7 Best Basis Theory Alternatives and Competitors for 2026 (Compared)

The best Basis Theory alternatives for 2026: 1. Enigma Vault, 2. VGS, 3. Spreedly, 4. Skyflow, 5. Evervault, 6. TokenEx / IXOPAY, 7. PCI Proxy.

Staying on Basis Theory costs $995 a month before anything else happens. That is fine when you are tokenizing at volume. It is harder to justify when you are running 3,000 cards a month, or when you discover that the entry plan is US-only and your EU customers need somewhere else to live.

Basis Theory is a good product. It takes the raw card, holds it in its own PCI Level 1 vault and returns a token, with network tokens and Account Updater native to that vault. For a payments team at scale, it earns the price.

If you are here, you are likely weighing whether a $995 monthly floor, a US-only entry plan and enterprise-gated PII and PHI coverage still fit your volume, your regions and the data you now need to protect.

Disclosure: Enigma Vault publishes this comparison and appears in it, first. Every competitor fact comes from that vendor's own public pages checked on 16 October 2026. Where a vendor publishes nothing, we say so rather than guessing.

Basis Theory Alternatives Compared At A Glance

TL;DR

• Enigma Vault (4.2/5): Answers all three. Permanent free tiers then $49.99, US and EU regions, and four vaults covering cards, fields, files and customer intake. Payments features are materially thinner.
• VGS (3.9/5): The move if you want to keep payments depth and change less application code. Reverse proxy, deepest feature set here, and the highest published floor at $1,000.
• Spreedly (3.6/5): PCI Level 1 vault from $750 with unlimited storage, built around owning tokens across gateways.
• Skyflow (3.5/5): The answer if residency or PII and PHI governance is why you are leaving. Explicit data residency controls and the longest certification list. No public pricing.
• Evervault (3.4/5): Different custody model. You hold encrypted cards, Evervault holds keys, and per-operation rates are published in full.
• TokenEx / IXOPAY (3.0/5): Universal Tokens across processors plus PCI-validated P2PE for card-present. No public pricing.
• PCI Proxy (2.9/5): Reverse-proxy universal token vault across many acquirers. No public pricing, free trial offered.

Why Teams Look For Basis Theory Alternatives

Basis Theory earns its place. The vault holds the card so your systems never store it, network tokens and Account Updater are native rather than bolted on, multi-PSP routing has no stated partner limitations, and a PCI Attestation of Compliance is included at the entry tier. The reasons buyers evaluate alternatives are about entry cost, regions and data scope, not the core vault.

• The floor is $995 a month: That includes 20,000 tokens. If you are using 2,000, you are paying for 18,000 you do not need, and there is no smaller tier to drop to.
• The entry plan is US environment only: This is the one that surprises people. If EU data residency enters your requirements, the published entry plan does not cover it and you are into an enterprise conversation.
• PII and PHI sit on the enterprise tier: Basis Theory vaults more than cards, but the compliance options for personal and health data are not an entry-level purchase, and a team whose scope widened mid-year tends to find this out at renewal.
• The entry tier is capped in ways that matter: A 1 MB payload limit and 24 hours of logs sound minor until you are vaulting documents or an auditor asks for longer retention.

If those points match your evaluation, the alternatives below sort cleanly by how they answer them.

How We Evaluated These Basis Theory Alternatives

We scored every provider on the same six criteria, weighted around the three reasons teams leave Basis Theory. Weights sum to 100%, and the Overall score in the table is the weighted result.

• Entry cost and pricing transparency (25%): What the first real tier costs, and whether a smaller step exists.
• Data residency and deployment (20%): Regions available at the entry tier, and self-hosting options.
• Coverage beyond cards (20%): Structured PII, files and intake, and whether they are entry-level or enterprise-gated.
• Payments depth (15%): Network tokens, Account Updater, 3DS, BIN lookup, card-present.
• Processor independence (10%): Do tokens move between gateways?
• Compliance evidence (10%): What each vendor publishes on its own trust pages.

