and Web Bot Auth; directory at bots.fyi |
| Per-purpose policy (train, search, answer, act) | Partial endpoint-level access policies per verified agent; no published search versus training split (checked 2026-11-04) |
Yes AI crawlers and AI assistants handled separately since 2026-10-29 |
| Charging for access | Not published support (checked 2026-11-04) |
Not published support (checked 2026-11-04) |
| Lets signed commerce agents through | Not published Visa TAP or Mastercard Agent Pay support (checked 2026-11-04) |
Not published Visa TAP or Mastercard Agent Pay support (checked 2026-11-04) |
| Cost | no public price; sales-led | published: Basic free; Deep Analysis USD 1 per 1,000 checks on Pro |
| Reporting | Yes Kasada Portal and Custom Reporting for verified agent activity |
Yes Firewall tab BotID filter and Observability Plus metrics |
| Where it runs | edge: enforcement upstream of origin | both: managed rulesets at Vercel's edge firewall; BotID verdict read in server code via checkBotId() |
| Points, rank | 5 of 10, rank 9 | 6 of 10, rank 6 (tied) |
| Price read 2026-11-04 | no public price; sales-led (checked 2026-11-04). Indirectly, Vercel BotID Deep Analysis (powered by Kasada) costs USD 1 per 1,000 checkBotId() calls on Vercel Pro. | BotID Basic free on all plans; Deep Analysis USD 1 per 1,000 checkBotId() calls on Pro, custom on Enterprise; AI Bots managed ruleset on all plans. |
Verdicts by reader
- Platform engineer
- On Vercel you get Kasada's detection without a separate contract.
- Security engineer
- Kasada direct adds Web Bot Auth directory and endpoint policies; BotID returns verified-bot fields.
- Publisher operations
- Neither charges bots.
What each does not do
Kasada
- No monetization or pay-per-crawl feature in AI Agent Trust (launch post, 2026-01-21).
- No public price list (homepage read 2026-11-04).
- No published support for Visa TAP or Mastercard Agent Pay (pages read 2026-11-04).
Vercel
- No charging or pay-per-crawl for AI crawlers (BotID and firewall docs read 2026-11-04).
- BotID Deep Analysis is not on the Hobby plan; it is listed for Pro and Enterprise only (BotID pricing table).
- BotID does not inspect passive page views; it only runs where the app calls checkBotId() (BotID docs).
More: alternatives to Kasada, alternatives to Vercel.
Sources
Last reviewed 2026-11-04