APIs · head to head
Skyflow vs Tyk
Skyflow
APIs
Data privacy vault that holds sensitive records outside your own systems
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Tyk has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: 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.; Tyk professional and Enterprise plan pricing not published; contact required
- They diverge on capability: Skyflow covers Tokenised storage, Tyk covers API Gateway.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Skyflow and Tyk 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 Skyflow
- Tokenised storage
- Polymorphic encryption
- Field level access policies
- Data residency
- Secure functions
- PCI scope reduction
- Detokenisation gateway
- Audit trail
Only in Tyk
- API Gateway
- Rate Limiting
- Authentication
- Kubernetes
- Docker
- AWS
- Azure
- Linux support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Skyflow
- A fintech that wants card and bank account data out of its own infrastructure so its application servers leave PCI DSS assessment scopenot Tyk
- A company entering India or the EU with data localisation obligations that would otherwise require standing up regional databases and operationsnot Tyk
- A health technology business that needs protected health information isolated from the analytics stack while still supporting aggregate reportingnot Tyk
- 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 Tyk
Tyk
- API gateway and API management platformsnot Skyflow
- Microservices architecture orchestrationnot Skyflow
- High-growth teams standardizing on API platformsnot Skyflow
- Enterprises requiring advanced security and governancenot Skyflow
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
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.
Tyk
- Professional and Enterprise plan pricing not published; contact required
- Core plan uses consumption-based model with variable costs
- No upfront pricing transparency for production deployments
Pricing, plan by plan
Skyflow
On request- Skyflow Data Privacy Vault$undefined/year
- Platform fee plus usage by data subject count
- Priced additionally per data residency region
- PCI Level 1, SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 and HIPAA coverage
Tyk
Free- Free TrialFree
- Fully featured 48-hour trial
- No credit card required
- Tyk Cloud access
- Core Plan$null/month
- Usage-based flexible pricing
- Cloud, Hybrid, or Self-managed deployment
- Unlimited API gateways
- Professional Plan$null/month
- One fixed price with unlimited access
- All deployment options
- Unlimited APIs and requests
- Enterprise Plan$null/month
- Custom pricing required
- Advanced governance and security
- Premium support with custom SLAs
Which should you pick?
Choose Skyflow if
- You need tokenised storage.
- You work on API, Web, Self-hosted.
- You also want polymorphic encryption.
Choose Tyk if
- You need api gateway.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud.
- You also want rate limiting.
Questions people ask
- Is Skyflow or Tyk better?
- Neither clearly leads. Skyflow starts at On request and Tyk at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Skyflow or Tyk?
- Tyk has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Skyflow and Free for Tyk.
- Does Skyflow or Tyk run on more platforms?
- Skyflow runs on API, Web, Self-hosted. Tyk runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud.
- Can I use Tyk for free?
- Yes. Tyk has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Skyflow starts at On request.
- What is Skyflow best used for?
- Skyflow is most often used for a fintech that wants card and bank account data out of its own infrastructure so its application servers leave pci dss assessment scope, a company entering india or the eu with data localisation obligations that would otherwise require standing up regional databases and operations, a health technology business that needs protected health information isolated from the analytics stack while still supporting aggregate reporting, an engineering team that wants support agents to see masked identifiers and payment services to see real ones, enforced centrally rather than in every service. Of those, a fintech that wants card and bank account data out of its own infrastructure so its application servers leave pci dss assessment scope and a company entering india or the eu with data localisation obligations that would otherwise require standing up regional databases and operations are not what Tyk is typically brought in for.
- What can Skyflow do that Tyk cannot?
- Skyflow covers Tokenised storage, Polymorphic encryption, Field level access policies, Data residency. Tyk covers API Gateway, Rate Limiting, Authentication, Kubernetes.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
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.
Tyk: How much does Tyk cost?
Tyk offers a free 48-hour trial with no credit card required. The Core plan uses usage-based pricing on a flexible model. Professional plan offers unlimited access at a fixed price (amount not published). Enterprise plans require custom pricing.
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.
Tyk: Is there a free trial of Tyk?
Yes, Tyk provides a fully featured 48-hour free trial of Tyk Cloud that requires no credit card to start.
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.
Tyk: What deployment options are included in Tyk pricing?
All Tyk plans support Cloud, Hybrid, or Self-managed deployment options without feature restrictions, allowing flexible infrastructure choices across pricing tiers.
SourceSkyflow: 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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