This is an editorial comparison published by one of the vendors in it. The weighting is the argument, so disagree with it openly: Raise payments depth to 30% and VGS wins, raise compliance and residency and Skyflow does.

On review scores: G2 and Capterra ratings here were checked on each product's page on 16 October 2026, and every one is reported with its review count. An average drawn from six reviews and an average drawn from forty-seven are not the same claim.

Where a vendor has no published reviews, we say so plainly rather than filling the gap with something softer.

On PCI scope: Moving between PCI DSS Level 1 providers does not by itself change your scope. Scope follows your environment and integration, and your acquirer or a QSA confirms it.

The 7 Best Basis Theory Competitors And Payment Vault Alternatives

Each entry below covers what the tool is built for, what it actually does in detail, what it costs or how to find out, and where it falls short. Scores come from the weighting above.

1. Enigma Vault

Best for: Teams that have outgrown the $995 floor, need an EU region, or now protect PII, PHI, files and intake alongside cards.

Enigma Vault is a vault-based platform covering cards, structured fields, files and customer intake through one REST API, with every tier published and a permanent free tier on each vault.

It answers the three Basis Theory constraints directly. There is no floor: Card, Data and File Vault each start free and the first paid tier is $49.99. The platform runs in US and EU regions. And structured data, files and intake are separate vaults you buy at the same published prices, not an enterprise gate.

The honest trade is payments depth. Basis Theory has network tokens and Account Updater native to its vault. Enigma Vault has neither.

Key features

• Card Vault: Hosted forms, Twilio Pay IVR or API capture, charge through any REST gateway via proxy
• Optional Luhn-passable tokens; CVVs held encrypted at most 30 minutes, then deleted
• Data Vault: AES-256 field encryption with exact-match lookup on encrypted values, batch to 5,000 secrets
• File Vault: Files to 5 GB under AES-GCM envelope encryption, presigned URLs, WebSocket status
• Customer Vault: Branded no-login intake, staff inbox, e-signatures, expiring shares
• OAuth2 M2M auth, per-customer AES-256 keys, CSPRNG tokens with 128-bit entropy, full audit logging
• Live Swagger UI at api.enigmavault.io, US and EU regions

Pricing

Usage beyond each tier is billed per request at published overage rates: $0.08, $0.04 and $0.02 per Card Vault request and $0.06, $0.03 and $0.01 per Data Vault request on Lite, Plus and Premium.

Note the Card Vault Plus tier is $49.99 for 20,000 requests a month, the same allowance Basis Theory includes at $995. Billed through AWS Marketplace. Security is identical on every tier including free.

Pros

• No floor. Permanent free tiers, then $49.99, against a $995 minimum
• US and EU regions available without moving to an enterprise plan
• Four data shapes at published prices, including customer intake, which nothing else here covers
• PCI DSS Level 1 Service Provider, SOC 2 Type II, BAA available, 99.99% uptime SLA

Cons

• No Account Updater, no BIN lookup, no network token product. If you use those on Basis Theory today, this is a real downgrade.
• Public reviews are few, so there is less independent evidence to lean on than with the older vendors here.
• No self-hosted option. SaaS only.
• Lite tiers cover roughly 1,000 to 1,500 requests a month, so active workloads move to paid quickly.

What users say

• Likes: Simple API and clear PCI scope: A CEO reviewer rates Card Vault the best card tokenization option their team found, citing a simple API, no surprises on PCI DSS de-scoping, lower cost than other vendors, and support that added their domestic card type in under 24 hours. (source)
• Likes: Cards, personal data and files in one place: Another reviewer says the structured vaults make card data, personal information and multi-GB files easy to handle from one platform. (source)
• Dislikes: Pricing and documentation: One reviewer finds pricing a bit high for the product (source), and another sees room for more documentation (source).

