If you are comparing Enigma Vault and Very Good Security (VGS), you want card numbers and personal data off your servers, and you are deciding how much platform you need to get there.
VGS built its name on a reverse proxy that swaps sensitive data for aliases before it reaches your servers, and in 2026 it calls itself “the world’s leader in payment tokenization,” whereas Enigma Vault is a PCI DSS Level 1 vault platform your app calls directly, with separate vaults for payment cards, customer records, files up to 5 GB, and customer intake, and a gateway proxy used only at the moment you charge a card.
This guide compares the two on architecture, features, pricing, compliance support, and live reviews on G2 and Capterra, with a recommendation for each industry.
Enigma Vault vs VGS: Quick Verdict
Enigma Vault is best for low-cost PCI scope reduction across cards, records, files, and prompts, while VGS is best for network tokens, card issuing, and bundled audit help.
Enigma Vault: A direct-API vault for cards, records, files, customer intake, and LLM prompts. It starts free, every tier is published up to $249.99 a month per vault, and it holds PCI DSS Level 1 and SOC 2 Type II.
VGS: A proxy-first payments security platform with network tokens, account updater, card management, and compliance services. It starts at $1,000 a month, and G2 users report typical contracts of $19,000 to $108,000 a year.
I’d point you to Enigma Vault first if you’re a startup or mid-size business that needs PCI scope reduction without a five-figure contract:
- You can run Card Vault Premium for a full year for about $3,000, against VGS’s $12,000 annual floor.
- You protect more than cards: customer records, documents, and prompts.
- Your cards reach you by phone, and Twilio Pay keeps them off the call.
- You would rather not have a third-party proxy sitting in front of all your traffic.
VGS’s real strength is payments depth plus easy retrofitting. It matters most if you’re a fintech or marketplace where card lifecycle and authorization rates drive revenue, or you have dozens of existing endpoints you would rather proxy than rewrite.
- Choose Enigma Vault if: You want a published price, broad data coverage, and nothing in your request path.
- Choose VGS if: You need network tokens, card issuing, or bundled PCI audit help, and the budget fits.
Bottom Line: VGS is a strong payments platform priced for fintechs. If your goal is to stop holding sensitive data, Enigma Vault does that from $0.
Enigma Vault vs VGS at a Glance
Enigma Vault is best for broad data protection, starts free, and is rated 4.4/5 on G2, while VGS is best for payments fintechs, starts at $1,000 a month, and is rated 4.7/5.
| Vendor | Best for | Starting price | Time to implement | G2 | Capterra |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enigma Vault | Card, record, file, and prompt protection at a low entry price | Free, then $49.99/mo | Same-day prototype | 4.4/5 (6) | 4.8/5 (4) |
| VGS | Payments-heavy fintechs and marketplaces | From $1,000/mo | About 4 months (G2 users) | 4.7/5 (47) | Listed, 0 reviews |
Ratings and G2 user-reported figures read on the live pages on 30 October 2026. For more options, see our list of Very Good Security alternatives.
Proxy-Based vs API-Based Tokenization: How Enigma Vault and VGS Differ
Enigma Vault is called directly by your app and proxies only at the moment you charge, whereas VGS proxies your traffic and swaps data for aliases before it reaches your servers.
This architectural choice shapes everything else, including how much code you change, who sits in your traffic, and what you maintain over time.
| Question | Enigma Vault (API-based) | VGS (proxy-based) |
|---|---|---|
| How data is protected on the way in | Your app calls the vault and stores the token | The inbound proxy swaps values for aliases before your app sees them |
| How data reaches your processor | Gateway proxy injects the card at charge time | Outbound proxy restores values on configured routes |
| Who sits in your request path | Nobody, except at charge time | VGS, on every proxied route |
| Code changes | A handful of explicit API calls | Little application code; route configuration instead |
| Ongoing maintenance | Allowlist and credentials | Routes, matching rules, and promotion between vaults |
Where the Proxy Model Helps: You can protect existing endpoints with little code, and reviewers on G2 repeatedly say they understood the proxy quickly.
