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APIs · head to head

Episode Six vs Skyflow

Episode Six logo

Episode Six

APIs

Payment processing and ledger platform deployable on premise or in your own cloud

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Skyflow logo

Skyflow

APIs

Data privacy vault that holds sensitive records outside your own systems

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Episode Six deployment on premise or in a private tenancy means the institution carries infrastructure, upgrade and PCI scope work that a hosted processor would absorb.; Skyflow reported contracts near 195,000 US dollars a year with a platform fee before usage put this out of reach of early stage companies, which are precisely the ones whose architecture is still cheap to change.
  • They diverge on capability: Episode Six covers Tritium API platform, Skyflow covers Tokenised storage.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Episode Six and Skyflow actually diverge.

Attributes where Episode Six and Skyflow differ
AttributeEpisode SixSkyflow
PlatformsWeb, API, On-premiseAPI, Web, Self-hosted

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (APIs).

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 Episode Six

  • Tritium API platform
  • Flexible deployment
  • Multi product issuing
  • Digital wallets
  • Multi currency ledger
  • Network connectivity
  • Configurable product engine
  • Institutional controls

Only in Skyflow

  • Tokenised storage
  • Polymorphic encryption
  • Field level access policies
  • Data residency
  • Secure functions
  • PCI scope reduction
  • Detokenisation gateway
  • Audit trail

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Episode Six

  • A bank in a jurisdiction with data residency rules that forbid processing customer data in a shared multi tenant cloudnot Skyflow
  • A large institution replacing a legacy card processor without moving off its own infrastructurenot Skyflow
  • A telco or airline launching a branded wallet and card product at national scalenot Skyflow
  • A bank running prepaid, debit and credit products that wants them on one ledger rather than three processorsnot Skyflow

Skyflow

  • A fintech that wants card and bank account data out of its own infrastructure so its application servers leave PCI DSS assessment scopenot Episode Six
  • A company entering India or the EU with data localisation obligations that would otherwise require standing up regional databases and operationsnot Episode Six
  • A health technology business that needs protected health information isolated from the analytics stack while still supporting aggregate reportingnot Episode Six
  • An engineering team that wants support agents to see masked identifiers and payment services to see real ones, enforced centrally rather than in every servicenot Episode Six

Where each one falls short

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

Episode Six

  • Deployment on premise or in a private tenancy means the institution carries infrastructure, upgrade and PCI scope work that a hosted processor would absorb.
  • Implementation runs to quarters and involves core banking, network certification and fraud system integration, so time to first card is far longer than with a self serve issuer processor.
  • Pricing is entirely bespoke and weighted to large programmes, which prices out fintechs and small issuers who would be better served by a hosted platform.
  • Being smaller than the incumbent processors, its network certifications and operational presence vary by region, so a global rollout can find gaps in specific markets.
  • The flexibility of six hundred APIs and a configurable product engine shifts design responsibility onto the buyer, and institutions without strong internal payments architects end up dependent on professional services.

Skyflow

  • Reported contracts near 195,000 US dollars a year with a platform fee before usage put this out of reach of early stage companies, which are precisely the ones whose architecture is still cheap to change.
  • Every read of a protected field becomes a network call to a third party, so latency and an external availability dependency enter paths that were previously local database reads, and outage planning has to account for a vendor you do not control.
  • Analytics and joins on vaulted data are constrained; work that was a simple SQL join now happens through secure functions or on tokens, and data teams routinely discover this after the engineering team has committed.
  • Unwinding the vault later is a rewrite rather than a migration because tokens are threaded through every service, so the switching cost climbs steadily and the negotiating position at renewal weakens with each release.
  • Scope reduction is an architectural claim your own assessor must accept, so the audit saving is real only if the implementation genuinely keeps sensitive values off your systems, and partial implementations that leave a cache or a log line in place deliver the cost without the benefit.

Pricing, plan by plan

Episode Six

On request
  • Tritium platform$undefined/year
    • Licence and implementation quoted per institution
    • Deployment model affects cost materially: on premise, private cloud or hosted
    • Processing fees typically per transaction or per active card

Skyflow

On request
  • Skyflow Data Privacy Vault$undefined/year
    • Platform fee plus usage by data subject count
    • Priced additionally per data residency region
    • PCI Level 1, SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 and HIPAA coverage

Which should you pick?

Choose Episode Six if

  • You need tritium api platform.
  • You work on Web, API, On-premise.
  • You also want flexible deployment.
Episode Six review

Choose Skyflow if

  • You need tokenised storage.
  • You work on API, Web, Self-hosted.
  • You also want polymorphic encryption.
Skyflow review

Questions people ask

Is Episode Six or Skyflow better?
Neither clearly leads. Episode Six starts at On request and Skyflow at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Episode Six or Skyflow?
Episode Six starts at On request and Skyflow at On request.
Does Episode Six or Skyflow run on more platforms?
Episode Six runs on Web, API, On-premise. Skyflow runs on API, Web, Self-hosted.
What is Episode Six best used for?
Episode Six is most often used for a bank in a jurisdiction with data residency rules that forbid processing customer data in a shared multi tenant cloud, a large institution replacing a legacy card processor without moving off its own infrastructure, a telco or airline launching a branded wallet and card product at national scale, a bank running prepaid, debit and credit products that wants them on one ledger rather than three processors. Of those, a bank in a jurisdiction with data residency rules that forbid processing customer data in a shared multi tenant cloud and a large institution replacing a legacy card processor without moving off its own infrastructure are not what Skyflow is typically brought in for.
What can Episode Six do that Skyflow cannot?
Episode Six covers Tritium API platform, Flexible deployment, Multi product issuing, Digital wallets. Skyflow covers Tokenised storage, Polymorphic encryption, Field level access policies, Data residency.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Episode Six: Can Episode Six run inside our own data centre?

Yes. On premise and private cloud deployment is the main reason banks choose it over hosted only processors.

Skyflow: Does Skyflow really take my systems out of PCI scope?

It can, if card data never touches your infrastructure and the detokenisation happens at the boundary. Your QSA has to agree the design, so validate the architecture with your assessor before signing.

Episode Six: Is it suitable for a startup issuing its first cards?

Not really. The licence, implementation timeline and cost are aimed at banks and large institutions.

Skyflow: What does it cost?

Nothing is published. Reported annual contracts sit around 195,000 US dollars, built from a platform fee plus usage by data subject count and additional charges per data residency region.

Episode Six: Do we still need a card licence or sponsor?

Yes. Episode Six is a processor. Network membership, licensing or a sponsor arrangement remains your responsibility.

Skyflow: How does it help with data localisation?

Records can be pinned to a specified region, so an Indian or EU residency requirement is met by the vault rather than by you running regional databases and operations teams.

Skyflow: Can I still run analytics on vaulted data?

Partly. Aggregates and comparisons are supported through polymorphic encryption and secure functions, but arbitrary joins against other datasets are harder than they were, and this is the most common late surprise.

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