Skyflow and Very Good Security (Very Good Security) are both developer-first platforms that keep sensitive data out of your own systems, Skyflow through a governed data privacy vault and VGS through a proxy that swaps card data for aliases.
This guide compares Skyflow and VGS on architecture, features, pricing, compliance, and reviews, with Enigma Vault alongside as a third option for teams that want published prices and a simpler start.
Skyflow is best for enterprises that need to govern PII, PHI, and card data across datastores, models, and agents, while Very Good Security is best for payment teams that want to protect card traffic through a proxy.
Skyflow vs VGS at a Glance
| Vendor | Skyflow | VGS | Also considerEnigma Vault |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Enterprises controlling sensitive data across datastores, models, and agents | Payments teams retrofitting existing endpoints through a proxy | Teams protecting cards, records, files, and prompts at published prices |
| Entry price | Quote only | From $1,000/mo (Starter) | Free, then $49/mo |
| Free option | Free Try Account on request, test data only | Free sandbox, not for real data, no SLA | Free Lite sandboxes, with hard limits |
| Architecture | API-first vault with a proxy option (Connections) | Proxy-first, with APIs | Separate vaults called by API |
| G2 | 5.0/5 (2, across product listings) | 4.7/5 (47) | 4.4/5 (6) |
| Capterra | No listing found | Listed, 0 reviews | 4.8/5 (4) |
| Next step | Free Lite tiers on Card Vault and Data Vault. Published plans from $49 a month. | ||
Figures are as of 8 November 2026, from each vendor’s own site, docs, and terms and from G2 and Capterra, except the VGS Capterra listing, last read on 30 October 2026. For more options, see our guides to Skyflow alternatives and Very Good Security alternatives.
Skyflow vs VGS: Quick Verdict
Skyflow: An API-first data privacy vault with policy-based access control, encrypted queries, Detect for de-identifying text, files, and audio, and deployment as multi-tenant SaaS, a dedicated VPC, or in your own cloud account. It publishes no prices and offers a free Try Account for non-production use.
VGS: A proxy-first platform with inbound and outbound routes, Collect and Show components, VGS Compute, and a payments line with network tokens, account updater, and card issuing. Starter plans start at $1,000 a month, and Growth is by quote.
Enigma Vault: Separate vaults for cards, records, files, and customer intake, plus NoPII for LLM prompts, with free tiers and published plans from $49 to $499 a month per product.
Pick Skyflow when:
- You need one governed place for PII, PHI, and payment data, with different views for different teams or roles.
- You are building AI features or agents and want de-identification and policy-based re-identification in the same platform.
- You need a dedicated VPC or your own cloud account, and you have an enterprise budget and procurement process.
Pick VGS when:
- Payments are the core of the job and you want network tokens, account updater, and card management from one vendor.
- You want to protect existing endpoints through route configuration instead of code changes.
- You are comfortable with a $1,000-a-month floor and a sales conversation for anything above it.
Pick Enigma Vault when:
- You want published prices and a free tier before any sales process.
- You mainly need to vault cards, records, files, or prompts, and do not need Skyflow’s governance depth or Very Good Security’s payments depth.
- Cards arrive by phone, or you want a no-code intake app for staff and customers.
In short: Skyflow governs sensitive data across a company, VGS specializes in payment data in transit, and Enigma Vault covers the common vaulting jobs at published prices for teams that need neither vendor’s depth.
How Skyflow and VGS Differ at the Core
Skyflow keeps your data in a vault that you query and govern through an API, with a proxy option for outbound calls, whereas VGS puts a proxy in front of your traffic and swaps data for aliases on the way in and out.