Where It Costs You: VGS reviewers mention reloading routes for changes to take effect, needing support for complex matching, and promoting routes between vaults by hand in YAML.
Where the API Model Helps: All your other traffic stays on your own infrastructure, and developers can try every call first in the live Swagger UI at api.enigmavault.io.
If you have dozens of existing endpoints and little appetite for code changes, the proxy model saves time. If you would rather keep third parties out of your request path, the direct vault is cleaner.
Enigma Vault vs VGS Features Compared
Enigma Vault leads on phone capture, file storage, customer intake, and LLM prompt privacy, while VGS leads on network tokens, card issuing, and PCI compliance services.
Compare Enigma Vault and VGS on proxies, card capture, payments tooling, PII and file storage, intake, AI protection, compliance services, and pricing. VGS is built around payments, while Enigma Vault is built around every type of sensitive data a business collects.
| Feature | Enigma Vault | VGS |
|---|---|---|
| Inbound proxy (aliases before your servers) | Not offered | Included |
| Outbound proxy to processors | Domain allowlisted gateway proxy | Configurable routes |
| Direct vault API | Live Swagger UI | Included |
| Secure web card fields | Hosted forms | VGS Collect |
| Mobile SDKs | API | Included |
| Phone (IVR) capture | Twilio Pay | Not offered |
| Wallet payments | Through your gateway | Included |
| Network tokens | Not offered | Included |
| Account updater | Not offered | Included |
| Card attributes and BIN lookup | Not offered | Included |
| Account validation | Not offered | Included |
| 3D Secure | Through your gateway | Included |
| Card management and issuing | Not offered | Included |
| Structured PII | Data Vault with exact-match lookup | Included |
| PHI with a BAA | BAA available | Not stated on VGS pages |
| Document storage | File Vault, up to 5 GB per file | Large file transfers on Growth |
| No-code customer intake app | Customer Vault | Not offered |
| LLM prompt tokenization | NoPII | AI Data Firewall |
| Agentic commerce credentials | Not offered | Included |
| PCI compliance subscription and auditor | Not offered | Growth package |
| Published pricing | Every tier | Starter floor only |
VGS leads on card payments tooling and compliance services. Enigma Vault leads on phone capture, documents, intake, and price. The sections below explain each one.
How Enigma Vault and VGS Protect Cards, PII, Files, and AI Data
Enigma Vault covers phone capture, a BAA, 5 GB file storage, no-code intake, and prompt PII, while VGS offers richer checkout components and card payments tooling.
Card Capture Online and in Apps
VGS Collect provides iframe-based form fields for web checkouts, with mobile SDKs and wallet support alongside. It is a mature, widely used component.
One VGS reviewer on G2 wishes they could pre-fill certain Collect fields without running two parallel forms. Enigma Vault covers the same ground with hosted forms and its API, but for a self-serve checkout on web and mobile, VGS gives you more ready-made pieces.
Card Capture by Phone
An inbound proxy protects data arriving over HTTP. It does nothing for a card number read aloud on a call and written into a ticket.
Enigma Vault’s Twilio Pay IVR closes that gap. Callers enter their card on the keypad, and agents never hear or type it. For travel agencies, hotels, clinics, and contact centers, this is often the biggest source of card exposure.
Network Tokens, Account Updater, and Card Data Services
This is VGS’s strongest ground. Its payments line includes:
- A card management platform for issuing.
- Network tokens and account updater.
- Card attributes, BIN lookup, and account validation.
- 3DS, wallet payments, and tokenized account numbers.
In a VGS testimonial, SumUp credits it with saving nearly $1M and six months of development. For a fintech optimizing approval rates or a platform issuing cards, that toolkit is hard to match.
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 does not offer network tokens, account updater, BIN lookup, or card issuing.
Personal and Health Data
VGS protects PII alongside cards. Its public pages do not mention a HIPAA BAA.
