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Developer Tools · head to head

Avo vs Very Good Security

Avo logo

Avo

Developer Tools

Analytics governance: define a tracking plan, generate typed code from it, and catch drift before release

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 Avo has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Avo editor seats are the metered unit and only five are included on the Team plan, so a company where many squads define their own events pays 50 dollars per additional editor and the real cost quickly exceeds the headline 250.; 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: Avo covers Tracking plan, 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 Avo and Very Good Security actually diverge.

Attributes where Avo and Very Good Security differ
AttributeAvoVery Good Security
Starting priceFree$1000/month
Pricing modelPer editor seat per monthPer month
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, Web SDK, APIWeb, API
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCybersecurity

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 Avo

  • Tracking plan
  • Code generation
  • Inspector
  • Branching and approvals
  • Schema sync
  • Stakeholder access
  • Audit trail
  • Data design standards

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.

Avo

  • A product team whose iOS and Android event names have drifted apart, making cross-platform funnels meaninglessnot Very Good Security
  • An analytics lead who wants tracking changes to go through review rather than appearing in production unannouncednot Very Good Security
  • A company migrating between analytics tools that needs a canonical event schema independent of any vendornot Very Good Security
  • An engineering organisation that wants event tracking mistakes caught by the compiler rather than by an analyst three months laternot 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 Avo
  • A merchant negotiating with a second acquirer that needs card credentials portable so the negotiation is real rather than theoreticalnot Avo
  • A fintech collecting bank account and identity documents that wants sensitive fields absent from logs, backups and analytics warehouses by constructionnot Avo
  • A card issuer that must display a full PAN in its own mobile app without the app or its backend touching cardholder datanot Avo

Where each one falls short

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

Avo

  • Editor seats are the metered unit and only five are included on the Team plan, so a company where many squads define their own events pays 50 dollars per additional editor and the real cost quickly exceeds the headline 250.
  • Avo governs event definitions but does not fix historic data, so an organisation with years of inconsistent tracking still faces the backfill problem it cannot solve.
  • Code generation requires engineering teams to adopt generated modules in their build, and in practice some platform teams resist, leaving parts of the estate ungoverned and the plan only partly enforced.
  • Inspector event volume is capped by tier, at 100,000 on free and one million on enterprise, so a high-traffic consumer product samples rather than observes everything and drift can hide in the unobserved portion.
  • It is an additional tool in an analytics stack that already costs money, and justifying it requires the organisation to accept that its existing data is unreliable, which is a political argument as much as a budgetary one.

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

Avo

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 2 editor seats
    • Unlimited comment seats
    • 100,000 events observed in Inspector
  • Team$250/month
    • 5 editor seats included
    • Additional editors at $50 per month annually
    • Approval workflows and branch audits
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Custom seats and event volume
    • 1,000,000 events observed in Inspector
    • Enforceable approval and design standards

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 Avo if

  • You need tracking plan.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android, Web SDK, API.
  • You also want code generation.
Avo 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 Avo or Very Good Security better?
Neither clearly leads. Avo 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, Avo or Very Good Security?
Avo has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Avo and $1000/month for Very Good Security.
Does Avo or Very Good Security run on more platforms?
Avo runs on Web, iOS, Android, Web SDK, API. Very Good Security runs on Web, API.
Can I use Avo for free?
Yes. Avo has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Very Good Security starts at $1000/month.
What is Avo best used for?
Avo is most often used for a product team whose ios and android event names have drifted apart, making cross-platform funnels meaningless, an analytics lead who wants tracking changes to go through review rather than appearing in production unannounced, a company migrating between analytics tools that needs a canonical event schema independent of any vendor, an engineering organisation that wants event tracking mistakes caught by the compiler rather than by an analyst three months later. Of those, a product team whose ios and android event names have drifted apart, making cross-platform funnels meaningless and an analytics lead who wants tracking changes to go through review rather than appearing in production unannounced are not what Very Good Security is typically brought in for.
What can Avo do that Very Good Security cannot?
Avo covers Tracking plan, Code generation, Inspector, Branching and approvals. Very Good Security covers Aliasing proxy, PCI scope reduction, Network tokenisation, Processor optionality.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Avo: Is the free tier usable in production?

Yes. It includes two editors, code generation and 100,000 events observed in Inspector, which is enough for a small team.

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.

Avo: What exactly does code generation give me?

Type-safe tracking functions per platform, so a wrong event name or property type fails at compile time rather than in production data.

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.

Avo: Does Avo replace Amplitude or Mixpanel?

No. It governs the events those tools receive; you still need an analytics product.

Very Good Security: What does it cost?

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

Avo: How much is the Team plan?

250 US dollars a month billed annually for five editors, or 300 billed monthly, with extra editors at 50 dollars.

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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