To make it concrete, follow one patient booking a procedure. They share a name, date of birth, insurance ID, a card for the deposit, and a scan of their insurance card.
| Piece of data | Skyflow | VGS | Also considerEnigma Vault |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deposit card | The same vault, charged through a Connection to your processor | The vault, captured with Collect or an inbound route and restored on an outbound route | Card Vault, charged through the gateway proxy |
| Date of birth and insurance ID | The same vault, with a policy per field | The vault, selected by a route rule on the field, path, or pattern | Data Vault, with exact-match lookup |
| Insurance card scan | Stored through the Upload File API, or de-identified by Detect | No document store found; file tokenization covers structured formats | File Vault, from 5 GB free |
| How the patient submits it | Your own forms, with Skyflow Elements | Your own forms, with Collect | A Customer Vault intake link, no login |
| Who sees what | Per field and role | Per route, tag, and classifier | Per client and action |
| Next step | Skyflow’s Try Account, VGS’s sandbox, and Enigma Vault’s Lite tiers are all free test environments. Enigma Vault’s first paid plan is $49 a month. | ||
Skyflow’s Model: One schema, one record, many governed views. The front desk might see a masked date of birth while analytics sees only joinable tokens. That is valuable when many teams touch the same data.
Very Good Security’s Model: Routes decide which values are swapped, using rules on fields, paths, or patterns, and your systems store aliases. It is quick to retrofit onto existing traffic, and it sits in the request path of every proxied route.
Enigma Vault’s Model: Each piece of data goes to the vault built for it, and you adopt only what you need. Each vault has its own free tier and published price.
If your hard problem is deciding who sees what across a large estate, Skyflow’s model fits. If it is protecting payment traffic that already flows through your services, VGS’s model fits. If it is getting data out of email, phone calls, and databases in the first place, Enigma Vault’s model fits.
Skyflow vs VGS Security and Compliance
Skyflow, VGS, and Enigma Vault all hold PCI DSS Level 1 and SOC 2 Type II. Skyflow and Very Good Security also hold ISO 27001:2022, which Enigma Vault is still working toward.
| Control | Skyflow | VGS | Also considerEnigma Vault |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCI DSS | Level 1 certified; version not shown | Level 1 live environments; PCI DSS v4.0.1 on its trust center | Level 1 Service Provider (Card, Data, File Vault in scope) |
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | ISO 27001:2022 | ISO/IEC 27001:2022 | In progress |
| HIPAA | “Assessed and eligible”; BAA not found | Not listed on its trust center | BAA available |
| GDPR and privacy | GDPR “assessed and compliant”; DPA for paying customers | GDPR and CCPA listed | EU region for GDPR workloads; DPA from Starter |
| Key management | BYOK and BYOKMS on every deployment model | Customer-managed keys not found | Per-customer AES-256 keys |
| Trust documents | Security page and sub-processor list; no dedicated trust center | Trust center with reports on request | AOC, responsibility matrix, and SOC 2 report from Starter |
| Next step | Ask every vendor for current audit reports and a signed BAA before you send PHI. | ||
Skyflow describes itself as HIPAA “assessed and eligible,” which is not a certification, and we could not find a statement on signing a BAA. With any of the three, the vault can significantly reduce the systems in your PCI scope, but your acquirer or QSA confirms your final scope.
Skyflow vs VGS Features Compared
Compare Skyflow and VGS on data scope, governance, payments, AI, and deployment. Skyflow goes wide on data governance, VGS goes deep on payments, and both leave some capabilities to a sales conversation.