Enigma Vault’s Data Vault encrypts fields such as SSNs, passport numbers, and bank details with AES-256, supports exact-match lookup on encrypted values, and handles batches of up to 5,000 secrets. A BAA is available.
One VGS reviewer says cost pushed them to use VGS only for their most sensitive data and encrypt names and emails themselves. Data Vault’s free and $49.99 tiers are priced for that kind of everyday PII.
Files and Documents
The two treat files differently:
- VGS: Handles file-based flows through SFTP and offers large file transfers in its Growth package. A G2 reviewer notes the SFTP product is less mature than the HTTP proxy.
- Enigma Vault: File Vault is a governed store rather than a transfer channel, with files up to 5 GB each under envelope encryption, presigned URLs, and status over WebSocket, from 5 GB a month on the free tier.
If you need somewhere safe to keep passports, tax returns, or scans, File Vault is built for it.
Customer Intake for Non-Technical Teams
Several VGS reviewers say the platform is hard for less technical people to use; it is built for engineers.
Enigma Vault’s Customer Vault is a turnkey branded app for front-line staff. It includes no-login intake links, a shared inbox with assignment, e-signatures, passkeys and enforced MFA, expiring password-protected sharing, and a per-tenant audit trail.
AI Data Protection
The two vendors target different AI risks.
| Enigma Vault NoPII | VGS | |
|---|---|---|
| Risk addressed | Customer PII inside LLM prompts | AI agents using payment credentials |
| Products | Reverse proxy for LLM APIs | AI Data Firewall and Agentic Commerce Hub |
| Providers | 9, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini | Not specified publicly |
| Price | Free tier; Pro $50/mo for 50M tokens | Custom |
NoPII replaces recognized PII with consistent tokens before the prompt reaches the model provider and restores real values in responses, including streamed output. It can block a request that cannot be tokenized instead of sending it raw.
It covers only routes your app sends through it and does not handle image or audio PII. See our list of the best AI data security software for more approaches.
Developer Experience and Support
VGS support gets more praise in its G2 reviews than any other feature, especially chat. G2 users report about four months to implement.
Enigma Vault offers self-serve signup on AWS Marketplace and a live Swagger UI, so a developer can tokenize a value the same day. Both vendors’ reviewers ask for better documentation, which the review section below covers in detail.
PCI Compliance Support: What Enigma Vault and VGS Each Include
Enigma Vault and VGS both reduce the systems in your PCI scope. Enigma Vault works with the QSA you already use, whereas VGS adds a compliance subscription and auditor.
Both vendors reduce the systems that touch card data. They differ in how much of the audit work they take on beyond that.
| Compliance need | Enigma Vault | VGS |
|---|---|---|
| Holds card data as a Level 1 provider | Included on every tier, free included | Included |
| AOC and SOC 2 report | On request | On request |
| Phone channel kept out of scope | Twilio Pay IVR | Not offered |
| PCI compliance subscription | Not offered | Growth package |
| Vendor-provided auditor | Not offered; use your own QSA | Growth package |
Choose Enigma Vault’s Model if you already work with a QSA or acquirer and want the vault to shrink your scope at a low cost, including the phone channel.
Choose VGS’s Model if you want audit services bundled with the vault and the Growth budget fits. A G2 reviewer notes some steps auditors require were still missing in its compliance tooling at the time of their review.
Either way, your acquirer or QSA confirms your final scope. Our list of PCI DSS compliant tokenization software compares more vaults on this.
Enigma Vault vs VGS Pricing
Enigma Vault publishes tiers from free to $249.99 a month per vault, while VGS starts at $1,000 a month and G2 users report yearly contracts of $19,000 to $108,000.
VGS Pricing
- Starter: From $1,000 a month.
- Growth: Custom, bundling network tokens, account updater, the PCI compliance subscription, a VGS-provided auditor, large file transfers, VGS Compute, and card attributes.
- What Users Report: G2 users report a typical contract of $19,000 to $108,000 a year, $40 per extra custom CNAME, and no alert when usage goes over the billing allocation.