Rated 4.4/5 on G2 from 6 reviews and 4.8/5 on Capterra from 4 reviews, checked 16 October 2026.

Compliance And Card Lifecycle, Answered

Watch for: Inventory which Basis Theory payments features you actually call before assuming parity. That list decides this.

The same 20,000 monthly requests sits on a $49.99 tier here, and the free tier lets you check that against your own traffic first. Check the pricing or request a demo.

2. VGS

Best for: Payments teams that want to keep network tokens, Account Updater and 3DS while changing less application code.

VGS runs a processor-agnostic vault behind a reverse proxy that aliases sensitive data before it reaches your systems, then re-inserts the real value in real time on the way out.

For a Basis Theory buyer, this is the lateral move that keeps feature parity. You get network tokens, Account Updater, 3DS and BIN lookup, and you change less of your application because the proxy sits in front of it.

Key features

• Reverse-proxy aliasing that swaps sensitive values before they reach your servers, then re-inserts the real data on the outbound call, so your application logic does not change
• Network tokens issued and managed for you, which keep stored credentials current and can improve authorisation rates
• Account Updater, which refreshes expired or reissued cards automatically so recurring charges stop failing silently
• 3D Secure, BIN lookup and account validation, covering checks most payment teams otherwise buy separately
• Wallet payments and agentic commerce tooling for newer checkout paths
• A processor-agnostic vault holding cards, PII and files in one place rather than across separate tools
• An AI Data Firewall for teams routing sensitive records into model calls
• A free tier to test the integration before the paid plan starts

Pricing

Published plans begin at $1,000 a month. There is a free tier for getting started, but the first paid step sits above the Basis Theory floor you are leaving.

Pros

• Deepest payments feature set in this comparison
• Less application rework than a direct vault integration
• Covers PII and files alongside cards, without an enterprise gate

Cons

• At $1,000 the floor is higher than Basis Theory's, so this solves nothing if cost is your reason
• The proxy adds a network hop and an operational dependency in the payment path
• Architecturally a bigger change than moving between two direct vault APIs

What users say

• Likes: Fast integration and helpful support: A developer describes understanding the proxy quickly and moving their workflow onto it, with chat support singled out (source), and another reviewer credits the team for supplying the documentation needed to prove PCI compliance (source).
• Dislikes: Add-on fees, documentation and cost: Reviewers object to $40 for each extra CNAME (source), find some documentation out of date (source) and rate cost on the high side (source).

Rated 4.7/5 on G2 from 47 reviews, the highest in this comparison, checked 16 October 2026. No Capterra listing found.

Watch for: If you left over the $995 floor, this is the wrong direction.

For where a proxy genuinely saves you work and where it just adds a dependency, read our guide to credit card tokenization.

3. Spreedly

Best for: Merchants that want portable tokens across gateways at a published price below $995.

Spreedly combines a PCI Level 1 vault with payments orchestration. It is built for teams that want their stored credentials to outlive any one processor relationship.

Key features

• Unlimited storage in a PCI Level 1 vault, with no token allowance to exceed
• Universal and network tokenization, giving you one credential that moves between gateways
• Vault health insights that surface failing stored credentials before they cost revenue
• Account Updater for cards reissued mid-subscription
• PSP-agnostic routing and smart retries across processors
• 3D Secure 2 and fraud prevention tooling
• An agentic commerce kit for AI-initiated purchases

Pricing

The vault plan starts at $750 a month with unlimited storage. Orchestration features sit on a higher contact-sales tier.

Pros

• $750 published with unlimited storage, below Basis Theory's floor
• Token portability is the explicit product promise
• Account Updater and network tokenization available

Cons

• Only $245 a month below Basis Theory, so the saving is modest unless storage volume matters
• The orchestration layer needs a sales conversation
• Payments only. No PII, PHI or document coverage

What users say

• Likes: One vault across many gateways: A founder values one centralized vault while processing across more than a hundred gateways (source), and another reviewer praises quick, detailed support (source).
• Dislikes: Slow dashboard and per-call pricing: Reviewers report a slow dashboard (source), per-API-call pricing that makes automated testing costly (source), and one long-time customer describes a sudden 3x price increase (source).

