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Ansible vs Very Good Security

Ansible logo

Ansible

Developer Tools

Simple, agentless IT automation

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
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

  • Only Ansible has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Ansible the open source project gives the engine and the language; the automation controller, automation mesh, automation hub, analytics and governance all belong to the paid Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform; 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: Ansible covers Playbooks, 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 Ansible and Very Good Security actually diverge.

Attributes where Ansible and Very Good Security differ
AttributeAnsibleVery Good Security
Starting priceFree$1000/month
Pricing modelopen-sourcePer month
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsLinux, Windows, Mac, ApiWeb, API
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCybersecurity
Founded2012Unknown

Identical on both: 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 Ansible

  • Playbooks
  • Inventory management
  • Module library
  • Variables and templating
  • Handlers
  • Roles
  • Async tasks
  • Plugins

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.

Ansible

  • Configuration managementnot Very Good Security
  • Server provisioningnot Very Good Security
  • Application deploymentnot Very Good Security
  • Multi-node managementnot Very Good Security
  • Orchestrationnot 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 Ansible
  • A merchant negotiating with a second acquirer that needs card credentials portable so the negotiation is real rather than theoreticalnot Ansible
  • A fintech collecting bank account and identity documents that wants sensitive fields absent from logs, backups and analytics warehouses by constructionnot Ansible
  • A card issuer that must display a full PAN in its own mobile app without the app or its backend touching cardholder datanot Ansible

Where each one falls short

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

Ansible

  • The open source project gives the engine and the language; the automation controller, automation mesh, automation hub, analytics and governance all belong to the paid Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
  • Event-Driven Ansible and the AI coding assistant are platform features rather than open source ones
  • Red Hat does not publish platform pricing
  • Running open source Ansible at scale means building the control plane the platform otherwise provides

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

Ansible

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • Community edition
    • Unlimited nodes
    • Full functionality
  • Ansible Automation Platform$5000/year
    • Enterprise support
    • Ansible Tower
    • Advanced features

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 Ansible if

  • You need playbooks.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, Mac, Api.
  • You also want inventory management.
Ansible 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 Ansible or Very Good Security better?
Neither clearly leads. Ansible starts at Free 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, Ansible or Very Good Security?
Ansible has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Ansible and $1000/month for Very Good Security.
Does Ansible or Very Good Security run on more platforms?
Ansible runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, Api. Very Good Security runs on Web, API.
Can I use Ansible for free?
Yes. Ansible has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Very Good Security starts at $1000/month.
What is Ansible best used for?
Ansible is most often used for configuration management, server provisioning, application deployment, multi-node management. Of those, configuration management and server provisioning are not what Very Good Security is typically brought in for.
What can Ansible do that Very Good Security cannot?
Ansible covers Playbooks, Inventory management, Module library, Variables and templating. Very Good Security covers Aliasing proxy, PCI scope reduction, Network tokenisation, Processor optionality.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Ansible: Is Ansible free for commercial use?

Ansible Collaborative is open source. The page describes it as 'an open source IT automation engine' and does not impose restrictions on commercial use for the open source version.

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.

Ansible: What is the difference between open source Ansible and the commercial alternative?

The page references Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform as an enterprise alternative to Ansible Collaborative, but does not disclose specific differences, pricing, or feature comparisons between the two offerings.

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.

Ansible: Is there paid support available for Ansible?

The page does not disclose whether paid support contracts are available for open source Ansible or whether Red Hat offers support plans for their enterprise Ansible Automation Platform.

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.

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.

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