VGS offers a free way to start building, but production starts at the Starter floor.
Enigma Vault Pricing
| Tier | Card Vault | Data Vault | File Vault |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lite (free) | 1,000 requests/mo | 1,500 requests/mo | 5 GB/mo |
| Plus | $49.99/mo, 20,000 requests | $49.99/mo, 30,000 requests | $49.99/mo, 150 GB |
| Premium | $249.99/mo, 250,000 requests | $249.99/mo, 400,000 requests | $249.99/mo, 1 TB |
Overage rates are published, security is the same on every tier, NoPII Pro is $50 a month, and Customer Vault is priced by engagement. Billing runs through AWS Marketplace.
The Practical Takeaway: A full year on Card Vault Premium costs about $3,000. That is a quarter of VGS’s lowest annual spend, before any Growth features. See our list of the best credit card tokenization software for more price points.
Enigma Vault vs VGS Security and Certifications
Enigma Vault and VGS both hold PCI DSS and SOC 2 attestations. Enigma Vault offers a HIPAA BAA with ISO 27001 in progress, while VGS holds ISO 27001 today.
| Control | Enigma Vault | VGS |
|---|---|---|
| PCI DSS | Level 1 Service Provider (Card, Data, File Vault in scope) | PCI DSS v4.0.1 (Trust Center) |
| SOC 2 | Type II | SOC 2 (Trust Center) |
| ISO 27001 | In progress | Certified (Schellman) |
| HIPAA | BAA available | Not stated on VGS pages |
| Compliance services | AOC and SOC 2 report on request | PCI subscription and provided auditor |
VGS holds ISO 27001 today and Enigma Vault is still working toward it. Enigma Vault offers a BAA for healthcare workloads, which VGS’s public pages do not mention.
Enigma Vault vs VGS Reviews: Praise and Complaints From Real Users
Enigma Vault is rated 4.4/5 from 6 G2 reviews and 4.8/5 on Capterra, while VGS is rated 4.7/5 from 47. Reviewers of both praise support and ask for better documentation.
VGS has the deeper review base, with 47 reviews on G2. Enigma Vault has 6 on G2 and 4 on Capterra. Here is how the themes line up side by side.
| Theme | Enigma Vault reviewers | VGS reviewers |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.4/5 on G2, 4.8/5 on Capterra | 4.7/5 on G2, no Capterra reviews |
| Support | Fast; a domestic card type added in under 24 hours | Very often praised, especially chat |
| Ease of use | Simple API, predictable PCI scope | Proxy is quick to understand; hard for non-technical staff |
| Price | Lower cost than other vendors; one finds it a bit high | “Not very startup-friendly”; $40 per extra CNAME |
| Documentation | Want more documentation | Out of date in places; mobile SDKs need more examples |
| Dashboards and reporting | Want deeper reporting dashboards | Slow admin page, weak log filtering, no overage alerts |
| Breadth | Cards, records, and multi-GB files in one platform | Gateway flexibility; complex routes can need support |
What This Tells You: Both vendors earn strong marks for support, and both are asked for better documentation and reporting. VGS reviewers raise price far more often, while Enigma Vault’s smaller review base is thinner evidence, so ask for a reference in your industry.
Enigma Vault vs VGS by Industry
Enigma Vault fits travel, hotels, contact centers, clinics, and SaaS teams adding AI, while VGS fits fintechs, card issuers, and marketplaces with many endpoints to protect.
Fintech and Card Issuing
Fintechs that issue cards or tune approval rates need card lifecycle tools, not just storage. VGS’s card management platform, network tokens, and account updater are built for them.
Enigma Vault can still cover the ID documents and bank details those fintechs collect during onboarding. See our list of the best tokenization software for fintech.
Best fit: VGS.
Marketplaces and Delivery Platforms
- The Situation: Many endpoints, several processors, and constant releases.
- Why VGS Fits: An inbound proxy protects data without rewriting each service. VGS counts Rappi and Bilt among its customers.