Rated 4.4/5 on G2 from 35 reviews and 4.5/5 on Capterra from 13 reviews, checked 16 October 2026.

Watch for: Unlimited storage is the real differentiator here, not the headline price.

If unlimited vault storage is what you are actually buying, the best payment tokenization software roundup compares that head to head.

4. Skyflow

Best for: Enterprises leaving over data residency or PII and PHI governance rather than card payments.

Skyflow isolates PII, PHI and payment data behind field-level policies, with data residency controls as an explicit product rather than a plan tier.

If your reason for leaving Basis Theory is that the entry plan is US-only or that PII and PHI sit behind enterprise, Skyflow is built around exactly those requirements.

Skyflow publishes ISO 27001:2022, SOC 2 Type II and PCI DSS Level 1 certifications, and states it is HIPAA assessed and eligible and GDPR assessed and compliant.

Key features

• A data privacy vault that isolates PII, PHI and payment data behind field-level access policies
• Explicit data residency controls for meeting country-specific storage requirements, offered as a product rather than a plan tier
• Polymorphic encryption, so the same field can return masked, redacted or plaintext depending on who is asking
• Built-in detection, de-identification and redaction tooling for finding sensitive data you did not know you held
• Platform integrations including Snowflake, Databricks, ServiceNow and Glean, so protected data stays usable in tools you already run
• AI data sanitization modules for teams routing records into model calls

Pricing

Skyflow publishes no prices. The pricing page routes into a demo request, with a separate Contact Sales page for going direct.

Establish how the model counts early, whether by records, by data subjects or by requests. You are leaving a vendor whose number was at least visible, so make the replacement's structure visible before you commit.

Pros

• Data residency is a first-class product, not an enterprise upsell
• The longest published certification list in this comparison
• PII and PHI are the core use case rather than an add-on tier

Cons

• No published pricing, so you trade a known $995 for an unknown
• Payments is one use case among many, so card tooling is thinner than Basis Theory's
• Enterprise-first motion with a demo gate

What users say

• Likes: Confidential payment data: The one reviewer values keeping client payment data confidential while still using it (source).
• Dislikes: Too few reviews to judge: No complaints are recorded, but a single review is too small a sample to draw conclusions from.

The Payments Data Privacy Vault listing on G2 shows 5.0/5 from a single review as of 16 October 2026. No Capterra listing found.

Watch for: You are swapping a transparent price for an opaque one. Get the quote before you commit to the architecture.

If residency or PHI is what is driving the move, our guide to the data privacy vault covers that category properly.

5. Evervault

Best for: Payments teams that want to model cost per operation instead of paying a flat token allowance.

Evervault is encryption-based rather than vault-based, with dual custody: You hold encrypted cards without the keys, Evervault holds keys without your cards.

The custody model is a real change from Basis Theory, which holds the card itself. Your systems end up storing ciphertext rather than a token.

Key features

• Dual custody, the inverse of a vault model: You hold the ciphertext, Evervault holds the key
• Secure iframes for collection and reveal, keeping raw cards off your frontend
• Relay, an encrypted proxy decrypting in transit just before the destination API
• Enclaves on AWS Nitro for computation over encrypted data
• Network Tokens API, 3D Secure and Account Updater for the recurring lifecycle
• Apple Pay and Google Pay support
• Fingerprint, exposing card metadata and BIN details but never the number

Pricing

Platform is $995 a month plus usage, recommended for under 25,000 transactions a month. Encrypts, relays and functions are unlimited. Decrypts are $0.005 each, file decrypts $0.02, fingerprints $0.005, successful 3DS $0.03 with nothing charged for failures.