| Feature | Skyflow | VGS | Also considerEnigma Vault |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core model | API-first vault with SDKs, plus Connections, Functions, and Pipelines | Proxy-first, with a Vault API and SDKs | Separate vaults called by API |
| Data types | Structured and unstructured: PII, PCI, PHI, files, text, audio, images | Cards, SSNs, passports, bank accounts, and files | Cards, records, files, intake, and prompts |
| Access control | Roles, row-level rules, and context-aware authorization; masking by role | IAM with SAML providers; tags and classifiers; routes limit data to destinations | Access by client and action |
| Search and compute on protected data | Encrypted queries and aggregation | Not found in VGS docs | Exact-match lookup on encrypted values |
| Run your own code | Functions (Node.js) through Connections | VGS Compute | Not offered |
| Hosted capture | Skyflow Elements | Collect and Show | Hosted card form and Customer Vault |
| Phone (IVR) capture | Not found in docs | None found | Twilio Pay (Growth and above) |
| Network tokens | Listed in docs; availability not stated | Listed on Growth | Not offered |
| Account updater, 3DS, BIN data | Listed in docs | Account updater, 3DS, and card attributes | Not offered (3DS through your gateway) |
| Card issuing | Integration category only | Card management platform | Not offered |
| Processor connections | Stripe, Adyen, Braintree, Cybersource, Checkout | Outbound routes to any HTTPS destination | Gateway proxy, domain allowlisted |
| Files | Upload File API; Detect de-identifies CSV, DOC, PPT, PDF, audio, images; no size limit published | Managed File Tokenization for structured formats; no size limit published | File Vault, 5 GB free up to 5,000 GB |
| LLM prompt protection | Detect: 60 entity types, 40+ languages, guardrails | AI Data Firewall (page only; no pricing or docs) | NoPII, 1M protected tokens a month free |
| Agent and MCP data protection | MCP data protection announced; agent pages are marketing-only | Agentic Commerce Hub (US environment) | Not covered |
| Deployment | Multi-tenant SaaS, dedicated VPC, or BYOC on AWS or GCP | SaaS; private connectivity options; no self-hosted option found | Managed SaaS; NoPII self-hosted edition on Enterprise |
| Customer-managed keys | BYOK and BYOKMS | Not found in VGS docs | Per-customer AES-256 keys |
| Regions | Region-specific vaults; no published list | US, EU, and Asia-Pacific environments; features vary | US and EU; EU residency is an add-on from Growth |
| No-code customer intake | Not offered | Not offered | Customer Vault |
| Next step | Check which features each vendor ships on the plan and region you would use. | ||
Here is how the biggest differences play out in practice.
Where Skyflow and VGS Differ in Practice
Governance and Access Control
Skyflow’s access model combines roles, row-level rules, and context-aware authorization, and it can return a value masked, redacted, or in plain text depending on who asks. Its documentation also describes running encrypted queries and aggregations without decrypting, and customer-managed keys (BYOK and BYOKMS) are supported on every deployment model.
Very Good Security controls access through IAM with SAML identity providers, tags and classifiers on stored data, and routes that limit which data classes reach which destinations. Its documentation does not describe customer-managed keys or searching protected data.
For a company where dozens of teams touch the same records, Skyflow’s model is the more granular. For a payments team that mainly needs to control which services see a card number, routes are enough.
Payments Depth
This is VGS’s home ground. Its payments line includes network tokens, account updater, card attributes with BIN lookup, 3D Secure through a single API, wallet payments, and a card management platform for issuing, and its pricing page lists several of those on the Growth package.
Skyflow’s documentation lists network tokenization, account updater, 3D Secure, and BIN lookup, and it connects to processors such as Stripe, Adyen, Braintree, Cybersource, and Checkout. A 2022 Skyflow post says network tokenization covers Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, while a same-day press release names only Visa, and neither states availability. Skyflow does not describe card issuing as a capability, and we found no Apple Pay or Google Pay support in its docs.
If payments optimization is your main need, ask each vendor to demonstrate the specific features you will use.
AI and Agent Data
Skyflow’s homepage now leads with agents and “Runtime AI Data Control.” What is documented today is Detect, which de-identifies and re-identifies text, files, audio, and images, covers 60 entity types and more than 40 languages, and adds guardrails such as toxicity checks. Java Detect methods are labeled beta in its SDK docs. Skyflow announced MCP data protection in August 2025 and launched Skyflow for Glean on 25 August 2026. Its pages on agent memory, agent identity, and agentic commerce are marketing-only for now, with no documentation behind them that we could find.
VGS markets an AI Data Firewall, a proxy that tokenizes sensitive values in prompts, and an Agentic Commerce Hub with agentic tokens that run in its US environment. The firewall page lists no pricing, documentation, entity counts, or languages.
