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Cybersecurity · head to head

Very Good Security vs Zencity

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
Zencity logo

Zencity

Government

Resident sentiment analysis combining organic social listening with representative surveys

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • 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.; Zencity social listening is structurally biased toward residents who post, so a city using the listening product without the survey product will consistently mistake volume for consensus.
  • They diverge on capability: Very Good Security covers Aliasing proxy, Zencity covers Organic social listening.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Very Good Security and Zencity differ
AttributeVery Good SecurityZencity
Starting price$1000/monthOn request
Pricing modelPer monthquote
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb
CategoryCybersecurityGovernment

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 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 Zencity

  • Organic social listening
  • Representative surveys
  • Community trust surveys
  • Topic and sentiment analysis
  • Service request integration
  • Leadership reporting

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

Zencity

  • A city manager deciding whether a social media outcry reflects a representative viewnot Very Good Security
  • A police department measuring community trust with a sampled instrument rather than complaint volumenot Very Good Security
  • A communications team wanting early warning on a service issue before it reaches councilnot Very Good Security
  • A council needing resident input on a policy without running its own survey operationnot 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.

Zencity

  • Social listening is structurally biased toward residents who post, so a city using the listening product without the survey product will consistently mistake volume for consensus.
  • Government analysis of residents' public speech, particularly by police departments, has drawn civil liberties criticism and records request scrutiny in United States cities, and agencies need a public answer ready before signing.
  • Sentiment classification of local slang, sarcasm and non English posts is imperfect, and a misclassified theme presented in a leadership briefing can be acted on before anyone checks the underlying posts.
  • Survey sample sizes at neighbourhood level are often small, so the district level breakdowns that councils most want are the least reliable numbers in the report.
  • It reports on opinion without connecting to service delivery systems, so acting on a finding remains a separate manual process in whatever operational software the agency runs.

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

Zencity

On request
  • Zencity$undefined/year
    • Quoted annually by population served and module scope
    • Survey programmes priced separately from the listening platform
    • Police community trust surveying sold as its own line

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 Zencity if

  • You need organic social listening.
  • You also want representative surveys.
Zencity review

Questions people ask

Is Very Good Security or Zencity better?
Neither clearly leads. Very Good Security starts at $1000/month and Zencity at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Very Good Security or Zencity?
Very Good Security starts at $1000/month and Zencity at On request.
Does Very Good Security or Zencity run on more platforms?
Very Good Security runs on Web, API. Zencity runs on Web.
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 Zencity is typically brought in for.
What can Very Good Security do that Zencity cannot?
Very Good Security covers Aliasing proxy, PCI scope reduction, Network tokenisation, Processor optionality. Zencity covers Organic social listening, Representative surveys, Community trust surveys, Topic and sentiment analysis.

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.

Zencity: Is this surveillance of residents?

It analyses publicly posted content and aggregated survey responses rather than private accounts, but the distinction has been contested publicly, especially for police use. Prepare an explanation before procurement.

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.

Zencity: Why pair listening with surveys?

Because the people who post are not representative of the people who live there. The gap between the two datasets is often the most useful output.

Very Good Security: What does it cost?

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

Zencity: What did Zencity acquire?

Elucd, in 2021, which brought community trust survey methodology used with police departments.

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.

Zencity: Can residents find out what our city bought?

Yes. These are public contracts and several have been obtained and published through records requests.

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