- Where Enigma Vault Fits: Smaller marketplaces with one gateway and a tight budget.
Best fit: VGS.
Travel Agencies and Hotels
Cards arrive by phone and email, and guest IDs and authorization forms arrive as attachments. Few agencies or properties have engineers to configure proxy routes.
Twilio Pay capture, Customer Vault intake links, and File Vault fit that workflow without code. See our guide to card tokenization software for hotel bookings.
| Workflow | How it usually happens | With Enigma Vault |
|---|---|---|
| Booking by phone | Agent types the card into the CRM | Twilio Pay or a secure link; the booking keeps a token |
| Corporate card forms | PDFs and card photos in email | Signed intake record in Customer Vault |
| Guest and traveler IDs | Copies in inboxes and shared drives | File Vault with access controls and expiry |
Best fit: Enigma Vault.
Contact Centers and Subscription Billing Teams
Agents take cards and bank details by voice and chat. Keeping card numbers out of call recordings and CRM notes is a capture problem before it is a storage problem.
VGS’s proxy cannot see a card spoken on a call. Twilio Pay keeps it off the call entirely, and Data Vault keeps bank details out of the CRM.
- Phone Payments: Keypad entry keeps card numbers out of audio, desktops, and notes.
- Identity Verification: Security answers and IDs become Data Vault tokens instead of CRM text.
- Agent Assist AI: Transcripts route through NoPII before they reach the model.
Best fit: Enigma Vault.
Clinics and Healthcare Practices
| Practice need | Enigma Vault | VGS |
|---|---|---|
| BAA | Available | Not stated publicly |
| Intake without IT staff | Customer Vault | Built by engineers |
| Insurance card scans | File Vault | SFTP transfers |
Start with an administrative workflow such as new patient intake or referrals, where Customer Vault and File Vault replace email and fax copies. Clinical decisions and record retention stay with your existing systems and your privacy team.
Best fit: Enigma Vault.
SaaS Platforms Adding AI Features
When support tickets or documents carry customer PII into LLM calls, NoPII tokenizes it before it reaches the model provider, for $50 a month on Pro.
VGS’s AI products focus on agents handling payment credentials, which is a different problem. Our list of PII tokenization software for SaaS covers more options.
The same platform can also move IDs and bank details into Data Vault and route user uploads straight to File Vault, so plaintext stops spreading across your application and infrastructure.
Best fit: Enigma Vault.
What Enigma Vault Offers That VGS Doesn’t
Enigma Vault offers published pricing, no proxy in your request path, PII, PHI, and document vaults with a BAA, phone card capture, customer intake, and NoPII.
- Card Vault runs from a free Lite tier to $249.99 a month for 250,000 requests. VGS production starts at $1,000 a month, so the gap is widest for small and mid-size teams.
- Your app calls the vault only when it captures or uses a value. Everything else stays on your own infrastructure, with nothing to route or reload.
- Data Vault and File Vault handle records and files up to 5 GB, and a BAA is available for healthcare workloads.
- Twilio Pay takes cards over the phone, Customer Vault replaces email intake, and NoPII keeps customer PII out of LLM prompts.
What VGS Offers That Enigma Vault Doesn’t
VGS offers network tokens, account updater, card issuing, an inbound proxy for retrofitting old systems, bundled PCI compliance services, and 47 reviews on G2.
- Network tokens, account updater, BIN data, account validation, and card issuing help fintechs lift approval rates and launch card products.
- The inbound proxy protects existing endpoints with little application code, which saves time on large, older systems.
- The Growth package adds a PCI compliance subscription and a VGS-provided auditor.
- VGS has 47 reviews on G2 at 4.7/5 and large named customers such as Rappi and Bilt.