Pros

• Per-operation rates published in full, so an unusual workload is modellable
• Dual custody is a genuinely different security posture
• Enclave-backed processing for sensitive compute

Cons

• The base is $995, level with Basis Theory, so this is a model change rather than a saving
• Your systems store ciphertext, which moves operational burden back toward you
• Cards-focused, so a widening PII scope is no better served than it was

What users say

• Likes: Friendly UI and easy relay setup: A reviewer calls onboarding a breeze, with a modern UI and smooth inbound and outbound relay setup (source), and another values not having to manage encryption keys (source).
• Dislikes: Pricing and narrow scope: One reviewer says pricing was not up to the mark (source), and another finds the product's purpose narrow next to more established tools (source).

Rated 4.4/5 on G2 from 17 reviews, checked 16 October 2026. No Capterra listing found.

Watch for: If cost is your reason for leaving, the base alone means this is not it.

Who holds the card and who holds the key is the real difference between these two models. Vault vs vaultless tokenization sets it out.

6. TokenEx / IXOPAY

Best for: Merchants running several processors, including card-present acceptance.

TokenEx, now part of IXOPAY, is organised around Universal Tokens that survive a change of processor, and it adds PCI-validated point-to-point encryption for card-present flows that Basis Theory does not cover.

IXOPAY's own position is that replacing the token with real card details on the way out keeps card data away from your systems. That is their wording, and scope remains a question for your acquirer or QSA.

Key features

• PCI-validated point-to-point encryption for card-present acceptance, the one capability here that a cloud-only vault cannot match
• Universal Tokens that keep working when you change processor
• Network token provisioning alongside them
• Iframe and browser-level encryption at the capture step
• Data coverage extending to PII, PHI and ACH rather than cards alone
• Acquirer PCI tooling for merchants managing their own programme

Pricing

There are no published rates. IXOPAY routes you through Get Sandbox Access, Get a Demo, or Contact Sales.

The sandbox is worth doing before the sales call. If you are leaving Basis Theory over a $995 floor, you need a comparable number, and that only comes from a quote built on your measured volume.

Pros

• P2PE covers card-present, which Basis Theory does not
• Universal Tokens unify payment data across a multi-PSP setup
• Long published certification list

Cons

• No public pricing, so you cannot tell whether it beats $995 without a sales call
• Mid-transition from TokenEx to IXOPAY, which makes trust pages harder to track down
• Payments-first, so documents and general PII fall outside it

What users say

• Likes: Gateway-agnostic tokens at a lower cost: A reviewer values the secure payment iframe, tokens that move across gateways and a per-token cost below other providers (source), and another praises fast ticket resolution (source).
• Dislikes: Reporting limits: One reviewer cannot build customer-specific reports or see usage history past 30 days (source), and another finds forced password resets a hassle (source).

Rated 4.6/5 on G2 from 17 reviews (listed as TokenEx / IXOPAY), checked 16 October 2026. The Capterra listing has no reviews yet.

Watch for: Which company you are actually signing with. The TokenEx and IXOPAY brands are still being merged, and the AOC needs to name the right one.

For card-present acceptance and multi-processor setups, read our guide to card vault tokenization.

7. PCI Proxy

Best for: Payment teams that want a reverse proxy and one universal token across many acquirers.

PCI Proxy, from Planet, offers a universal token vault with a reverse proxy sharing card data or network tokens on your behalf for multi-PSP interoperability.

Key features

• One universal token that holds across every integration you connect
• A reverse proxy sharing card data or network tokens on your behalf, keeping raw PANs out of your stack
• Network token provisioning alongside the universal model
• Multi-channel collection via hosted fields, mobile SDKs, wallets and payment links
• Gateway orchestration spanning many acquirers
• Secure data migration support for an incoming vault

Pricing

PCI Proxy's pricing page carries no numbers. It does offer an unrestricted free trial, a free demo call, and a direct Talk to us route.