Enigma Vault’s NoPII covers a narrower job. It tokenizes PII in your application’s LLM API calls across nine or more model providers, with a free tier of one million protected tokens a month. It does not cover agent traffic or training data.
Deployment and Data Residency
Skyflow runs as multi-tenant SaaS, as Virtual Private Skyflow in a dedicated VPC, or as BYOC in your own cloud account on AWS or GCP, where Skyflow operates the service. It describes region-specific vaults but publishes no region list, and its own pages cite different counts, from 100-plus regions to 150-plus countries.
Very Good Security offers live environments in the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, chosen per vault. Its status page lists network tokens, account updater, card attributes, 3D Secure, and file tokenization only in the US environment, so confirm which features run where. We found no self-hosted or on-premises option in VGS’s documentation.
Enigma Vault is managed in US and EU regions, with EU residency an add-on from the Growth tier. NoPII also has a self-hosted edition on Enterprise.
Files and Unstructured Data
Skyflow’s documentation describes an Upload File API that stores files in a file column, and Detect can de-identify CSV, Word, PowerPoint, PDF (redaction only), audio, and images. No file size limit is published. VGS’s Managed File Tokenization handles structured formats such as CSV, JSON, XML, Parquet, ISO 8583, and EBCDIC, with SFTP and cloud-storage transfer, and it publishes no size limit either.
Enigma Vault’s File Vault stores encrypted files from a free 5 GB up to 5,000 GB.
Time to First Token and Support
Very Good Security has a free, self-serve sandbox, though it is not for real data. Skyflow’s homepage offers a demo, and its free Try Account is request-gated: a team member contacts you to set it up. The Try Account is for non-production use with test data only, and it carries no support or SLA. Production access comes through a sales process or an AWS Marketplace private offer.
On support, Skyflow’s Terms describe standard support by default, with premium levels set in the order form and a Slack channel only on premium. VGS publishes no support tiers, and G2 reviewers often praise its chat support.
Skyflow vs VGS Pricing
What Skyflow Charges
Skyflow publishes no plans or prices, and its pricing URL simply shows the homepage. Quotes come through a demo or an AWS Marketplace private offer. A free Try Account exists for evaluation with test data only.
Skyflow’s Terms of Service, updated 15 July 2026, show how a contract works. Fees are based on a count of “Unique Identifiers,” such as a person, entity, or account number, and are invoiced annually in advance. Fees rise 5% a year at renewal, and an order form can set usage limits, with retroactive true-up charges for excess use at Skyflow’s then-current rates.
Buyer data is too thin to quote: Vendr has a single Skyflow purchase on record.
What VGS Charges
VGS publishes two packages. Starter plans start at $1,000 a month, with no included features, units, or overage listed. Growth has no price, and its card lists network tokens, account updater, a PCI compliance subscription, a VGS-provided auditor, large file transfers, VGS Compute, and card attributes. Vendr shows a median of $56,700 a year for Very Good Security, with a range of $21,600 to $132,000, and buyers there report that overage charges can be negotiated.
What Enigma Vault Charges
Each vault is priced separately, and every tier is published. Card Vault runs $0, $49, $249, and $499 a month for 1,000, 20,000, 250,000, and 1,000,000 requests. Data Vault runs the same four prices for 1,500, 30,000, 400,000, and 2,000,000 requests. File Vault includes 5 GB free, then 150 GB, 1,000 GB, and 5,000 GB. Yearly prices are $550, $2,700, and $5,500 on the paid tiers, and billing runs through the developer portal or AWS Marketplace.
Skyflow vs VGS Cost at Three Business Sizes
| Business size | Skyflow | VGS | Also considerEnigma Vault |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small team protecting one data type | Quote; free Try Account for test data only | From $1,000/mo | $0 on Lite to test; $49 on Starter |
| Growing company protecting cards and records | Quote | From $1,000/mo | $98/mo (Card Vault and Data Vault on Starter) |
| Established platform with cards, records, and files | Quote, invoiced annually in advance | Growth, by quote; Vendr’s median is $56,700 a year | $747/mo (Growth on all three vaults), or $8,100 a year |
| Next step | Skyflow publishes no prices and VGS publishes only its floor, so ask both for a written quote at your volume. | ||
How to Read This Table: Skyflow bills on identifiers, VGS does not publish its billing unit, and Enigma Vault bills on requests or storage, so the units are not identical. Use the table for order of magnitude, and remember that Enigma Vault’s price covers less governance depth and fewer payments features.