Common Ground Between Enigma Vault and VGS
Enigma Vault and VGS both keep card data independent of any one processor, both hold PCI DSS and SOC 2 attestations, and both earn praise for fast support.
| Area | What both offer |
|---|---|
| Processor independence | Card data stays outside any one processor, so your gateway remains your partner |
| Attestations | PCI DSS and SOC 2 attestations |
| Support | Reviewers of both single out fast, helpful support |
| Room to improve | Reviewers of both ask for better documentation |
Enigma Vault vs VGS for Startups, Mid-Market, and Enterprise Teams
Enigma Vault is the stronger fit for startups and mid-market teams that need broad protection on a small budget, while VGS fits funded fintechs and enterprises that need card lifecycle tools.
| Company stage | Enigma Vault | VGS |
|---|---|---|
| Early-stage startup | Free Lite tier covers first production volume; same-day prototype | $1,000 a month floor before production |
| Growing SMB or mid-market | $49.99 to $249.99 a month per vault, plus records, files, and intake | Starter or Growth, with contracts G2 users put at $19,000 to $108,000 a year |
| Payments-led fintech | Covers storage and gateway charging, not card lifecycle | Network tokens, account updater, card issuing |
| Enterprise with many endpoints | Direct API calls in each service | Inbound proxy protects existing endpoints with little code |
Stage is a starting point, not a rule. A small fintech issuing cards still needs VGS-style tooling, whereas a large travel or healthcare group often needs Enigma Vault’s phone capture and document vaults more than card lifecycle features.
Which Should You Choose: Enigma Vault or VGS?
Enigma Vault fits low-cost scope reduction, phone capture, documents, and AI privacy, while VGS fits card issuing, many existing endpoints, and bundled audit help.
| Your priority | Go with | Because |
|---|---|---|
| Issuing cards or lifting authorization rates | VGS | Card management, network tokens, account updater |
| Protecting many existing endpoints with little code | VGS | Inbound proxy with little code change |
| Getting PCI audit help bundled with the vault | VGS | PCI compliance subscription and auditor |
| Cutting PCI scope for under $1,000 a month | Enigma Vault | Free tier and $49.99 Plus |
| Keeping card numbers off phone calls | Enigma Vault | Twilio Pay and Customer Vault |
| Storing records and documents, not only cards | Enigma Vault | Data Vault and File Vault |
| Keeping customer PII out of LLM prompts | Enigma Vault | NoPII |
Switching From VGS to Enigma Vault
To move from VGS to Enigma Vault, inventory your routes, agree the card migration with your acquirer, re-tokenize aliases, replace payments add-ons, and run both.
- Inventory Your Routes: List every inbound and outbound VGS route and the fields each one aliases. Each becomes a vault call or a gateway proxy request.
- Agree the Card Migration: Card data moves directly between two PCI-compliant environments, and both providers and your acquirer must agree the process.
- Re-Tokenize Stored Aliases: VGS aliases will not work in a new vault, so every table holding one needs a mapping pass.
- Replace Payments Add-Ons: If you rely on VGS network tokens or account updater, check whether your gateway provides them.
- Run Both, Then Cut Over: Write new data to both for a few weeks and reconcile. Your gateway relationship does not change.
My Verdict on Enigma Vault vs VGS
Enigma Vault removes sensitive data from your systems starting with a free tier, while VGS earns its price if you need network tokens, card issuing, or audit help.
VGS is a mature, well-reviewed payments security platform. If your roadmap needs network tokens, account updater, card issuing, or bundled audit help, it earns its $1,000-plus floor, and I would tell anyone who asked.
If your goal is to get card numbers, customer records, documents, and prompt PII off your systems without a proxy in your request path or a five-figure contract, Enigma Vault does that from $0.
Start free on Enigma Vault, see how Card Vault and Data Vault work, or request a demo with your current VGS routes and we will map them with you.
How We Researched This Comparison
Enigma Vault publishes this page, so read it as a vendor-written comparison. VGS facts come from verygoodsecurity.com, its pricing page and docs, its AWS workshop, and its live G2 and Capterra listings, checked on 30 October 2026. We read all 47 VGS reviews and every Enigma Vault review on G2 and Capterra to write the review section.
