Softwr

Cybersecurity · head to head

Very Good Security vs Visual Studio

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
Visual Studio logo

Visual Studio

Developer Tools

IDE for .NET and C++ development on Windows

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Visual Studio has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Visual Studio community edition is free only for individual developers, classroom use, academic research and open-source contribution, not general commercial use
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Very Good Security and Visual Studio actually diverge.

Attributes where Very Good Security and Visual Studio differ
AttributeVery Good SecurityVisual Studio
Starting price$1000/monthFree
Pricing modelPer monthfreemium
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: 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 Very Good Security

  • Aliasing proxy
  • PCI scope reduction
  • Network tokenisation
  • Processor optionality
  • Card issuing data
  • Vault and access controls
  • Data residency options
  • Compliance artefacts

Only in Visual Studio

Nothing recorded that Very Good Security does not also cover.

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

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

Visual Studio

  • Managing complex, large-scale projects across multiple platformsnot Very Good Security
  • Commercial development in small businessesnot Very Good Security
  • DevOps and automated deployment workflowsnot Very Good Security
  • Windows/SQL Server developer and tester rolesnot Very Good Security
  • Short-term or month-to-month IDE access needsnot Very Good Security

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Visual Studio

  • Community edition is free only for individual developers, classroom use, academic research and open-source contribution, not general commercial use
  • Monthly subscriptions are $45 per user per month for Professional and $250 per user per month for Enterprise, and do not include perpetual use rights the way annual Standard subscriptions do
  • A standalone perpetually licensed Visual Studio Professional 2022 costs $499 as a one-time purchase, separate from the subscription tiers

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Visual Studio

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Visual Studio review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Very Good Security if

  • You need aliasing proxy.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want pci scope reduction.
Very Good Security review

Choose Visual Studio if

  • You want to start without paying.
Visual Studio review

Questions people ask

Is Very Good Security or Visual Studio better?
Neither clearly leads. Very Good Security starts at $1000/month and Visual Studio at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Very Good Security or Visual Studio?
Visual Studio has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $1000/month for Very Good Security and Free for Visual Studio.
Does Very Good Security or Visual Studio run on more platforms?
Very Good Security runs on Web, API. Visual Studio runs on Web.
Can I use Visual Studio for free?
Yes. Visual Studio has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Very Good Security starts at $1000/month.
What is Very Good Security best used for?
Very Good Security is most often used for 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 services, a merchant negotiating with a second acquirer that needs card credentials portable so the negotiation is real rather than theoretical, a fintech collecting bank account and identity documents that wants sensitive fields absent from logs, backups and analytics warehouses by construction, a card issuer that must display a full pan in its own mobile app without the app or its backend touching cardholder data. Of those, 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 services and a merchant negotiating with a second acquirer that needs card credentials portable so the negotiation is real rather than theoretical are not what Visual Studio is typically brought in for.
What can Very Good Security do that Visual Studio cannot?
Very Good Security covers Aliasing proxy, PCI scope reduction, Network tokenisation, Processor optionality.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

Visual Studio: What are the pricing differences between subscription types?

Standard subscriptions include access to more benefits, such as Azure dev/test pricing, monthly Azure individual credit, software and download access, services, training, and support. Monthly subscriptions offer flexibility but fewer benefits.

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.

Visual Studio: Are discounts available for startups?

There aren't any discounts available to start-ups, however an unlimited number of users within an organization can use Visual Studio Community for specific scenarios like open source work.

Source
Very Good Security: What does it cost?

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

Visual Studio: Who can use Visual Studio Community for free?

In non-enterprise organizations, up to five users can use it. Enterprise organizations (greater than 250 PCs or greater than $1M annual revenue) cannot use it beyond academic/open-source scenarios.

Source
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.

Visual Studio: What's the renewal pricing structure?

Enterprise standard renews at $214.09/month (after initial $499.92); Professional at $66.59/month (after $99.99).

Source
Share

Related pages

More on Very Good Security

More on Visual Studio

Keep looking

Other head to heads