If you are weighing Enigma Vault against Basis Theory, you already know you want card data out of your systems. The real question is what you need to do with that data once it is vaulted.
Basis Theory is a programmable payments vault for engineering teams, with network tokens, account updater, smart routing, custom code on vaulted data, and agentic payments, while Enigma Vault is a PCI DSS Level 1 tokenization platform that protects payment cards, customer records, documents up to 5 GB, customer intake, and LLM prompts, including sensitive data that never touches a checkout.
This guide compares the two on features, cost at three business sizes, compliance, G2 and Capterra reviews, and fit by industry.
Enigma Vault vs Basis Theory: Quick Verdict
Enigma Vault: Focused vaults for cards, records, and files, plus Customer Vault for intake and NoPII for LLM prompts. It starts free, tops out at $249.99 a month per vault, and offers US and EU hosting on every plan.
Basis Theory: A programmable payments vault with network tokens, account updater, 3DS, smart routing, Reactors, and agentic payments. It starts at $995 a month, its entry plan is US-only, and it has no reviews yet on G2 or Capterra.
I’d point you to Enigma Vault first if your sensitive data goes beyond online checkout:
- You can stay well under $1,000 a month, and start at $0 on the free tier.
- You need EU hosting without negotiating an enterprise contract.
- Cards still reach you by phone, and documents arrive by email.
- You want to protect customer records, files, or prompts, not only cards.
Basis Theory’s real strength is payments depth. It matters most if you’re a subscription business, marketplace, or fintech where authorization rates and stored-card lifecycle directly move your revenue, and your engineers want to write custom logic against card data.
- Choose Enigma Vault if: You want PCI scope reduction at a published price, you protect more than cards, or your team has little engineering time.
- Choose Basis Theory if: Payments are your product and network tokens, routing, card issuing, or agent payments are on your roadmap.
Bottom Line: Basis Theory helps you earn more from each card; Enigma Vault helps you stop holding sensitive data you should not have, for a fraction of the entry price.
Enigma Vault vs Basis Theory at a Glance
| Vendor | Best for | Entry price | Entry plan regions | G2 | Capterra |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enigma Vault | Teams protecting cards, records, files, intake, and AI prompts | Free, then $49.99/mo | US and EU | 4.4/5 (6) | 4.8/5 (4) |
| Basis Theory | Engineering-led payments and fintech teams | $995/mo, 20,000 tokens | US only | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
Ratings and listings read on the live G2 and Capterra pages on 30 October 2026. For a wider shortlist, see our guide to Basis Theory alternatives.
Card-on-File Tokenization Workflow: Enigma Vault vs Basis Theory
To make the comparison concrete, here is the same job built on each platform: a business takes a customer’s card, stores it, and charges it later through its payment gateway.
| Step | Enigma Vault | Basis Theory |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Capture the card | Hosted form, API, or Twilio Pay on a phone call | Universal Form Elements in web or mobile checkout |
| 2. Store it | Card Vault returns a random 128-bit token; CVV deleted within 30 minutes | Vault returns a token you can shape with expressions |
| 3. Save the token | Your database keeps the token, never the card | Your database keeps the token, never the card |
| 4. Charge later | Gateway proxy injects the card into an allowlisted gateway request | Proxy forwards to any provider, with optional smart routing |
| 5. Keep the card working | Customer re-enters an expired card | Account updater and network tokens refresh it |
Both platforms get the card number out of your systems. The difference shows up at step 1 and step 5.
- Step 1: Enigma Vault adds the phone channel that most payments platforms skip.
- Step 5: Basis Theory adds the card lifecycle tools that matter most to subscription and marketplace businesses.
Tokenization Features Compared: Enigma Vault and Basis Theory
Compare Enigma Vault and Basis Theory on card capture, token formats, PII and file storage, proxies, payment optimization, intake, and AI privacy. Basis Theory goes deep on card payments, whereas Enigma Vault goes wide across the sensitive data a business holds.
