Quick verdict
VGS = network-layer proxy for payment card data, zero code changes, proven at 10 billion tokens in production, backed by Visa, but production pricing is custom-quoted.
Skyflow = API-first privacy vault with polymorphic encryption and a purpose-built LLM PII Gateway, but no public pricing and only 2 G2 reviews.
If you're a fintech or payments team that needs to get card data out of your PCI scope fast, I'd point you to VGS first. The proxy model means you don't rewrite your application, the scale numbers are real and public, and 52 G2 reviews give you something to evaluate against.
Skyflow earns a look if your need is broader than payments. Its polymorphic encryption lets the same stored value resolve differently depending on the requester's role, useful if you have multiple internal systems (billing, support, analytics) that each need a different view of the same underlying data. That's a real architectural advantage, but you'd be betting on a vendor with only 2 public reviews and no visible price tag.
For most of you weighing a straightforward payment tokenization decision, VGS's track record and transparency around scale make it the safer starting point. Skyflow is the pick only if the polymorphic access-control model is a named requirement, not a nice-to-have.
VGS vs Skyflow at a glance
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free tier | External rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Fintechs needing a zero-code-change proxy for payment card data at scale | Free (Developer tier, testing only) | Yes for development; production requires custom quote | G2 4.5/5 (52 reviews) | |
Teams needing polymorphic, role-based token views across payment and general PII | Custom quote | No (evaluation access only) | G2 5.0/5 (2 reviews) |
Feature comparison by criteria
| Criteria | VGS | Skyflow |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free (Developer tier, testing only) | Custom quote only |
| Production pricing | Custom quote (Growth, Enterprise) | Custom quote (Enterprise) |
| G2 rating | 4.5/5 (52 reviews) | 5.0/5 (2 reviews, not statistically meaningful) |
| Architecture | Network-layer proxy, zero application changes | API-first privacy vault, polymorphic encryption |
| Primary scope | Payment card data (PANs, ACH) | General PII plus payment-adjacent data |
| Scale proof | 10 billion tokens stored, 10 billion monthly interactions | Not publicly disclosed |
| Notable backers | Visa, Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs | Not disclosed |
| Role-based token views | No, single format-preserving alias | Yes, polymorphic (full value, masked, format-preserving) |
| PCI DSS | Level 1 certified | Not PCI-focused; general privacy vault |
| LLM-specific gateway | No | Yes, purpose-built LLM PII Gateway, 50+ data types |
| Our score (out of 10) | 8.1 | 7.2 |
What VGS and Skyflow actually cost
Neither vendor makes this easy for you, but the entry points differ.
VGS offers a free Developer tier you can use to build and test an integration right away. Production card tokenization, the Growth and Enterprise tiers, is custom-quoted, so you’ll need a sales conversation before you know your real cost. There’s no published rate card for production use.
Skyflow doesn’t offer a self-serve tier at all. Access starts with an evaluation request, and every tier beyond that, including the standard Enterprise plan, is custom-quoted. You can’t even start testing without going through a request process first.
If you want to start building today without waiting on anyone, VGS’s free Developer tier gets you there. Skyflow asks you to request access before you can touch the product at all.
How the two architectures actually differ
VGS is a network-layer proxy. Your application keeps sending card data exactly as it does today; VGS intercepts it before it reaches your servers and returns a format-preserving alias, same 16-digit structure, same BIN, same last four digits, that your existing database and billing logic treat as a real card number. No schema changes, no new intake flow.
Skyflow is a broader API-first vault with a genuinely different access model: polymorphic encryption. The same underlying value can be revealed in different forms depending on who, or what system, is asking. A support rep might see a masked card number, a billing system might see the full value, and an analytics pipeline might see a format-preserving token, all from the same stored record.
The practical question for you: is your problem narrowly “get card data out of my PCI scope without rewriting my app” (VGS fits precisely), or is it “govern access to sensitive data differently across multiple internal systems” (Skyflow’s polymorphic model is built for that)?
