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Cybersecurity · head to head

HID Global vs Very Good Security

HID Global logo

HID Global

Cybersecurity

Physical access control, credential issuance and workforce authentication hardware and software

From
On request
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

  • Each has a real cost: HID Global sales run through integrators, so the price you get depends on which partner quotes it and there is no published list to negotiate against.; 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: HID Global covers Physical access readers, 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 HID Global and Very Good Security actually diverge.

Attributes where HID Global and Very Good Security differ
AttributeHID GlobalVery Good Security
Starting priceOn request$1000/month
Pricing modelquotePer month
PlatformsWeb, Windows, iOS, AndroidWeb, API

Identical on both: free tier (No), 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 HID Global

  • Physical access readers
  • Mobile access
  • Seos credential technology
  • Card issuance
  • Workforce authentication
  • Visitor management

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.

HID Global

  • An enterprise moving from plastic badges to phone-based credentials without replacing every reader in the estatenot Very Good Security
  • A government agency needing card issuance and PKI credentials under a national identity programmenot Very Good Security
  • A hospital consolidating access control, visitor screening and clinician authentication onto one credentialnot Very Good Security
  • An organisation retiring cloneable legacy proximity cards after a physical penetration test found them trivially copiednot 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 HID Global
  • A merchant negotiating with a second acquirer that needs card credentials portable so the negotiation is real rather than theoreticalnot HID Global
  • A fintech collecting bank account and identity documents that wants sensitive fields absent from logs, backups and analytics warehouses by constructionnot HID Global
  • A card issuer that must display a full PAN in its own mobile app without the app or its backend touching cardholder datanot HID Global

Where each one falls short

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

HID Global

  • Sales run through integrators, so the price you get depends on which partner quotes it and there is no published list to negotiate against.
  • Mobile credentials are charged per identity as an ongoing fee, which converts a one-off card cost into a recurring per-employee subscription that budgets rarely anticipate.
  • Large estates run mixed generations of readers, so a credential upgrade is a multi-year hardware programme and the software licence is a small fraction of the true cost.
  • Legacy credential technologies still widely deployed have documented cloning weaknesses, and HID commercial interest in selling the replacement does not remove your exposure in the interim.
  • The portfolio spans hardware, firmware and several acquired software products, so integration between HID own components is less consistent than the single-vendor pitch implies.

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

HID Global

On request
  • HID Access and Identity Products$undefined/year
    • Hardware, credentials and software quoted through channel partners
    • Credential costs charged per card or per mobile identity
    • Reader hardware and installation quoted separately

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 HID Global if

  • You need physical access readers.
  • You work on Web, Windows, iOS, Android.
  • You also want mobile access.
HID Global 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 HID Global or Very Good Security better?
Neither clearly leads. HID Global starts at On request 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, HID Global or Very Good Security?
HID Global starts at On request and Very Good Security at $1000/month.
Does HID Global or Very Good Security run on more platforms?
HID Global runs on Web, Windows, iOS, Android. Very Good Security runs on Web, API.
What is HID Global best used for?
HID Global is most often used for an enterprise moving from plastic badges to phone-based credentials without replacing every reader in the estate, a government agency needing card issuance and pki credentials under a national identity programme, a hospital consolidating access control, visitor screening and clinician authentication onto one credential, an organisation retiring cloneable legacy proximity cards after a physical penetration test found them trivially copied. Of those, an enterprise moving from plastic badges to phone-based credentials without replacing every reader in the estate and a government agency needing card issuance and pki credentials under a national identity programme are not what Very Good Security is typically brought in for.
What can HID Global do that Very Good Security cannot?
HID Global covers Physical access readers, Mobile access, Seos credential technology, Card issuance. Very Good Security covers Aliasing proxy, PCI scope reduction, Network tokenisation, Processor optionality.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

HID Global: Do we have to replace readers to use mobile credentials?

Often yes, at least in part. Reader capability determines which credential technologies work, and that hardware cost dominates the business case.

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.

HID Global: Are mobile credentials cheaper than cards?

Not necessarily. Cards are a one-off cost per employee, mobile identities are typically a recurring charge, so the crossover depends on staff turnover.

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.

HID Global: Can we buy directly from HID?

Generally not for access control deployments. Products are sold and installed through channel partners, so partner selection is part of the buying decision.

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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