The Practical Takeaway: Ask each vendor for a written quote at your volume, including renewal and overage terms, and compare it with the published Enigma Vault price. See our list of the best data tokenization software for more price points.
What Skyflow’s Comparison Page Says About VGS
Skyflow publishes its own “Skyflow vs. Very Good Security” page, and searchers often land on it first. It makes several claims worth checking.
- Migration in days with no disruption. Its customer quotes do not mention VGS, so we found no evidence for the timeline.
- GoodRx cut total cost of ownership by over 67%. The quote, from GoodRx’s CTO, names no previous vendor, has no baseline or date, and is worded differently on Skyflow’s customer page, which says 67% without “over”, so it says nothing specific about moving from Very Good Security.
- “No overage fees.” Skyflow’s Terms allow usage limits and true-up charges for excess use, so ask for the overage terms in writing.
- VGS offers only basic tokenization. VGS’s documentation shows a wider product than that, including many alias formats, Compute, file tokenization, and three regions.
Very Good Security has no comparison page naming Skyflow. Its only comparison page names no competitors in the text we could read. Treat both as marketing, and let only the claims you can test in a proof of concept count.
Skyflow vs VGS Reviews
VGS has 47 reviews on G2 at 4.7/5. Skyflow has two on G2, spread across its product listings, and no Capterra listing that we could find. Enigma Vault has 6 on G2 and 4 on Capterra.
| Source | Skyflow | VGS | Also considerEnigma Vault |
|---|---|---|---|
| G2 | 5.0/5 from 2 reviews | 4.7/5 from 47 reviews | 4.4/5 from 6 reviews |
| Capterra | No listing found | Listed, no reviews | 4.8/5 from 4 reviews |
| Other public proof | Customer stories chosen by Skyflow | Named customers and testimonials | Reviewer quotes on support speed and cost |
| Next step | Six reviews is a thin base. Ask every vendor for a reference in your industry. | ||
What Skyflow Reviewers Say
Skyflow’s G2 reviews are split across product listings, and the two it has are positive. One reviewer on the Payments Data Privacy Vault says it keeps client payment details confidential, and one on the Healthcare Data Privacy Vault values its HIPAA alignment but has noticed occasional slowness. Two reviews is not a meaningful sample. Customer quotes on Skyflow’s own site, such as GoodRx and Scalapay, are chosen by Skyflow.
What VGS Reviewers Say
Reviewers on G2 often praise support, especially chat, and say the proxy was quick to understand. The critical notes cluster around price and polish: one reviewer calls it not very startup-friendly and another reports $40 for each extra custom domain, while others cite out-of-date documentation, a slow admin page, and weak log filtering.
What Enigma Vault Reviewers Say
Reviewers on G2 praise a simple API, clear PCI scope, lower cost than other vendors, and quick support, and ask for more documentation and deeper reporting dashboards. Six reviews is a thin base, so ask each vendor for a reference in your industry.
Who Should Choose Skyflow, VGS, or Enigma Vault
An Enterprise Data Platform or AI Program With Many Teams
Skyflow fits best. Field-level policies, encrypted queries, a dedicated VPC or your own cloud account, and Detect for AI workflows suit a company where many teams touch the same sensitive records. Expect a demo, a quote, and an annual contract.
A Payments Fintech or Marketplace
VGS fits best if payments are the core. Network tokens, account updater, card management, and a proxy that protects existing endpoints are its strengths. If your card volume is modest, price Enigma Vault first.