| Feature | Enigma Vault | Basis Theory |
|---|---|---|
| Web card fields | Hosted forms | Universal Form Elements |
| Mobile capture | API | iOS, Android, and React Native SDKs |
| Phone (IVR) capture | Twilio Pay | Not offered |
| Apple Pay and Google Pay | Through your gateway | Built in |
| Configurable token formats | Random or Luhn-passable | Expressions |
| Structured PII and bank data | Data Vault on every tier | Bank data; PII and PHI options on Enterprise |
| File storage | Up to 5 GB per file | 1 MB payload limit on $995 plan |
| Search on protected data | Exact-match lookup on encrypted values | Token search |
| Audit and log retention | Full audit logging on every tier | 24 hours on $995 plan |
| Proxy to payment gateways | Domain allowlisted | Included |
| Proxy to any third-party API | Not offered | Proxy and Browser Proxy |
| Run your own code on vaulted data | Not offered | Reactors |
| Network tokens | Not offered | Included |
| Account updater | Not offered | Included |
| 3D Secure | Through your gateway | Included |
| Enhanced BIN data | Not offered | Included |
| Smart and backup PSP routing | Not offered | Included |
| Card issuing flows | Not offered | Included |
| Agentic payments | Not offered | Included |
| No-code customer intake app | Customer Vault | Not offered |
| LLM prompt tokenization | NoPII | Not offered |
| EU hosting on entry plan | Included | Enterprise only |
| SSO/SAML | MFA and passkeys in Customer Vault | Enterprise |
Here is how each capability works in practice.
Capture, Storage, and Payments: How Enigma Vault and Basis Theory Compare
Card Capture in Web and Mobile Checkout
Basis Theory’s Universal Form Elements are iframe-hosted card fields for web and mobile. They are styled to your brand, keep the card out of your page code, and sit alongside Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Enigma Vault covers checkout with hosted forms and the API. They do the job, but if a pixel-perfect embedded checkout is your top priority, Basis Theory’s Elements are more mature.
Card Capture Over the Phone
Here the comparison flips. Enigma Vault’s Card Vault includes Twilio Pay IVR, so callers enter their card on the phone keypad and agents never hear, type, or record it.
Basis Theory does not package a phone channel. For travel agencies, hotels, clinics, contact centers, and high-value retail, the phone is where card numbers leak most, through call recordings and handwritten notes.
Vault Storage and Token Formats
- Basis Theory: Stores any payload and lets you shape tokens with expressions, which helps when downstream systems expect a specific format. Access is set per application, and tokens are searchable.
- Enigma Vault: Issues random tokens with 128-bit entropy, with an option for Luhn-passable tokens if a legacy system checks card formats. CVVs are deleted within 30 minutes.
Every Enigma Vault customer gets its own AES-256 keys, and every request is logged, on every plan including free. If you need custom token formats for complex payment flows, Basis Theory gives you more control.
Customer Records, PII, and PHI
Basis Theory names bank data on all plans and offers PII and PHI compliance options on its Enterprise tier. On the $995 plan, payloads are capped at 1 MB and logs are kept for 24 hours.
Enigma Vault’s Data Vault is built for structured records from the free tier up:
- AES-256 field encryption for SSNs, passport numbers, and bank details.
- Exact-match lookup on encrypted values, so you find a record without decrypting it.
- Batches of up to 5,000 secrets per call.
- A BAA for healthcare workloads.
If you need to vault personal data without moving to an enterprise contract, Enigma Vault is the simpler path.
Secure File and Document Storage
Basis Theory is designed for small values like cards and bank details, and its entry plan caps payloads at 1 MB. It does not offer a document store.
Enigma Vault’s File Vault stores files up to 5 GB each under envelope encryption, with presigned URLs for controlled upload and download and status updates over WebSocket. ID scans, tax returns, signed contracts, and medical images get the same governance as card data.
Proxy and Outbound Requests
Basis Theory’s Proxy sends and receives sensitive data through any third-party API without it touching your servers, and its Browser Proxy does the same from the client. That flexibility matters if you send card or bank data to many kinds of partners.
Enigma Vault’s gateway proxy is narrower and stricter by default:
- Your app sends a token, and the proxy checks the destination against a domain allowlist.
- Scoped OAuth2 credentials limit each client to the vaults and actions it needs.
- The card number never lands in your logs or monitoring tools.
Reactors and Custom Code on Vaulted Data
Reactors are one of Basis Theory’s most distinctive features. They run your own code against vaulted data inside Basis Theory’s secure environment, so you can transform, validate, or send card data to an unusual partner without it reaching your infrastructure.
They power card issuing, custom partner integrations, and data migrations. Enigma Vault does not run customer code, so if your product depends on that programmability, Basis Theory is the clear choice.
Network Tokens, Account Updater, and PSP Routing
Basis Theory includes a full payment optimization stack:
- Network tokens and account updater, to keep stored cards working after reissue.
