APIs · head to head
Prisma vs Skyflow
Skyflow
APIs
Data privacy vault that holds sensitive records outside your own systems
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Prisma has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Prisma prisma Postgres is billed per operation, with the free tier at 100,000 operations and 500 MB of storage; 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: Prisma covers ORM, Skyflow covers Tokenised storage.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Prisma and Skyflow actually diverge.
Identical on both: 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 Prisma
- ORM
- Query builder
- Auto-migrations
- Node.js
- TypeScript
- GraphQL
- REST APIs
- Node.js support
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.
Prisma
- Using a type safe ORM and query layer against a Postgres databasenot Skyflow
- Adding a managed connection pool and edge cache in front of an existing databasenot 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 Prisma
- A company entering India or the EU with data localisation obligations that would otherwise require standing up regional databases and operationsnot Prisma
- A health technology business that needs protected health information isolated from the analytics stack while still supporting aggregate reportingnot Prisma
- 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 Prisma
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Prisma
- Prisma Postgres is billed per operation, with the free tier at 100,000 operations and 500 MB of storage
- Starter at $10 a month includes 1M operations then charges $0.0080 per 1,000
- Storage overage runs from $2.00 per GB on Starter down to $1.00 per GB on Business, so the unit cost depends on the plan
- Accelerate charges separately per operation and per GiB of query egress beyond the first 1 KiB
- Cache tag invalidations are not included below the Pro plan and are billed per thousand above it
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
Prisma
Free- FreeFree
- 1M requests/month
- 360 GB-hours memory
- 4 vCPU-hours
- Starter$10/month
- 5M requests/month
- 1M database operations ($8 per million overage)
- 10 GB storage ($2/GB overage)
- Pro$49/month
- 20M requests/month
- 10M operations ($2 per million overage)
- 50 GB storage ($1.50/GB overage)
- Business$129/month
- 100M requests/month
- 50M operations ($1 per million overage)
- 100 GB storage
Skyflow
On request- Skyflow Data Privacy Vault$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 Prisma if
- You need orm.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Node.js, TypeScript.
- You also want query builder.
Choose Skyflow if
- You need tokenised storage.
- You work on API, Web, Self-hosted.
- You also want polymorphic encryption.
Questions people ask
- Is Prisma or Skyflow better?
- Neither clearly leads. Prisma starts at Free and Skyflow at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Prisma or Skyflow?
- Prisma has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Prisma and On request for Skyflow.
- Does Prisma or Skyflow run on more platforms?
- Prisma runs on Node.js, TypeScript. Skyflow runs on API, Web, Self-hosted.
- Can I use Prisma for free?
- Yes. Prisma has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Skyflow starts at On request.
- What is Prisma best used for?
- Prisma is most often used for using a type safe orm and query layer against a postgres database, adding a managed connection pool and edge cache in front of an existing database. Of those, using a type safe orm and query layer against a postgres database and adding a managed connection pool and edge cache in front of an existing database are not what Skyflow is typically brought in for.
- What can Prisma do that Skyflow cannot?
- Prisma covers ORM, Query builder, Auto-migrations, Node.js. Skyflow covers Tokenised storage, Polymorphic encryption, Field level access policies, Data residency.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Prisma: How much does Prisma cost?
Prisma is free to start with 1M requests/month. The Starter plan costs $10/month with 5M requests, the Pro plan $49/month with 20M requests, and the Business plan $129/month with 100M requests. All plans have usage-based overages.
SourceSkyflow: 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.
Prisma: What is Prisma's overage pricing?
Prisma charges $1 per million requests over the included amount (Starter), $2 per million database operations overage (Pro and Starter), and $1.50-$2 per GB for storage overages depending on the plan. All plans include a hard spend limit on by default.
SourceSkyflow: 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.
Prisma: Does Prisma include data transfer costs?
No, Prisma includes unlimited data transfer with no egress fees on all plans. Prisma ORM remains free across all tiers.
SourceSkyflow: 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.
Related pages
Other head to heads
- Prisma vs Sanity
- Prisma vs PocketBase
- Prisma vs Appwrite
- Prisma vs Hasura
- Prisma vs Payload CMS
- Prisma vs Stainless
- Prisma vs Thunder Client
- Prisma vs GraphQL Apollo
- Prisma vs Swagger/OpenAPI
- Prisma vs RapidAPI
- Prisma vs Codat
- Prisma vs Episode Six
- Prisma vs Kong Gateway
- Prisma vs Marqeta
- Prisma vs Meniga
- Prisma vs Moov
- Prisma vs MX Technologies
- Prisma vs Swagger
- Prisma vs Basis Theory
- Prisma vs Paymentology
- Prisma vs Akoya
- Prisma vs Skaleet
- Prisma vs Volt
- Prisma vs Tink
- Prisma vs Increase
- Prisma vs Yodlee
- Prisma vs Griffin
- Prisma vs Trustly
- Prisma vs Method Financial
- Prisma vs MuleSoft Anypoint
- Prisma vs LiteLLM
- Prisma vs Neonomics
- Prisma vs Portkey
- Skyflow vs Sanity
- Skyflow vs PocketBase
- Skyflow vs Appwrite
- Skyflow vs Hasura
- Skyflow vs Payload CMS
- Skyflow vs Stainless
- Skyflow vs Thunder Client
- Skyflow vs GraphQL Apollo
- Skyflow vs Swagger/OpenAPI
- Skyflow vs RapidAPI
- Skyflow vs Codat
- Skyflow vs Episode Six
- Skyflow vs Kong Gateway
- Skyflow vs Marqeta
- Skyflow vs Meniga
- Skyflow vs Moov
- Skyflow vs MX Technologies
- Skyflow vs Swagger
- Skyflow vs Basis Theory
- Skyflow vs Paymentology
- Skyflow vs Akoya
- Skyflow vs Skaleet
- Skyflow vs Volt
- Skyflow vs Tink
- Skyflow vs Increase
- Skyflow vs Yodlee
- Skyflow vs Griffin
- Skyflow vs Trustly
- Skyflow vs Method Financial
- Skyflow vs MuleSoft Anypoint
- Skyflow vs LiteLLM
- Skyflow vs Neonomics
- Skyflow vs Portkey