A Healthcare Organization
Ask every vendor for a signed BAA before you send PHI. Skyflow describes itself as HIPAA assessed and eligible, which is not a certification, and we could not find a BAA statement. Very Good Security does not list HIPAA on its trust center. Enigma Vault offers a BAA for healthcare workloads.
A Team That Wants Published Prices and a Free Start
Skyflow’s free Try Account is for test data only, and VGS’s sandbox is not for real data. Enigma Vault’s free Lite tiers on Card Vault, Data Vault, and File Vault are also sandboxes for development and testing, but it publishes every paid tier, from $49 a month, so you can price your own volume before talking to anyone.
Questions to Ask Skyflow and VGS Before You Sign
Bring these to both vendors. The answers shown are what each publishes today, so you can see where a sales call is needed.
| Question | Skyflow | VGS | Also considerEnigma Vault |
|---|---|---|---|
| What will year one cost? | Quote after a demo; ask how Unique Identifiers are counted | Starter from $1,000/mo; ask what is in the base price | Published: $0, $49, $249, or $499 a month per product |
| Can we try it before signing? | A free Try Account on request, with test data only and no support or SLA | A free sandbox, not for real data | Yes, on the free Lite sandboxes, which have hard limits |
| Which regions can hold our data? | Region-specific vaults, a dedicated VPC, or BYOC; ask for the region list | US, EU, and Asia-Pacific; ask which features run where | US and EU; EU residency is an add-on from Growth |
| Can you sign a BAA? | “Assessed and eligible”; ask for a signed BAA | HIPAA not listed on its trust center; ask | Yes |
| What are the overage and renewal terms? | Terms allow usage limits, true-up for excess use, and a 5% annual renewal increase | Not published; Vendr buyers report overages can be negotiated | Published overage rates; Lite has a hard limit |
| How do we leave? | Ask for the export process in writing | Ask for the export process in writing | Ask for the export process in writing |
| Next step | Put the same questions to Enigma Vault. | ||
The last row matters for all three. Tokens never transfer between vaults on their own, so agree the exit process before you sign, whereas most buyers only ask when they are already leaving.
Moving From Skyflow or VGS to Enigma Vault
If the price or the contract terms no longer fit, the move is a data migration between two vendors, so plan it before you cancel anything.
- Map What You Store: List every field, file, and route, and which team or service reads each one.
- Check Your Governance Needs: If you rely on field-level policies per role, confirm that Enigma Vault’s access by client and action covers them.
- Plan for Tokens That Do Not Transfer: Re-tokenize into the new vault and update every system that stores the old token or alias.
- 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. If you want help mapping what you store, book a migration call.
Final Verdict: Skyflow, VGS, or Enigma Vault?
Skyflow and VGS are built for different jobs. Skyflow is the stronger choice when the problem is governing sensitive data and AI workflows across a company, and Very Good Security is the stronger choice when the problem is payment data in your existing traffic. I’d decide on the job first and the price second, and I’d get a written quote with overage and renewal terms from either one before you commit.
If you want published prices, a free start, and vaults for cards, records, files, and prompts, Enigma Vault covers those. It has less governance depth than Skyflow and fewer payments features than VGS, so if your project depends on either, it is not the right choice.
Compare against your actual data.
Book a demo and we will tell you honestly whether Skyflow, VGS, or Enigma Vault fits, or explore the platform first.
More comparisons: Enigma Vault vs Skyflow, Enigma Vault vs VGS, VGS vs Basis Theory, and Basis Theory vs Skyflow.
How We Researched This Comparison
We checked every fact on 8 November 2026, except the VGS Capterra listing, last read on 30 October 2026. Skyflow facts come from skyflow.com, its documentation, its Terms of Service (updated 15 July 2026), its security page, and its press releases. VGS facts come from verygoodsecurity.com, including its pricing page, documentation, trust center, status page, and press releases. Vendr figures and G2 and Capterra reviews and listings are third-party, and Enigma Vault facts come from our own pricing and product pages.
Where a vendor makes a claim about itself or a rival, such as migration times or cost savings, we label it as a vendor claim. If something here is out of date, tell us through our contact page and we will check it.