- 3D Secure and enhanced BIN data.
- Payment method discovery.
- Smart and backup routing across payment service providers.
Together they lift authorization rates, which can be worth real money for subscription and marketplace businesses. Enigma Vault charges through the REST gateway you already use (Stripe, Braintree, PayPal, Authorize.net, and others), and switching processors later is a configuration change. It offers none of the optimization tools above; your gateway handles 3DS.
Agentic Payments
Basis Theory offers agentic commerce tools to issue virtual cards and create agentic credentials, and in September 2025 it formed an Agentic Commerce Consortium with partners such as Lithic, Skyfire, and Crossmint. Its $33M Series B in October 2025 was raised partly to build this out.
Enigma Vault approaches AI from the privacy side, not payments, and does not issue payment credentials to agents.
Customer Intake Without Developers
Every Basis Theory workflow is built by your engineers. Enigma Vault’s Customer Vault is a turnkey branded application for staff who do not write code.
- Collect: No-login intake links for cards, IDs, and documents.
- Work: A shared inbox with assignment and e-signatures.
- Protect: Passkeys, enforced MFA, and expiring, password-protected sharing.
PII Protection in LLM Prompts
Basis Theory does not offer prompt protection. Enigma Vault’s NoPII is a reverse proxy that replaces recognized PII with consistent tokens before supported LLM API calls and restores real values in the response, including streamed output.
It supports nine providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, xAI, DeepSeek, Mistral, Groq, Together, and Fireworks) and frameworks such as LangChain and Vercel AI SDK. It covers only routes your app sends through it, so test detection on your own data. Pro costs $50 a month for 50M tokens.
Enigma Vault vs Basis Theory Pricing for Small, Growing, and Established Teams
What Basis Theory Charges
Basis Theory publishes one self-serve plan and a custom Enterprise tier. There is no free production plan, and Capterra lists no free trial.
| Basis Theory plan | What you get |
|---|---|
| $995/mo | 20,000 tokens, production PCI environment, 1 MB payload limit, 24 hours of logs, PCI AOC, US-only environment |
| Enterprise (custom) | PII and PHI options, unlimited monthly interactions per token, custom logs and payload sizes, uptime guarantees, P1 support, SSO/SAML, white-label CNAME, dedicated IP |
What Enigma Vault Charges
Every tier is published and billed through AWS Marketplace. Here is what a card workload costs on each platform at three sizes.
| Business size | Monthly card activity | Enigma Vault | Basis Theory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small agency or practice | Under 1,000 requests | $0 (Lite) | $995 for production |
| Growing SaaS or retailer | About 20,000 requests | $49.99 (Plus) | $995 (20,000 tokens) |
| Established platform | About 250,000 requests | $249.99 (Premium) | Enterprise, custom |
How to Read This Table: Basis Theory counts tokens and Enigma Vault counts requests, so the units are not identical. Use the table for order of magnitude and model your own traffic.
Enigma Vault overage is published at $0.08, $0.04, and $0.02 per Card Vault request on Lite, Plus, and Premium. Data Vault and File Vault follow the same $0, $49.99, and $249.99 tiers.
The Practical Takeaway: If you also need EU hosting or PII in the vault, Basis Theory moves you to Enterprise pricing, while Enigma Vault keeps you on the same published tiers. For more budget-friendly options, see our list of the best tokenization providers for small businesses.
Enigma Vault vs Basis Theory Compliance and Certifications
| Control | Enigma Vault | Basis Theory |
|---|---|---|
| PCI DSS | Level 1 Service Provider (Card, Data, File Vault in scope) | Level 1, merchant and service provider |
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | In progress | Certified |
| HIPAA | BAA available | HIPAA listed; PHI options on Enterprise |
| SAQ support | AOC and SOC 2 report on request | PCI AOC; Enterprise includes responses for 95% of SAQ D |
Basis Theory has the stronger certification list today, including ISO 27001 and prepared SAQ D responses on Enterprise.
With either platform, the vault can significantly reduce the systems in your PCI scope, but your acquirer or QSA confirms your final scope. Our list of PCI DSS compliant tokenization software compares more certified vaults.
