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GitHub Desktop vs Very Good Security

GitHub Desktop logo

GitHub Desktop

Developer Tools

A free, open source Git client from GitHub for Windows and macOS that covers common workflows rather than all of Git.

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit GitHub DesktopFull review
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
Visit Very Good SecurityFull review

The short version

  • GitHub Desktop is free; Very Good Security starts at $1000/mo.
  • Only GitHub Desktop lists line-level staging; only Very Good Security lists aliasing proxy.
  • Prices and features on this page were last checked on 13 November 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which GitHub Desktop and Very Good Security actually diverge.

Attributes where GitHub Desktop and Very Good Security differ
AttributeGitHub DesktopVery Good Security
Starting priceFree$1000/month
Pricing modelFreePer month
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWindows, macOSWeb, API
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCybersecurity

Not yet recorded: founded for Very Good Security.

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 GitHub Desktop

  • Line-level staging
  • Branch and merge UI
  • Pull request integration
  • Enterprise authentication
  • Squash and reorder
  • Drag cherry-pick
  • Co-author attribution
  • Editor and shell handoff

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.

GitHub Desktop

  • Onboarding designers or technical writers who need to commit to a docs or assets repository without learning the command linenot Very Good Security
  • A new engineer's first weeks, where seeing the diff and the branch state visually prevents the common early mistakesnot Very Good Security
  • Reviewing a colleague's pull request branch locally with a readable diff before approving itnot Very Good Security
  • Small teams standardised entirely on GitHub who want SSO-backed authentication to work without managing personal access tokens by handnot 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 GitHub Desktop
  • A merchant negotiating with a second acquirer that needs card credentials portable so the negotiation is real rather than theoreticalnot GitHub Desktop
  • A fintech collecting bank account and identity documents that wants sensitive fields absent from logs, backups and analytics warehouses by constructionnot GitHub Desktop
  • A card issuer that must display a full PAN in its own mobile app without the app or its backend touching cardholder datanot GitHub Desktop

Where each one falls short

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

GitHub Desktop

  • There is no official Linux build; the application ships for Windows and macOS only, and the community fork at shiftkey/desktop that packages it for Linux is maintained separately and lags official releases, so a mixed-OS team cannot standardise on one client
  • Submodules are effectively unsupported: the app shows a submodule change as an opaque single line and gives you no way to initialise, update or navigate into it, so any repository using them needs the terminal anyway
  • History rewriting is limited to squashing and reordering local commits by drag and drop; interactive rebase, fixup chains, editing an old commit's contents and bisect are all absent, which is exactly the set of operations a beginner needs help with most
  • Pull request features only exist for GitHub remotes, so a team on GitLab or Bitbucket gets a plain Git client with an empty pull request pane and no review or checks view at all
  • Commit signing with a key that requires a passphrase generally fails, because the app cannot surface the pinentry prompt, and the resulting error message does not say that is the cause
  • GitHub staffs it lightly compared with its web and CI products, so long-standing feature requests and bugs sit open for years; if you file an issue you should plan around it rather than expect a fix

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

GitHub Desktop

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Git repository management
    • GitHub integration
    • Visual diff tools

Very Good Security

$1000/month
  • Starter$1,000/mo
    • Aliasing proxy
    • Vault storage
    • PCI scope reduction
  • GrowthOn request
    • Network tokenisation
    • Multiple processors
    • Data residency options
  • EnterpriseOn request
    • Custom vault architecture
    • Dedicated support and SLA
    • Contractual compliance coverage

Which should you pick?

Choose GitHub Desktop if

  • You need line-level staging.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Windows, macOS.
  • You also want branch and merge ui.
GitHub Desktop 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 GitHub Desktop or Very Good Security better?
Neither clearly leads. GitHub Desktop 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, GitHub Desktop or Very Good Security?
GitHub Desktop has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for GitHub Desktop and $1000/month for Very Good Security.
Does GitHub Desktop or Very Good Security run on more platforms?
GitHub Desktop runs on Windows, macOS. Very Good Security runs on Web, API.
Can I use GitHub Desktop for free?
Yes. GitHub Desktop has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Very Good Security starts at $1000/month.
What is GitHub Desktop best used for?
GitHub Desktop is most often used for onboarding designers or technical writers who need to commit to a docs or assets repository without learning the command line, a new engineer's first weeks, where seeing the diff and the branch state visually prevents the common early mistakes, reviewing a colleague's pull request branch locally with a readable diff before approving it, small teams standardised entirely on github who want sso-backed authentication to work without managing personal access tokens by hand. Of those, onboarding designers or technical writers who need to commit to a docs or assets repository without learning the command line and a new engineer's first weeks, where seeing the diff and the branch state visually prevents the common early mistakes are not what Very Good Security is typically brought in for.
What can GitHub Desktop do that Very Good Security cannot?
GitHub Desktop covers Line-level staging, Branch and merge UI, Pull request integration, Enterprise authentication. Very Good Security covers Aliasing proxy, PCI scope reduction, Network tokenisation, Processor optionality.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

GitHub Desktop: Is there a Linux version?

Not an official one. GitHub ships Windows and macOS builds only. A community fork, shiftkey/desktop, produces Linux packages, but it is maintained by volunteers and trails the official releases.

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.

GitHub Desktop: Does it work with GitLab or Bitbucket?

For plain Git operations, yes: you can clone, commit, push and pull against any remote. The pull request, review and checks features only work against GitHub.com and GitHub Enterprise.

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.

GitHub Desktop: What does it cost?

Nothing. It is free and the source is published under the MIT licence, and it is separate from any GitHub plan you may or may not pay for.

Very Good Security: What does it cost?

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

GitHub Desktop: Will it handle submodules?

No. Submodule changes appear as an unreadable single-line diff and there are no controls for initialising or updating them. Repositories that use submodules need the command line.

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.

GitHub Desktop: Do I still need to learn Git?

For everyday work, no. For recovery, yes. Anything beyond the curated set of operations, including interactive rebase and reflog recovery, happens in the terminal, so a team using it should have at least one person who knows Git properly.

GitHub Desktop: Does it work with GitHub Enterprise Server?

Yes. It signs in to GitHub Enterprise Server and GitHub Enterprise Cloud as well as GitHub.com, and it honours organisations that enforce SAML single sign-on.

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