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Government · head to head

Bidnet Direct vs Very Good Security

Bidnet Direct logo

Bidnet Direct

Government

Regional bid notification network where agencies post free and suppliers pay for alerts

From
On request
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: Bidnet Direct suppliers pay for aggregation, not access: the same solicitations are generally published free on individual agency and state portals, so the subscription is only worth it if searching manually costs more than the fee.; 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: Bidnet Direct covers Regional purchasing groups, 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 Bidnet Direct and Very Good Security actually diverge.

Attributes where Bidnet Direct and Very Good Security differ
AttributeBidnet DirectVery Good Security
Starting priceOn request$1000/month
Pricing modelquotePer month
PlatformsWebWeb, API
CategoryGovernmentCybersecurity

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 Bidnet Direct

  • Regional purchasing groups
  • Free agency publication
  • Supplier notification
  • Vendor registration
  • Bid document distribution
  • Award postings
  • Supplier diversity reporting

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.

Bidnet Direct

  • A small municipal purchasing department that needs competitive responses without building or paying for its own bid portalnot Very Good Security
  • A contractor that wants notification of every relevant solicitation across a state rather than checking dozens of agency websitesnot Very Good Security
  • A state cooperative wanting a single regional portal so suppliers register once for many agenciesnot Very Good Security
  • An agency required to demonstrate outreach to certified diverse suppliers on every solicitationnot 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 Bidnet Direct
  • A merchant negotiating with a second acquirer that needs card credentials portable so the negotiation is real rather than theoreticalnot Bidnet Direct
  • A fintech collecting bank account and identity documents that wants sensitive fields absent from logs, backups and analytics warehouses by constructionnot Bidnet Direct
  • A card issuer that must display a full PAN in its own mobile app without the app or its backend touching cardholder datanot Bidnet Direct

Where each one falls short

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

Bidnet Direct

  • Suppliers pay for aggregation, not access: the same solicitations are generally published free on individual agency and state portals, so the subscription is only worth it if searching manually costs more than the fee.
  • Supplier pricing is not published and varies by geography and category breadth, which makes it difficult for a small contractor to judge value before a sales conversation.
  • Category matching produces a high volume of irrelevant alerts for suppliers whose work does not map neatly onto procurement commodity codes, so the notification stream needs constant tuning.
  • Bidnet is now one brand inside SOVRA, which divested six business units in 2025 under new private equity ownership, so portfolio priorities can change independently of any individual product's customers.
  • For agencies it is a publication and notification network rather than a sourcing system: bid evaluation, scoring and contract management need a separate tool.

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

Bidnet Direct

On request
  • Supplier subscription$undefined/year
    • Matched opportunity notifications
    • Access to regional purchasing group solicitations
    • Priced by geographic and category coverage
  • Agency participation$undefined/year
    • Solicitation publication and vendor registry
    • Free or low cost to participating public agencies
    • Supplier diversity reporting

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 Bidnet Direct if

  • You need regional purchasing groups.
  • You also want free agency publication.
Bidnet Direct 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 Bidnet Direct or Very Good Security better?
Neither clearly leads. Bidnet Direct starts at On request 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, Bidnet Direct or Very Good Security?
Bidnet Direct starts at On request and Very Good Security at $1000/month.
Does Bidnet Direct or Very Good Security run on more platforms?
Bidnet Direct runs on Web. Very Good Security runs on Web, API.
What is Bidnet Direct best used for?
Bidnet Direct is most often used for a small municipal purchasing department that needs competitive responses without building or paying for its own bid portal, a contractor that wants notification of every relevant solicitation across a state rather than checking dozens of agency websites, a state cooperative wanting a single regional portal so suppliers register once for many agencies, an agency required to demonstrate outreach to certified diverse suppliers on every solicitation. Of those, a small municipal purchasing department that needs competitive responses without building or paying for its own bid portal and a contractor that wants notification of every relevant solicitation across a state rather than checking dozens of agency websites are not what Very Good Security is typically brought in for.
What can Bidnet Direct do that Very Good Security cannot?
Bidnet Direct covers Regional purchasing groups, Free agency publication, Supplier notification, Vendor registration. Very Good Security covers Aliasing proxy, PCI scope reduction, Network tokenisation, Processor optionality.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Bidnet Direct: Do government agencies pay?

Generally not, or very little. The network is funded by supplier subscriptions, which is why agencies get an existing supplier pool without paying for it.

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.

Bidnet Direct: Is it worth it for a supplier?

Only if aggregation saves you more than it costs. The solicitations are public and available free elsewhere; you are buying alerting and search across many agencies at once.

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.

Bidnet Direct: Who owns it now?

SOVRA, the rebranded procurement business of mdf commerce, which was acquired by KKR. Bidnet Direct remains a named product within that portfolio.

Very Good Security: What does it cost?

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

Bidnet Direct: Does it evaluate bids?

No. It publishes and distributes. Scoring, evaluation and contract management require a sourcing platform.

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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