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Government · head to head

ClearGov vs Very Good Security

ClearGov logo

ClearGov

Government

Financial Transparency for Government

From
$200/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: ClearGov no pricing is published at any level, and the pricing page states no cost structure or model at all; 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: ClearGov covers Budget Visualization, 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 ClearGov and Very Good Security actually diverge.

Attributes where ClearGov and Very Good Security differ
AttributeClearGovVery Good Security
Starting price$200/month$1000/month
Pricing modelsubscriptionPer month
PlatformsWebWeb, API
CategoryGovernmentCybersecurity
Founded2014Unknown

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 ClearGov

  • Budget Visualization
  • Financial Benchmarking
  • Capital Planning
  • Digital Budget Books
  • Public Dashboards
  • Tyler Munis
  • OpenGov
  • Excel

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.

ClearGov

  • municipal budget and financial transparencynot Very Good Security
  • government finance analytics and reportingnot Very Good Security
  • civic engagement and public recordsnot 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 ClearGov
  • A merchant negotiating with a second acquirer that needs card credentials portable so the negotiation is real rather than theoreticalnot ClearGov
  • A fintech collecting bank account and identity documents that wants sensitive fields absent from logs, backups and analytics warehouses by constructionnot ClearGov
  • A card issuer that must display a full PAN in its own mobile app without the app or its backend touching cardholder datanot ClearGov

Where each one falls short

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

ClearGov

  • No pricing is published at any level, and the pricing page states no cost structure or model at all
  • No cost driver such as population, budget size or user count is named
  • The only routes to a figure are an email address and a demo booking

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

ClearGov

$200/month
  • Transparency$200/month
    • Budget Visualization
    • Benchmarking
    • Public Dashboards

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 ClearGov if

  • You need budget visualization.
  • You also want financial benchmarking.
ClearGov 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 ClearGov or Very Good Security better?
Neither clearly leads. ClearGov starts at $200/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, ClearGov or Very Good Security?
ClearGov starts at $200/month and Very Good Security at $1000/month.
Does ClearGov or Very Good Security run on more platforms?
ClearGov runs on Web. Very Good Security runs on Web, API.
What is ClearGov best used for?
ClearGov is most often used for municipal budget and financial transparency, government finance analytics and reporting, civic engagement and public records. Of those, municipal budget and financial transparency and government finance analytics and reporting are not what Very Good Security is typically brought in for.
What can ClearGov do that Very Good Security cannot?
ClearGov covers Budget Visualization, Financial Benchmarking, Capital Planning, Digital Budget Books. Very Good Security covers Aliasing proxy, PCI scope reduction, Network tokenisation, Processor optionality.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

ClearGov: How much does ClearGov cost?

ClearGov pricing is not published; you must schedule a demo or contact [email protected] to request pricing information.

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.

ClearGov: Does ClearGov offer a free trial?

ClearGov does not publish a free trial option; pricing inquiry and trial availability must be discussed through a demo request with their sales team.

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.

ClearGov: What is ClearGov's pricing model?

ClearGov appears to operate on a custom, quote-based pricing model; costs are tailored to specific municipalities based on population size, features, and implementation requirements.

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.

ClearGov: How do I get a ClearGov pricing quote?

Visit cleargov.com and click the demo scheduling button, or email [email protected]; provide details about your municipality size and required features for an accurate quote.

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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