Feature-by-feature comparison
| Feature | VGS | Skyflow |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Yes (dev/testing only) | No (evaluation access only) |
| Format-preserving tokenization | Yes | Not applicable, polymorphic model instead |
| Network tokenization (Visa / Mastercard) | Yes | No |
| Processor-agnostic | Yes | Not applicable, not payment-processor focused |
| Subscription / recurring billing support | Yes | No |
| Polymorphic / role-based token views | No | Yes |
| Purpose-built LLM PII gateway | No | Yes |
| Built-in entity detection (50+ types) | No | Yes |
| REST API | Yes | Yes |
| SDK | Not published | Yes |
| AWS Marketplace listing | No | No |
| On-prem / air-gapped deployment | No | No |
| PCI DSS Level 1 | Yes | No, not PCI-focused |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | Yes |
| HIPAA / BAA | Aligned | Aligned |
| FedRAMP | No | No |
This table makes the split obvious. VGS wins every row tied to payment-specific infrastructure, network tokenization, processor portability, recurring billing. Skyflow wins every row tied to general-purpose PII handling, entity detection, polymorphic access, LLM gateway. There’s almost no overlap where both check the same box, which is the clearest signal that these two aren’t really competing for the same buyer so much as serving two different problems that happen to both be called “tokenization.”
Where VGS wins
Proven scale at a level Skyflow hasn’t publicly matched. 10 billion tokens stored and 10 billion monthly interactions is real production evidence, not a roadmap claim. If you’re processing serious card-on-file volume, VGS has demonstrably handled it before.
Visa as a direct strategic investor. Visa, Andreessen Horowitz, and Goldman Sachs backing VGS is a meaningful signal specifically in the payments space. Visa doesn’t make this kind of investment casually.
A much deeper independent review base. 52 G2 reviews at 4.5/5 gives you real signal to evaluate. Skyflow’s 2 reviews don’t.
Zero-code-change integration. If you already have an application processing card numbers, VGS’s proxy model requires no rewrite. You route traffic through it and get an alias back.
PCI DSS Level 1, built around payment compliance specifically. If card data compliance is your primary driver, VGS leads with it.
Where Skyflow wins
Polymorphic encryption is a real architectural advantage if you need it. One stored value, multiple role-based views, is a capability VGS doesn’t offer at all. If you have genuine multi-consumer access requirements, Skyflow removes engineering work you’d otherwise have to build yourself.
Broader data-type scope. Skyflow isn’t limited to payment cards. It’s built to handle general PII alongside payment-adjacent data under one policy engine, which matters if your use case spans both.
Purpose-built LLM PII Gateway. If you’re tokenizing data specifically to protect it before an LLM API call, Skyflow’s gateway is architected for exactly that pattern, detecting 50+ data types and masking per policy before the prompt is sent.
Where VGS and Skyflow are a wash
- No published production pricing. Both require a sales conversation to get a real number.
- SOC 2 and ISO 27001. Both are certified on both fronts.
- API-first integration philosophy. Both are designed to drop into existing infrastructure rather than requiring a ground-up rebuild.
- HIPAA alignment. Both support HIPAA-aligned deployments.
What reviewers report
VGS holds 4.5/5 across 52 G2 reviews. The consistent praise is the zero-rewrite proxy model and production reliability at the scale fintechs actually need. The recurring concern is that VGS becomes a network dependency sitting in your live payment path, so proxy latency or availability issues affect every transaction.
Skyflow holds 5.0/5 across exactly 2 G2 reviews. I wouldn’t read much into that number either way. Two data points can’t tell you how the product performs across a real customer base, and the rating could move substantially with the next review in either direction.
Security and compliance side by side
| Control | VGS | Skyflow |
|---|---|---|
| PCI DSS | Level 1 certified | Not PCI-focused |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| HIPAA | Aligned | Aligned |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | Yes |
| Audit logs | Yes | Yes |
Both clear a similar certification bar, but VGS leads specifically with payment-focused PCI DSS Level 1 certification, while Skyflow’s strength is its broader general-purpose privacy vault positioning rather than payment-specific compliance.
Switching cost and what you keep if you leave
Both vendors lock your tokens into their own vault by design. VGS’s documentation is explicit that migrating to another processor requires a formal vault export negotiation, not a simple API swap. The same structural reality applies to Skyflow.
If you’re leaving VGS, you’re rewriting your proxy integration and re-establishing new aliases for every stored card. If you’re leaving Skyflow, you’re re-architecting around whatever role-based access logic you built on top of its polymorphic model, which may be harder to replicate elsewhere since few competitors offer the same capability. Budget a real migration project either direction.
