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Cybersecurity · head to head

Milestone XProtect vs Very Good Security

Milestone XProtect logo

Milestone XProtect

Cybersecurity

Open platform video management software with perpetual per-device licences

From
Free
Rated
-
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
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Milestone XProtect has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Milestone XProtect care Plus is presented as optional but is not in practice: without it, perpetual licences stop receiving version upgrades and eventually you cannot add a current camera because your frozen version does not support it.; 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: Milestone XProtect covers Open device support, Very Good Security covers Aliasing proxy.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Milestone XProtect and Very Good Security actually diverge.

Attributes where Milestone XProtect and Very Good Security differ
AttributeMilestone XProtectVery Good Security
Starting priceFree$1000/month
Pricing modelOne-time purchase per device licence, plus annual Care PlusPer month
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWindows, Web, iOS, AndroidWeb, API

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cybersecurity).

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 Milestone XProtect

  • Open device support
  • Perpetual device licences
  • Federated architecture
  • Failover recording
  • Evidence export
  • Smart Map
  • Integration platform
  • Video summarisation

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.

Milestone XProtect

  • A city or transport operator running tens of thousands of cameras across federated sitesnot Very Good Security
  • An enterprise with mixed legacy camera brands that refuses to standardise on one manufacturernot Very Good Security
  • A critical infrastructure site needing failover recording servers and tamper-evident evidence exportnot Very Good Security
  • An integrator building a bespoke security application on top of an open VMS platformnot 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 Milestone XProtect
  • A merchant negotiating with a second acquirer that needs card credentials portable so the negotiation is real rather than theoreticalnot Milestone XProtect
  • A fintech collecting bank account and identity documents that wants sensitive fields absent from logs, backups and analytics warehouses by constructionnot Milestone XProtect
  • A card issuer that must display a full PAN in its own mobile app without the app or its backend touching cardholder datanot Milestone XProtect

Where each one falls short

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

Milestone XProtect

  • Care Plus is presented as optional but is not in practice: without it, perpetual licences stop receiving version upgrades and eventually you cannot add a current camera because your frozen version does not support it.
  • Per-device licensing means multi-sensor and multi-imager cameras consume several licences each, so a headline camera count badly understates the true licence cost of a modern design.
  • It is Windows only for servers and needs a properly designed server and storage architecture, so the software price is a fraction of a project that also needs recording servers, storage and an integrator.
  • Complexity requires trained staff or a certified integrator; organisations that install it without either end up running a large deployment on default settings and never using the features they paid for.
  • Milestone retired Kite from its portfolio in favour of Arcules from January 2025, which stranded buyers who had standardised on Kite and is a reminder that the cloud side of the portfolio has changed direction more than once.

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

Milestone XProtect

Free
  • XProtect Essential+Free
    • Free for up to 8 cameras
    • No recording time limit
    • No vendor support included
  • XProtect Express+$109/one-time
    • Perpetual device licence, distributor list price
    • Single site, single server
    • Care Plus purchased separately per device per year
  • XProtect Professional+$177/one-time
    • Perpetual device licence, distributor list price
    • Multiple recording servers
    • Edge storage retrieval
  • XProtect Expert$282/one-time
    • Perpetual device licence, distributor list price
    • Failover recording servers
    • Advanced video wall and evidence handling

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 Milestone XProtect if

  • You need open device support.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Windows, Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want perpetual device licences.
Milestone XProtect 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 Milestone XProtect or Very Good Security better?
Neither clearly leads. Milestone XProtect 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, Milestone XProtect or Very Good Security?
Milestone XProtect has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Milestone XProtect and $1000/month for Very Good Security.
Does Milestone XProtect or Very Good Security run on more platforms?
Milestone XProtect runs on Windows, Web, iOS, Android. Very Good Security runs on Web, API.
Can I use Milestone XProtect for free?
Yes. Milestone XProtect has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Very Good Security starts at $1000/month.
What is Milestone XProtect best used for?
Milestone XProtect is most often used for a city or transport operator running tens of thousands of cameras across federated sites, an enterprise with mixed legacy camera brands that refuses to standardise on one manufacturer, a critical infrastructure site needing failover recording servers and tamper-evident evidence export, an integrator building a bespoke security application on top of an open vms platform. Of those, a city or transport operator running tens of thousands of cameras across federated sites and an enterprise with mixed legacy camera brands that refuses to standardise on one manufacturer are not what Very Good Security is typically brought in for.
What can Milestone XProtect do that Very Good Security cannot?
Milestone XProtect covers Open device support, Perpetual device licences, Federated architecture, Failover recording. Very Good Security covers Aliasing proxy, PCI scope reduction, Network tokenisation, Processor optionality.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Milestone XProtect: Is XProtect really free for small sites?

Essential+ is free for up to eight cameras with no recording time limit, but it comes with no vendor support and no multi-server capability.

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.

Milestone XProtect: Are licences perpetual or annual?

Device licences are perpetual. The annual cost is Care Plus, the support and software update contract, which you need to stay on current versions.

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.

Milestone XProtect: What happens if I do not renew Care Plus?

The system keeps recording, but you stop getting version upgrades, and over a few years that blocks you from adding newer cameras.

Very Good Security: What does it cost?

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

Milestone XProtect: Who owns Milestone?

Canon. The portfolio also includes BriefCam analytics and Arcules cloud video, with Arcules replacing Milestone Kite from January 2025.

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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