Run the trial before the conversation. You will need a figure to hold against Basis Theory's $995, and the only honest one comes from your own measured volume.

Pros

• Free trial without a sales call, which is rare among the unpublished-price vendors
• Broad acquirer coverage through one universal token
• Multi-channel collection beyond the API

Cons

• No published pricing
• Smaller public presence, so less independent evidence
• A proxy in the payment path is a larger architectural change than moving between direct vault APIs

What users say

• Likes: No independent reviews yet: PCI Proxy has a G2 listing with no published reviews, which makes the free trial more useful than usual.
• Dislikes: Nothing to validate against: Form your own view from a week of real traffic rather than third-party signal.

No published reviews on G2 as of 16 October 2026.

Watch for: The free trial is the cheapest way to test the proxy model before committing.

For the PCI view across every option on this list, see the best PCI DSS compliant tokenization software.

A Note On Vaulted Versus Vaultless

Basis Theory publishes content arguing that vaultless tokenization relies on local key protection, has seen limited industry adoption, and lacks PCI DSS recognition for protecting primary account numbers. That is a vendor position from a vaulted provider, and it is worth reading alongside the vaultless vendors' own material rather than as settled fact.

The practical difference is where the original value lives and what your exit looks like. Our guide to vault vs vaultless tokenization covers both sides.

Basis Theory Vs Enigma Vault

Both hold the card and return a token, so the architecture is the same. The difference is packaging, price and reach. Here is how they line up on what buyers actually ask about.

The decision follows from that table. If you use Account Updater, network tokens or multi-PSP routing in anger, Basis Theory is the better payments product and moving will cost you capability. If you are paying $995 for 2,000 tokens, need an EU region, or your scope grew past cards, Enigma Vault answers all three.

How To Choose A Basis Theory Alternative

Which constraint are you actually hitting? The $995 floor points to Enigma Vault or Spreedly. The US-only entry plan points to Enigma Vault or Skyflow. PII and PHI on enterprise points to Enigma Vault or Skyflow.

How many tokens do you really use? If it is well under 20,000 a month, you are paying for headroom. Price the tier that matches your actual volume.

Which payments features do you call? Account Updater, network tokens and BIN lookup are the features most likely to disappear in a move. Inventory them first.

Do you need more than cards? Documents, structured PII and customer intake point to Enigma Vault or Skyflow. Everything else here is payments-only.

Can you absorb a re-tokenization project? Every option means new tokens and updating every system holding one. If not this quarter, renegotiating may beat migrating.

Best Basis Theory Alternative By Scenario

What Migrating Off Basis Theory Actually Involves

Confirm the export path first: Get in writing how tokenized card data is exported, in what format and over what channel, while you are still a customer in good standing.

Expect a PCI-to-PCI transfer: Card data moves between two compliant environments and both providers must agree the process. Involve your acquirer early rather than at cut-over.

Your tokens do not travel: New vault, new tokens. Every system holding a Basis Theory token needs updating, which is usually more work than the new integration.

Native features become integrations: Account Updater and network tokens are native to the Basis Theory vault. On most alternatives they are a separate product or absent. Map that gap before you commit.

Dual-run before cutting over: Write to both vaults and reconcile. Budget for two vendors for a month or two.

Re-check your region requirement: If you are moving partly for EU residency, confirm the target vendor offers it at the tier you are actually buying, not just somewhere in their product line.

Start On Enigma Vault's Free Tier

Enigma Vault is built so evaluation does not need a contract or a monthly minimum. Card, Data and File Vault each have a permanent free tier on AWS Marketplace, so you can tokenize real card data and read the audit log before anyone discusses pricing.

The Card Vault Plus tier is $49.99 for the same 20,000 monthly requests Basis Theory includes at $995. Start free and compare on your own traffic, or request a demo and we will tell you plainly if Basis Theory remains the better fit.