Who should pick which
| You are… | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A fintech needing to reduce PCI scope fast without rewriting your app | VGS | Zero-code-change proxy, proven at scale |
| Processing serious card-on-file volume | VGS | 10 billion tokens stored, Visa-backed |
| Evaluating heavily on independent review signal | VGS | 52 G2 reviews vs. Skyflow’s 2 |
| Needing role-based, polymorphic views of the same data | Skyflow | No equivalent capability in VGS |
| Building a unified vault for payment data plus general PII | Skyflow | Broader scope than VGS’s payment-only focus |
| Tokenizing data specifically for an LLM pipeline | Skyflow | Purpose-built LLM PII Gateway |
Which one I would actually deploy
If your problem is straightforward, get card data out of your PCI scope without rewriting your application, I’d point you to VGS. The scale numbers are real and public, Visa’s investment is a meaningful signal in the payments space specifically, and 52 G2 reviews give you something solid to evaluate against. For most fintechs and payment-focused teams, that combination of proof and focus makes VGS the lower-risk pick.
Skyflow is worth your time only if you have a genuine, named requirement for polymorphic, role-based access to the same underlying data across multiple internal systems, or if you specifically need a unified vault spanning payment and general PII with an LLM-aware gateway built in. That’s a real capability VGS doesn’t offer, but you’d be betting on a vendor with just 2 public reviews and no visible price tag to validate the decision against.
For the common case, tokenize payment card data, reduce PCI scope, keep your application unchanged, VGS’s track record makes it the safer starting point.
Both sit alongside other platforms in my best payment tokenization software and best PII tokenization software for LLM roundups, including EnigmaVault, which covers both payment and general PII tokenization under one accessible, transparently-priced vault if neither VGS nor Skyflow’s scope and pricing model fit your situation.
Affiliate disclosure: CEOPickz may earn a commission when readers click links to vendors featured on this page and become paying customers. This does not affect our ratings or recommendations. Ratings and pricing for both tools are carried from our October 2026 research passes on best credit card tokenization software and best PII tokenization software for LLM , where G2 ratings and review counts were read from live G2 pages and pricing was verified from vendor pricing pages. See our methodology for how we research security and compliance software.
Frequently asked questions
Is VGS or Skyflow cheaper?
Neither publishes a production price, so you can't fully answer this without a sales call either way. VGS at least gives you a free Developer tier you can build and test against before that call. Skyflow's free access is evaluation-only, gated behind a request. If upfront cost transparency matters to you, VGS is marginally easier to get started with, but you'll hit the same custom-quote wall as Skyflow once you need production volume.
What is the core difference between VGS and Skyflow?
VGS is a specialized network-layer proxy built for one job: intercept payment card data before it reaches your servers and hand back a format-preserving alias, with zero code changes on your side. Skyflow is a broader, API-first privacy vault that handles general PII as well as payment-adjacent data, and its polymorphic encryption lets the same token resolve differently depending on who's requesting it. If your need is purely payment tokenization at scale, VGS's focus works in your favor. If you need one vault governing both payment data and general PII with role-based access, Skyflow's broader scope is the advantage.
Which has more independent review validation?
VGS, by a wide margin. 52 G2 reviews at 4.5/5 versus Skyflow's 2 reviews at 5.0/5. A 2-review average isn't statistically meaningful; it tells you almost nothing about how the product performs across a real customer base. If independent validation matters to your vendor decision, VGS gives you substantially more to evaluate.
Does either tool support PCI DSS compliance for payment card data?
VGS is PCI DSS Level 1 certified and built specifically around reducing your PCI audit scope for card data. Skyflow is HIPAA-aligned and SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certified, but it isn't positioned primarily as a PCI-focused payment vault the way VGS is. If payment card compliance is your main driver, VGS is the more directly relevant choice.
Is Skyflow's polymorphic encryption worth evaluating despite the thin review base?
It depends on whether you have a genuine multi-consumer access-control problem. If different internal systems (billing, customer support, analytics) each need a different view of the same underlying value, full value for one, masked for another, Skyflow's polymorphic vault solves that natively, and building the equivalent logic yourself on top of VGS's simpler alias model would be real engineering work. If you don't have that specific requirement, you're accepting a thin evidence base for a capability you won't use.
Can I use VGS and Skyflow together?
It's architecturally possible but not how either is typically deployed. VGS is designed to sit in your payment data path specifically; Skyflow is designed as a broader PII and LLM-adjacent vault. Running both would mean maintaining two separate vault relationships and two token namespaces for data that overlaps in the payment-adjacent middle. Most teams pick one as their primary vault based on whether payment-specific scale (VGS) or cross-data-type polymorphic access (Skyflow) matters more to them.