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Government · head to head

PublicInput vs Very Good Security

PublicInput logo

PublicInput

Government

Inclusive Community Engagement

From
$400/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: PublicInput all three plans, Listen, Engage and Engage Plus, are listed as Request Pricing with no published rate, minimum or cost driver; 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: PublicInput covers Virtual Public Meetings, 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 PublicInput and Very Good Security actually diverge.

Attributes where PublicInput and Very Good Security differ
AttributePublicInputVery Good Security
Starting price$400/month$1000/month
Pricing modelsubscriptionPer month
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidWeb, 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 PublicInput

  • Virtual Public Meetings
  • Online Surveys
  • Comment Management
  • Multi-language Support
  • Engagement Analytics
  • Zoom
  • Microsoft Teams
  • GovDelivery

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.

PublicInput

  • Civic engagementnot Very Good Security
  • Government consultationnot Very Good Security
  • Public input collectionnot 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 PublicInput
  • A merchant negotiating with a second acquirer that needs card credentials portable so the negotiation is real rather than theoreticalnot PublicInput
  • A fintech collecting bank account and identity documents that wants sensitive fields absent from logs, backups and analytics warehouses by constructionnot PublicInput
  • A card issuer that must display a full PAN in its own mobile app without the app or its backend touching cardholder datanot PublicInput

Where each one falls short

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

PublicInput

  • All three plans, Listen, Engage and Engage Plus, are listed as Request Pricing with no published rate, minimum or cost driver
  • HTML and CSS customization, custom workflows and approvals, and external system integration with Accela and ESRI are listed as Enterprise Capabilities rather than core platform features
  • Public meetings functionality is sold under a separate Meetings plan rather than being included with the Engagement plans
  • Getting a plan requires booking a consultation and a tailored demo rather than self serve signup

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

PublicInput

$400/month
  • Enterprise$400/month
    • Virtual Meetings
    • Surveys
    • Comment Management

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 PublicInput if

  • You need virtual public meetings.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want online surveys.
PublicInput 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 PublicInput or Very Good Security better?
Neither clearly leads. PublicInput starts at $400/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, PublicInput or Very Good Security?
PublicInput starts at $400/month and Very Good Security at $1000/month.
Does PublicInput or Very Good Security run on more platforms?
PublicInput runs on Web, Ios, Android. Very Good Security runs on Web, API.
What is PublicInput best used for?
PublicInput is most often used for civic engagement, government consultation, public input collection. Of those, civic engagement and government consultation are not what Very Good Security is typically brought in for.
What can PublicInput do that Very Good Security cannot?
PublicInput covers Virtual Public Meetings, Online Surveys, Comment Management, Multi-language Support. Very Good Security covers Aliasing proxy, PCI scope reduction, Network tokenisation, Processor optionality.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

PublicInput: How much does PublicInput cost?

PublicInput does not publish pricing on their website. Customers must request a demo or book a meeting to receive a quote based on their specific needs.

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.

PublicInput: What pricing plans does PublicInput offer?

PublicInput offers Engagement Plans and Meetings Plans, but specific pricing for each plan is not publicly available and requires contacting 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.

Very Good Security: What does it cost?

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

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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