Enigma Vault vs Basis Theory Reviews and Customer Proof
| Enigma Vault | Basis Theory | |
|---|---|---|
| G2 | 4.4/5 from 6 reviews | Listed, no reviews |
| Capterra | 4.8/5 from 4 reviews | Listed, no reviews |
| Other public proof | Reviewer quotes on support speed and cost | Customer stories and named logos |
What Enigma Vault Reviewers Say
Reviewers on G2 praise a simple API, clear PCI scope, lower cost than other vendors, and quick support, with one noting a domestic card type added in under 24 hours. Another values handling multi-GB files alongside cards and records.
Critical notes ask for more documentation and deeper reporting dashboards, and one reviewer finds the pricing a bit high.
What Basis Theory’s Public Proof Shows
With no third-party reviews yet on G2 or Capterra, Basis Theory’s proof comes from its own customer stories, such as Cubby going from proof of concept to live in about a week.
With so little review data on either side, ask both vendors for references in your industry.
Enigma Vault vs Basis Theory for Your Industry
Fintech, Payments, and Lending
Fintech apps handle cards, bank accounts, ID documents, and underwriting files, and the right vault depends on which of those is your biggest exposure.
- If Payments Are the Roadmap: Card issuing, authorization rates, and multi-PSP routing point to Basis Theory.
- If Documents Are the Risk: ID scans and underwriting files sitting in your main database are covered by Data Vault and File Vault for far less.
Our guide to the best tokenization software for fintech compares more options.
| Workflow | How it usually happens | With Enigma Vault |
|---|---|---|
| Bank and identity data | Account numbers and government IDs spread across databases and logs | Data Vault tokens with restricted detokenization |
| Statements and ID uploads | Files duplicated across app servers and storage | Direct File Vault transfer with controlled access |
| Card storage | Card tokens tied to one processor | Card Vault tokens charged through any supported gateway |
Best fit: Basis Theory for payments depth; Enigma Vault for documents and records.
Subscription and Ecommerce Businesses
Recurring revenue depends on stored cards that keep working after they expire or are reissued. Every failed renewal is churn you did not choose.
Basis Theory’s network tokens and account updater are built for exactly that, and Enigma Vault has no equivalent. If your gateway already offers account updater, the gap narrows, so check before you decide.
Best fit: Basis Theory.
Vertical SaaS and Marketplaces
Platforms embed sensitive-data features for their own customers, and both vendors work as APIs. The deciding question is whether payments are your product or a feature of it.
| Your platform | Better match |
|---|---|
| Stores cards, records, and files for customers, with EU tenants | Enigma Vault, at published unit prices |
| Sells payments as a core product, with routing and issuing | Basis Theory |
The strongest case for a platform is separating your application from the sensitive value. Data Vault replaces IDs and bank details in your database with tokens, presigned uploads send files straight to File Vault, and NoPII keeps user PII out of any AI feature you ship.
Best fit: Enigma Vault unless payments are the product.
Travel Agencies and Hotels
Cards arrive by phone and email, guest IDs and authorization forms arrive as attachments, and agents re-enter cards into supplier portals.
Twilio Pay capture, Customer Vault intake, and File Vault fit that workflow without a development team. Basis Theory assumes engineers will build each flow. See our list of card tokenization software for travel agencies.
- Remote Bookings: A secure link or phone capture stores the card as a token on the booking record.
- Corporate Authorizations: Third-party card forms become signed intake records instead of email attachments.
- Repeat Guests: Tokenized cards and document references remove repeated collection on every trip.
Best fit: Enigma Vault.
Clinics and Digital Health
Basis Theory lists digital health as a vertical, with PHI options on Enterprise. That suits funded platforms with engineering teams.
Small practices without developers are better served by Customer Vault for intake and Data Vault for records, both under a BAA, on published pricing.
A practical first project is new patient intake: collect only the fields you need through a secure link, keep referrals in File Vault with expiring access, and take deposits by phone without card numbers reaching notes. Your privacy team still validates the configuration and contracts.
Best fit: Enigma Vault for practices; either for funded digital health platforms.
AI-Enabled Support and Operations
When prompts carry customer names, emails, or account numbers to an LLM, NoPII tokenizes them before they reach the model provider and restores them in the response. Basis Theory’s AI work is about agents that pay, not prompts that carry PII.
- Ticket Summaries: The model receives tokens while agents see real values.
- Agent Assist: Recognized PII in live transcripts is tokenized in the application stream.
Best fit: Enigma Vault.
Why Teams Choose Enigma Vault Over Basis Theory
- Entry Price: Free, then $49.99 a month, against a $995 floor.
