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Government · head to head

CityView vs Very Good Security

CityView logo

CityView

Government

Community Development Software

From
$10000/year
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: CityView high implementation and licensing costs for smaller municipalities; 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: CityView 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 CityView and Very Good Security actually diverge.

Attributes where CityView and Very Good Security differ
AttributeCityViewVery Good Security
Starting price$10000/year$1000/month
Pricing modelUnknownPer month
PlatformsWebWeb, API
CategoryGovernmentCybersecurity
Founded1976Unknown

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 CityView

  • Building Permits
  • Business Licensing
  • Code Enforcement
  • Inspections Management
  • Online Citizen Portal
  • Esri ArcGIS
  • Microsoft Office
  • Payment Gateways

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.

CityView

  • 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 CityView
  • A merchant negotiating with a second acquirer that needs card credentials portable so the negotiation is real rather than theoreticalnot CityView
  • A fintech collecting bank account and identity documents that wants sensitive fields absent from logs, backups and analytics warehouses by constructionnot CityView
  • A card issuer that must display a full PAN in its own mobile app without the app or its backend touching cardholder datanot CityView

Where each one falls short

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

CityView

  • High implementation and licensing costs for smaller municipalities
  • Complex setup and customization requiring expert assistance

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

CityView

$10000/year

No published plan breakdown. See the CityView review.

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 CityView if

  • You need building permits.
  • You also want business licensing.
CityView 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 CityView or Very Good Security better?
Neither clearly leads. CityView starts at $10000/year 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, CityView or Very Good Security?
CityView starts at $10000/year and Very Good Security at $1000/month.
Does CityView or Very Good Security run on more platforms?
CityView runs on Web. Very Good Security runs on Web, API.
What is CityView best used for?
CityView 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 CityView do that Very Good Security cannot?
CityView covers Building Permits, Business Licensing, Code Enforcement, Inspections Management. Very Good Security covers Aliasing proxy, PCI scope reduction, Network tokenisation, Processor optionality.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

CityView: Is CityView cloud-based or on-premise?

CityView offers both cloud-based SaaS deployments and on-premise options depending on municipality preference and requirements.

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.

CityView: What modules are included?

CityView Suite includes Property Information, Permits and Inspections, Planning, Code Enforcement, Licensing, Animal Licensing, Service Requests, Rental Housing, Cemetery Management, Parking Management, and Cashiering modules.

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.

CityView: How long has CityView been in the market?

CityView has over 40 years of experience serving local governments with community development and municipal land management solutions.

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.

CityView: What is the pricing structure?

CityView pricing ranges from $10,000 to $75,000+ per year for mid-sized municipalities, or approximately $100 to $250 per user per month for SaaS deployments, depending on modules selected.

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.

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