Softwr

Government · head to head

Accela vs Very Good Security

Accela logo

Accela

Government

Civic Solutions for Modern Government

From
$800/month
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Very Good Security logo

Very Good Security

Cybersecurity

Tokenisation proxy that keeps card and personal data out of your own systems and out of PCI scope

From
$1000/month
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Accela pricing not publicly available; requires sales consultation and government procurement process; Very Good Security vGS sits in the live path of every request carrying sensitive data, so its latency and availability become yours, and an outage in the proxy is a payment outage no matter how healthy your own systems are.
  • They diverge on capability: Accela covers Building Permits, Very Good Security covers Aliasing proxy.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Accela and Very Good Security actually diverge.

Attributes where Accela and Very Good Security differ
AttributeAccelaVery Good Security
Starting price$800/month$1000/month
Pricing modelsubscriptionPer month
PlatformsWebWeb, API
CategoryGovernmentCybersecurity
Founded1999Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Accela

  • Building Permits
  • Business Licenses
  • Code Enforcement
  • Planning & Zoning
  • Environmental Health
  • Esri ArcGIS
  • Bluebeam
  • DocuSign

Only in Very Good Security

  • Aliasing proxy
  • PCI scope reduction
  • Network tokenisation
  • Processor optionality
  • Card issuing data
  • Vault and access controls
  • Data residency options
  • Compliance artefacts

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Accela

  • Citizen Servicesnot Very Good Security
  • Records Managementnot Very Good Security
  • Public Safetynot Very Good Security
  • Civic Engagementnot Very Good Security

Very Good Security

  • A marketplace facing its first PCI DSS Level 1 assessment that wants to keep card data off its own estate rather than harden a dozen servicesnot Accela
  • A merchant negotiating with a second acquirer that needs card credentials portable so the negotiation is real rather than theoreticalnot Accela
  • A fintech collecting bank account and identity documents that wants sensitive fields absent from logs, backups and analytics warehouses by constructionnot Accela
  • A card issuer that must display a full PAN in its own mobile app without the app or its backend touching cardholder datanot Accela

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Accela

  • Pricing not publicly available; requires sales consultation and government procurement process
  • Significant upfront implementation costs typical of enterprise government software
  • Complex deployment requiring significant customization for different agency workflows

Very Good Security

  • VGS sits in the live path of every request carrying sensitive data, so its latency and availability become yours, and an outage in the proxy is a payment outage no matter how healthy your own systems are.
  • Token portability is the whole selling point yet leaving VGS means migrating tokens back out, a project the vendor has no incentive to streamline, so the lock-in you removed from your acquirer partly moves to VGS.
  • Entry pricing at around one thousand US dollars a month is real money for a pre-revenue fintech, and it buys volume-limited throughput, so cost scales with exactly the growth that made you buy it.
  • Scope reduction is not scope elimination: your QSA still assesses how you integrate, and teams regularly discover that a support tool or an internal admin screen pulled plaintext back in and dragged systems into scope again.
  • Proxy-based interception constrains how you design request flows, and non-standard payloads, streaming uploads or binary formats often need custom routing rules that make debugging production issues noticeably harder.

Pricing, plan by plan

Accela

$800/month
  • Civic Platform$800/month
    • Permitting
    • Licensing
    • Code Enforcement

Very Good Security

$1000/month
  • Starter$1000/month
    • Aliasing proxy
    • Vault storage
    • PCI scope reduction
  • Growth$undefined/month
    • Network tokenisation
    • Multiple processors
    • Data residency options
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Custom vault architecture
    • Dedicated support and SLA
    • Contractual compliance coverage

Which should you pick?

Choose Accela if

  • You need building permits.
  • You also want business licenses.
Accela review

Choose Very Good Security if

  • You need aliasing proxy.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want pci scope reduction.
Very Good Security review

Questions people ask

Is Accela or Very Good Security better?
Neither clearly leads. Accela starts at $800/month and Very Good Security at $1000/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Accela or Very Good Security?
Accela starts at $800/month and Very Good Security at $1000/month.
Does Accela or Very Good Security run on more platforms?
Accela runs on Web. Very Good Security runs on Web, API.
What is Accela best used for?
Accela is most often used for citizen services, records management, public safety, civic engagement. Of those, citizen services and records management are not what Very Good Security is typically brought in for.
What can Accela do that Very Good Security cannot?
Accela covers Building Permits, Business Licenses, Code Enforcement, Planning & Zoning. Very Good Security covers Aliasing proxy, PCI scope reduction, Network tokenisation, Processor optionality.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Accela: What government functions does Accela's Civic Platform cover?

Accela provides solutions for permitting (building, planning, zoning), licensing (business, occupational, alcohol), public health (environmental health, fire prevention), asset management, and citizen services (complaints, requests).

Source
Very Good Security: Does VGS make me PCI compliant?

No. It removes cardholder data from your systems so your assessment covers a far smaller boundary, but you still complete an assessment and your integration is part of it.

Accela: Does Accela include AI capabilities?

Yes. Accela offers CivicAI, described as AI built for government rather than adapted from commercial solutions, with emphasis on explainability and auditability for regulatory compliance.

Source
Very Good Security: Can I move to another processor without re-collecting cards?

Yes, that is a core reason people buy it. The vault reveals stored credentials to whichever processor you route to.

Accela: Can Accela handle multiple department reviews simultaneously?

Yes. Accela's building permitting module enables concurrent multi-department review where fire, planning, public works, and utilities departments review applications simultaneously, with real-time tracking of annotations and approvals.

Source
Very Good Security: What does it cost?

Published entry pricing is about one thousand US dollars per month; growth and enterprise tiers are quoted.

Accela: How many government agencies use Accela?

Accela serves 900+ government agencies globally, including over 50% of top U.S. cities and counties.

Source
Very Good Security: Is it only for card data?

No. The proxy handles any sensitive field, including bank details, national identifiers and documents, though payments is where the product is now focused.

Accela: Does Accela publish its pricing?

No. Accela does not publish pricing on its website. Costs are custom-quoted based on agency size, modules deployed, and integration needs, typically through government procurement processes.

Source
Share

Related pages

More on Accela

More on Very Good Security

Keep looking

Other head to heads