- EU Hosting on Every Plan: No enterprise contract needed for residency.
- Data Beyond Cards: PII, PHI, and files up to 5 GB on entry tiers.
- Phone Capture and No-Code Intake: Twilio Pay and Customer Vault.
- LLM Prompt Privacy: NoPII.
Why Teams Choose Basis Theory Over Enigma Vault
- Payments Optimization: Network tokens, account updater, 3DS, BIN data, and PSP routing.
- Programmability: Reactors and a proxy that reaches any third-party API.
- Checkout Components: Polished Elements for web, mobile, and wallets.
- Certifications: ISO 27001, plus SAQ D support on Enterprise.
What Enigma Vault and Basis Theory Have in Common
- Vault-Based Tokens: Originals stay encrypted in the provider’s vault.
- Processor Independence: Both let you charge through the gateway you choose, so your gateway stays your partner.
- Core Attestations: Both are PCI DSS Level 1 and SOC 2 Type II.
- Developer-First Design: Both are API-first and built to integrate in days.
Engineering Effort: What Your Team Builds on Enigma Vault vs Basis Theory
Price is only part of the cost. The bigger cost is often engineering time, and the two platforms ask very different amounts of it: Basis Theory gives your developers building blocks, whereas Enigma Vault ships more of the workflow ready to use.
| Job | On Enigma Vault | On Basis Theory |
|---|---|---|
| Take a card over the phone | Configure Twilio Pay IVR | Build or buy a phone channel |
| Collect IDs and documents from customers | Send a Customer Vault intake link | Build forms, storage, and a staff view |
| Store a 2 GB scanned file | Upload to File Vault | Use a separate store; 1 MB payload limit on $995 plan |
| Keep stored cards working after reissue | Rely on your gateway’s tools | Turn on account updater and network tokens |
| Send card data to an unusual partner API | Not supported | Write a Reactor or use the Proxy |
| Route charges across several PSPs | Not supported | Configure smart and backup routing |
If your team wants to build payments features, Basis Theory saves engineering time on the bottom three rows, while Enigma Vault saves it on the top three. Count which rows describe your roadmap.
Enigma Vault or Basis Theory: Who Should Pick Which
| Your situation | Better choice | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Losing subscription revenue to expired or reissued cards | Basis Theory | Network tokens and account updater |
| Building card issuing or custom partner flows at a fintech | Basis Theory | Reactors and a general-purpose proxy |
| Letting AI agents make payments on your platform | Basis Theory | Agentic payment tooling |
| Needing PCI scope reduction for under $1,000 a month | Enigma Vault | Free tier and $49.99 Plus |
| Serving EU customers without an enterprise budget | Enigma Vault | EU region on every plan |
| Taking cards by phone at an agency, clinic, or contact center | Enigma Vault | Twilio Pay and Customer Vault |
| Sending customer data to LLMs from your SaaS product | Enigma Vault | NoPII |
Moving From Basis Theory to Enigma Vault
- Agree the Card Migration First: Cards move directly between two PCI-compliant providers, and both vendors and your acquirer need to agree the process.
- List Your Token Formats: If you shaped tokens with expressions, find every downstream system that depends on that format and choose random or Luhn-passable tokens.
- Redesign Reactors and Partner Proxies: Enigma Vault does not run customer code, so each Reactor needs a new home.
- Check What Your Gateway Covers: If you rely on network tokens or account updater, confirm your gateway offers them before moving.
- Re-Tokenize and Run Both for a Few Weeks: Then cut over.
Our guide to migrating tokenization providers has a checklist for running two vaults side by side.
Final Recommendation: Enigma Vault or Basis Theory?
Basis Theory is a well-built payments platform. If payments are your product and your roadmap includes network tokens, routing, card issuing, or agentic payments, it is the stronger choice, and I would point you to it.
If your sensitive data is broader than card authorization, or you need EU hosting and a free tier, Enigma Vault covers cards, records, files, intake, and AI prompts for a fraction of the entry price.
Start free and tokenize your first card or record today, see how Card Vault charges through your gateway, or request a demo with your volumes and we will model the cost with you.
How We Researched This Comparison
Enigma Vault publishes this page, so read it as a vendor-written comparison. Basis Theory facts come from basistheory.com, its pricing and security pages, its developer docs, its funding announcements, and its G2 and Capterra listings, checked on 30 October 2026. Basis Theory is the stronger product for several jobs, and we name them.
